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Kirk Pasich

Kirk A. Pasich Partner

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Los Angeles – Century City T +1 310 956 3462 F fax +1 310 956 3162
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As one of the country’s most highly ranked and regarded Insurance lawyers by Chambers USA, Kirk represents insureds in a broad spectrum of disputes with insurers and insurance brokers, focusing on maximizing the value of clients’ insurance portfolios. Kirk has successfully obtained coverage for losses resulting from civil unrest, earthquakes, explosions, floods, hurricanes, mass shootings, natural gas leaks, pandemics, product tampering, terrorism, and wildfires. He also has secured coverage for business interruption losses, crime losses, cyber losses, event cancellations, and political risks. Furthermore, Kirk has successfully represented clients in obtaining coverage for claims involving bodily injury, directors and officers, intellectual property, product liability, and securities.

Kirk has been lead counsel in over 60 trials and arbitrations and more than 60 appellate proceedings, helping secure more than $10 billion in insurance recoveries for his clients. His articles have been widely cited and quoted by numerous courts. He has served as lead counsel in various states, including California, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, and Vermont, as well as in Bermuda and England. His clients have received several jury verdicts ranked among the top ten in California. Kirk has also argued many cases before California and federal appellate courts, achieving key decisions on insurance, the attorney-client privilege, procedural issues, and other subjects.

In addition to insurance matters, Kirk has managed substantial commercial litigation cases, including breach of contract, fiduciary duty and fraud claims, construction disputes, idea submission and copyright infringement claims, professional malpractice claims, real estate disputes, and tax issues. He has also served as an arbitrator, mediator, and expert witness on insurance and ethical matters.

Kirk is a prolific author with over 600 articles and columns to his name. For more than 35 years, he has written insurance and entertainment law columns for the Daily Journal. His work has also appeared in The ABA Journal, ACC Docket, Advocate, Business Insurance, California Lawyer, The Corporate Analyst, Coverage, The Deal, Environmental Claims Journal, The Insurance Coverage Law Bulletin, The Legal Times, Los Angeles Business Journal, Los Angeles Lawyer, Mealey’s Litigation Reports, The National Law Journal, National Underwriter, The Ohio State Law Journal, Sacramento Digest, and Tort and Insurance Law Journal, among others. His articles have been cited and quoted by courts, including the California and Arizona Supreme Courts.

Experience

  • Representing one of the nation’s largest defense contractors in obtaining a decision from the Vermont Supreme Court permitting it to proceed with business interruption claims relating to the COVID-19 pandemic—the only state high-court or federal appellate court decision so holding.
  • Representing a major motion picture and television studio in obtaining coverage for the costs of COVID-19 safety protocols.
  • Representing a bank in overcoming an insurer’s argument that a policy’s insolvency exclusion barred coverage for claims by a claimant in bankruptcy proceedings.
  • Representing a major food and vegetable producer/retailer and its former chair in a directors and officers insurance action before the Delaware Supreme Court, obtaining a landmark decision holding that fraud claims may be insured.
  • Representing an individual in seeking coverage under a homeowner’s policy for defamation claims, obtaining a decision written by former U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter narrowing the scope of an exclusion.
  • Representing a concert promoter before the Ninth Circuit in a case holding that an exclusion did not bar coverage for a class action lawsuit when the insurer did not prove that its interpretation was the only reasonable interpretation.
  • Representing a Catholic archdiocese in obtaining a decision that an insurer cannot seek specific performance of a policy condition.
  • Representing a manufacturer of asbestos-containing products in key phases of a 4-year trial and on appeal in the landmark pro-insured case.
  • Representing a defense contractor in a key California appellate decision holding that an insurance policy’s cooperation clause is not a waiver of the attorney-client privilege.

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