John F. McCarrick

Partner

  • Overview

    Biography

    John McCarrick has focused his practice on the management and resolution of complex, multi-party disputes for more than 30 years. During his career, John has been involved in the defense and resolution of some of the most significant D&O liability matters, lawsuits and financial crisis situations that have affected domestic and global publicly-traded companies and financial institutions. His primary areas of engagement include financial lines, commercial litigation, professional liability, and bad faith and extra-contractual liability. John is a member of the firm’s Insurance + Reinsurance Group.

    Insurance Coverage Litigation

    John’s experience on behalf of D&O and professional liability insurers includes numerous mediations as well as direct settlement negotiations and direct litigation, involving claims against companies and their directors and officers and professional advisors for economic losses sustained by constituents, customers and clients.  

    John’s work primarily focuses on addressing and resolving complex, sensitive claims. His experience and knowledge concerning management and professional liability insurance policies, including the underwriting and risk management issues that drive a profitable portfolio of underwritten business, are among his greatest assets. That broad range of experience and versatility extends to the substantive liability and damages issues that arise in claims under D&O and professional liability policies, which he employs in litigation strategy and settlement and resolution consultations and negotiations.

    John’s successful representation of his many clients is a testament to a commitment to the constructive, mutually respectful relationships he strives to forge among the contesting parties, even as they navigate often difficult, complex matters. He is widely known in professional liability and D&O circles for the durability of those relationships among mediators, plaintiff and defense counsel, insurance intermediaries, policyholder counsel, and insurers and their outside counsel - all of which help surmount difficulties and facilitate creative resolutions to complex, sensitive issues.

    Recognition & Involvement

    Aside from his legal practice, John is the co-founder of Grateful Nation Montana, Inc., a nonprofit organization that provides college scholarships and outreach services to children of Montana soldiers killed on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. Working with other charities with similar missions, Grateful Nation Montana works to provide these children with the financial support and outreach guidance necessary for a successful college experience.

    During the past 20 years, John developed several charitable events for the financial lines insurance industry, including annual events such as the St. Thomas Charity Golf Classic and the Market Dinner, which collectively have raised more than one million dollars for charitable causes, including monies used to build a community center for the Gros Ventres and Assiniboine Native American communities in Lodgepole, Montana, and other community projects. John continues to work with local Montana community interest and fundraising groups on development projects benefiting the Ft. Belknap and Rocky Boy Reservations.

    John was selected in a survey of his peers to the New York Metro Super Lawyers list from 2016 to 2022.

  • Experience
    • Experience

      Experience

      • Represented an insurer in a bad faith litigation arising out of the insurer’s denial of coverage based on misrepresentations in the application for insurance for a directors and officers liability insurance policy; the court granted partial summary judgment, dismissing the plaintiff’s claims for breach of contract and violations of the Consumer Protection Act because the insurer demonstrated that the insured could not establish damages. *

      • Represented insurer in matter granting insurers' summary judgment motions on prior notice exclusions in a lawyers professional liability policy. *

      • Represented insurer in matter granting primary D&O insurer's post-trial motion to dismiss D&O excess insurers' cross-claims for bad faith. *

      • Represented D&O insurer in matter finding, after inquest on insured's claim for reimbursement of $520,000 incurred in defense costs and expenses, that only $117,000, after application of $100,000 SIR, was reasonable and necessary and therefore recoverable from D&O insurer. *

      • Represented insurer in matter granting insurer's motion to dismiss bad faith claim under Florida law because the insured had not first established that coverage was available for the claim in question. *

      • Represented an insurer in matter affirming trial court ruling and extending ruling to also exclude coverage for defense costs associated with the uncovered claim. *

      • Represented an insurer in matter re. settlement of regulatory claim for disgorgement in which disgorgement is of of ill-gotten funds and therefore uninsurable. *

      • Representation in matter finding that repayment of monies to pension fund does not constitute insurable loss under fiduciary liability policy. *

      • Represented an insurer in matter finding that actual indemnification by corporation is a condition precedent to corporation's right to sue to enforce Side B coverage. *

      • Represented an insurer in matter addressing severability issues implicated by rescission of D&O policy. *

      • *Attorney McCarrick was counsel in these representative transactions prior to joining Robinson+Cole.

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    • Professional Associations

      Professional Associations

      Professional Liability Underwriting Society
    • Honors + Awards

      Honors + Awards

      Selected to the New York Super Lawyers list from 2016 to 2022.

    • Community Involvement

      Community Involvement

      Union League Club of New York

      Grateful Nation Montana, Inc.
      co-founder
  • NEWS + PRESS
    • News

      R+C in the News

      • August 4, 2022

        John McCarrick Quoted in Law360 Article on Elon Musk-Twitter Dispute

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      • September 23, 2021

        John McCarrick Quoted in Law360 Insurance Authority Article on Insurance Coverage Disputes and SPAC Transactions

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        • View article

      R+C News Releases

      • October 11, 2022

        Robinson+Cole Lawyers Recognized in 2022 Super Lawyers®

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        • View article
      • October 14, 2021

        Robinson+Cole Lawyers Recognized by Super Lawyers®

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        • View article
      • November 2, 2020

        Robinson+Cole Continues to Expand Presence in New York With Eight Member Financial Lines Team