Wystan Ackerman is a nationally recognized insurance coverage, appellate, and class action defense attorney who represents insurers and other businesses in high-stakes litigation throughout the United States. With approximately 25 years of experience, he has handled matters in over 30 states, including 130+ class actions and 160+ insurance coverage appeals, including matters before every federal circuit court of appeals, numerous state appellate courts, and the United States Supreme Court. His practice focuses on complex insurance coverage litigation, insurance appeals, class action defense, bad faith litigation, catastrophe claims, and precedent-setting cases involving significant business and financial exposure.

Clients retain Wystan when facing class actions, precedent-setting insurance coverage disputes, significant appellate risk, or multimillion-dollar exposure. He regularly serves as appellate counsel, strategic litigation and coverage advisor, and trial-monitoring counsel in complex matters. Wystan is a frequent author and commentator on insurance coverage, class actions, and appellate litigation. He serves as editor of Class Actions Insider and as a principal author of Covering Appeals, providing nationwide analysis of class action trend and insurance coverage developments and appellate strategy.

National Class Action Defense

Wystan chairs our firm's Class Action team and is the editor of our firm's Class Actions Insider blog. He has a national class action defense practice. Wystan has been involved in defending more than 130 class actions in over 20 jurisdictions. In many of those cases, he prevailed on a dispositive motion.

Wystan successfully petitioned the United States Supreme Court to grant certiorari in Standard Fire Insurance Company v. Knowles, 568 U.S. 588 (2013), the Court’s first Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) case. The unanimous decision held that named plaintiffs cannot avoid federal jurisdiction by stipulating that the amount sought would not exceed the $5 million jurisdictional threshold.

Wystan has extensive experience defending major insurers in putative class actions involving homeowners' insurance, auto insurance, underwriting and business practices, and also advises insurers regarding the defense of their insureds in class actions. He has handled insurance class actions involving, for example, the COVID-19 pandemic, general contractor overhead and profit, labor depreciation, automobile total losses, diminished value, PIP coverage, and various other issues. Wystan has also defended putative class action cases involving financial services, products liability, environmental issues, employment, data breaches, healthcare, managed care, higher education, consumer contracts, Internet tracking, and securities. He is a past chair of the Class Action and Multidistrict Section of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (FDCC), and a past chair of the Class Action Special Litigation Group of the Commercial Litigation Committee of the Defense Research Institute (DRI).

National Complex Insurance Coverage Litigation and Advice

Wystan has extensive experience litigating and advising insurers on complex coverage issues involving property, liability and automobile insurance, as well as excess and surplus lines insurance. His coverage practice is national in scope, encompassing matters in over 30 states. Wystan has also defended many matters involving bad faith and other extracontractual claims. High-profile coverage cases he has litigated include cases involving flood exclusion and Valued Policy Law issues arising from Hurricane Katrina, Chinese-made drywall, Superstorm Sandy, the cracking foundation litigation in Connecticut, and the COVID-19 pandemic. He has also defended numerous matters involving seven and eight-figure exposures.

National Insurance Coverage Appellate Practice

Wystan has a national appellate practice, mainly focused on insurance. He has been involved in over 160 appeals, including appeals in every regional federal circuit, as well as in state supreme and/or appellate courts in 19 states, and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is retained for trial monitoring as appellate counsel in cases involving large exposures or where an appeal is anticipated. He regularly represents national insurance industry associations as amici curiae in appellate and supreme courts. Wystan has been involved, as either counsel for the insurer or for an amicus curiae, in many of the most significant insurance coverage-related appeals over the last twenty years. 

He is also a primary author of Covering Appeals, Robinson+Cole’s insurance appellate law blog, which provides timely analysis of significant insurance coverage appellate decisions, procedural developments, and emerging trends affecting insurers and reinsurers nationwide. This resource helps readers stay abreast of developments shaping litigation and appellate strategy in the insurance industry. Wystan has chaired the Appellate Section and Amicus Committee of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (FDCC) and has served on the pro bono panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Recognitions

Wystan received a Band 1 ranking in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in the State of Connecticut in the area of Insurance for 2026. According to Chambers, clients praise Wystan's appellate advocacy, strategic insight, and ability to handle complex, high-stakes matters:

• "Wystan is one of the nation's leading appellate advocates for the insurance industry."
• "Wystan is a[s] close as you can come to a savant. If you put him up against the best appellate lawyers in any federal circuit or US supreme court, I'd pick him. His strategy on trial cases is amazing."
• "Wystan Ackerman handles high-exposure appeals in Connecticut and around the country. He has a very sophisticated practice and is a very, very strong lawyer."
• "Wystan Ackerman is a very strong appellate attorney. He is able to succinctly express what our positions are in a persuasive manner."

Wystan also has been listed as a Second Circuit Litigation Star in Benchmark Appellate (2013) and is listed as a litigation star in Benchmark Litigation (2013-2025). He was selected by his peers for inclusion in Hartford, CT – Best Lawyers® for 2023-2025 in the area of Litigation-Insurance. Wystan also has been selected to the Connecticut Super Lawyers list from 2015 to 2025, and was selected as a Rising Star in Connecticut Super Lawyers from 2009 to 2014. In addition, he was named a JD Supra Readers' Choice Awards Top Author in the Class Action category for 2018, 2023 and 2025.

Wystan serves as our firm's Professional Development Partner.