Daniel F. Sullivan

Practice Areas

Insurance Coverage + Bad Faith Litigation, Business Litigation

Career

Daniel F. Sullivan is a trial lawyer with over 35 years of experience representing clients in complex commercial disputes, with an emphasis on insurance coverage and extra-contractual claims litigation. He has represented clients in state and federal courts in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas, and appeals to the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, and Fourth Circuits, the Rhode Island Supreme Court and the Appellate and Supreme Courts of Connecticut. Dan has substantial trial and arbitration experience, having tried more than 30 matters to verdict, final judgment, or final arbitration decision.

Insurance Coverage + Bad Faith Litigation

Dan’s work representing insurance companies in complex property insurance coverage litigation includes serving as counsel for insurers in significant cases arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, Superstorm Sandy, Hurricane Irene, Hurricane Ike, Hurricane Katrina, and the September 11 terrorist attacks. He has also litigated cases involving losses to residences and businesses arising from catastrophic fires and explosions, mold contamination, defective workmanship, and construction defects. He has significant experience in matters involving complex business interruption claims and associated accounting issues. In addition, he has litigated substantial cases arising under liability, marine, boiler and machinery, and builders’ risk policies.

Dan's experience includes coordinating a major insurer’s investigation, coverage analysis and litigation regarding claims for damages associated with Chinese-made drywall; representation of a commercial property insurer in a case involving a $100 million claim by a publicly traded company for claimed losses arising from an arson fire; and representation of an insurance carrier in coverage litigation initiated by a major Roman Catholic archdiocese seeking coverage for a multimillion-dollar settlement with alleged victims of clergy sexual abuse.

Business Litigation

Dan has also represented other businesses in a broad spectrum of commercial litigation. He was lead litigation and trial counsel for an international pharmaceutical company in its initial response to, investigation of, and litigation arising from an explosion that resulted in serious personal injuries and significant property damage. Dan has represented financial institutions in challenges to the validity of mortgages and the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS). Most recently, he assisted in the successful defense of national actuarial firms in malpractice cases involving claims asserted by a municipal pension system and by participants of a hospital system pension plan. His other case experience includes the trial and appeal of dissolution and shareholder derivative actions which established the scope of the business judgment rule in the state of Connecticut and a murder case that was a case study on the issue of time of death in Dr. Henry Lee's book Cracking Cases: The Science of Solving Crime.

Dan previously served as co-chair of Robinson+Cole’s Litigation section and chair of the firm’s Insurance + Reinsurance Group and was a founding member and the original partner-in-charge of Robinson+Cole's Providence office. He frequently speaks on insurance and litigation-related issues to bar and industry organizations and provides in-house training sessions to insurance company personnel on coverage issues and trial tactics.

Professional Memberships

American Bar Association: Section of Litigation; Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, Past Vice Chair of Property Insurance Law Committee

Connecticut Bar Association: Insurance Law Section, Litigation Section

Rhode Island Bar Association: Federal Court Bench and Bar Committee, Superior Court Bench and Bar Committee

Rhode Island Bar Foundation: Fellow

Publications

"Suit Limitations and Statutes of Limitations” and “Suit Limitations Checklist”

Property Insurance Litigator’s Handbook, Third Edition (2022)

Personal

For ten years, Dan was a member of the adjunct faculty at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where he developed and taught a graduate-level course in property insurance law.