Nancy Sher Cohen

Career

Nancy Sher Cohen leads Lathrop GPM’s Insurance Recovery & Counseling practice and is a former Partner in Charge of the firm’s Los Angeles office. She practices in the area of insurance coverage, product liability, toxic & mass tort, class actions, and general commercial litigation. Her insurance practice includes prosecuting insurance coverage cases, providing counsel to clients with regard to designing insurance coverage strategies, conducting policy review, advising on policy implications resulting from a merger or acquisition, and other insurance related issues. She also handles complex business litigation, including Superfund, cost recovery and contractual litigation.

Nancy has been lead counsel in the prosecution of many insurance coverage lawsuits related to life insurance claims and environmental and product liabilities, resulting in recoveries in excess of $1.5 billion. Her extensive insurance coverage practice has included first-party claims involving business interruption, third-party claims involving reimbursement for environmental liabilities and prosecution of claims by Holocaust survivors against insurance carriers that failed to pay life insurance benefits. She was lead counsel for the lender on the World Trade Center in prosecuting claims for insurance coverage for the towers. She is also trial counsel for an international bank on prosecuting coverage claims involving life insurance policies. Nancy also advised on insurance issues related to Los Angeles’ successful bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Nancy is also lead counsel in complex environmental litigation including cost recovery litigation in connection with a Southern California Superfund Site.

In addition, Nancy has extensive experience, including pre-trial and trial, in state and federal courts handling mass tort and complex multijurisdiction tort actions and as lead counsel in toxic tort cases. She has represented aerospace companies and chemical suppliers in actions brought by individuals for personal injuries allegedly resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals in the workplace. She has also represented a consumer electronics company in class action litigation nationwide.

Nancy advises, counsels and litigates cases for biotechnology companies in product liability and insurance matters arising from clinical trials of investigational new drugs.

She also has represented talent in entertainment litigation, including representation of Clint Eastwood in the trial of Locke v. Eastwood and David E. Kelley in copyright litigation.

Her clients have included Fortune 500 and similar companies such as Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Aerojet, Alpha Therapeutic, ARCO, Arconic, BP, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Heinz, Capmark, McDonald’s, PinnOak Resources, Sony Electronics, Inc., Block Real Estate Services, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Meggitt Corporation.

Nancy has been named in 2022 one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Nancy has been listed as a leading insurance coverage attorney in Chambers USA since the ranking’s inception in 2003. In the 2022 Chambers & Partners California Insurance: Policyholder category individual rankings, Nancy received praise for her handling of high-profile disputes, including the following: “Nancy delivers well-informed counsel, ensuring that critical concerns are not overlooked or underemphasized.” “She is very practical and solution-oriented.” “She has done an outstanding job of managing difficult litigation.” In 2017, she was named to The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame list. In 2021, National Law Journal named her as an “Insurance Law Trailblazer”. She is frequently featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, which has named her one of the top women litigators and most influential lawyers in California. Nancy also has been featured in numerous articles in the legal and business press, including The Recorder, California Law Business, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner. In 2017, for the fourth consecutive year, Nancy was named a National and Local “Litigation Star” by Benchmark Litigation. She was also named to the publication’s “Top 10 Insurance Stars in the U.S.” list.

She was Deputy General Counsel for the Rampart Independent Review Panel, which was charged by the Los Angeles Police Commission with performing a review of the Los Angeles Police Department, and was the Deputy General Counsel for the Los Angeles County Citizens’ Commission on Jail Violence.

A dedicated community leader, Nancy currently serves on the board of directors or as an active member of the following organizations: Jewish Federation (2015-present); President, Valley Beth Shalom (2014 – 2016); Loyola Law School Board of Overseers (Board Member, 2000-2017); California Women’s Law Center (1999-2005); Chancery Club (1997-present); Bet Tzedek Legal Services (former President, 1998). Nancy is an accomplished trial lawyer and is a Fellow (2006-present) and previous Member of the Board of Directors (2019-2023) of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.

Practice Areas

Contaminants & Toxic Torts

Insurance Recovery & Counseling

Product Liability & Tort Litigation

Environmental Insurance Analysis & Recovery

Environmental Litigation

General Business & Complex Commercial Litigation

Experience

Insurance

Advisor and Counsel Los Angeles on insurance issues related to successful bid for 2028 Summer Olympics

Lead counsel for the institutional lender in prosecuting claims for property and business interruption coverage for World Trade Center Buildings 1, 2, 4 and 5. SR Int’l Business Ins. Co. Ltd. v. World Trade Center Properties LLC, et al., U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

Lead trial counsel in connection with attorneys' fees claims resulting in one of the largest jury verdicts involving attorneys' fees in Tarrant County, Texas history. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., et al. v. West Coast Life Insurance Company, 153rd Judicial District Court, Tarrant County, Texas

Lead trial counsel for a West Virginia coal mining company in successfully prosecuting property and business interruption claims. PinnOak Resources v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London, Wyoming County Circuit Court, West Virginia

Lead counsel for a pharmaceutical company in successful prosecution of nine-figure claims for mass tort suits arising out of alleged HIV- and HCV-tainted blood clotting medicines. Alpha Therapeutic Corp v. Steadfast Insurance Co., et al., Los Angeles Superior Court

Lead counsel for a major oil company in successfully prosecuting nine-figure insurance claims under comprehensive general liability policies for environmental cleanup costs at sites across the country. Arco v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co, Los Angeles Superior Court

Lead counsel for a major oil company in successfully prosecuting nine-figure insurance claims under business interruption policies arising from the Olympic pipeline explosion. Arco v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyds of London, Washington State Court

Lead counsel for a Los Angeles-based conglomerate in successfully prosecuting eight-figure insurance claims under comprehensive general liability policies for environmental clean-up costs. Teledyne Inc. v. Continental Casualty, et al., San Francisco Superior Court

Lead counsel for Holocaust survivors and their heirs in worldwide class actions against European insurance companies alleged to have denied benefits wrongfully under life insurance policies issued from the 1920s to the 1940s. Smetana v. Assicurazioni Generali S.P.A., et al., San Francisco Superior Court; In re Holocaust Insurance Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York

Counsel in matters throughout the country involving claims concerning alleged Stranger Originated Life Insurance

Lead counsel for medical device manufacturer in securing defense and indemnity under product liability policies for worldwide personal injury claims involving intraocular lenses

Product Liability, Toxic Tort and Environmental

Lead counsel for over 25 companies in cost recovery claims related to the Omega Superfund Site. Alcoa, Inc. et al. v. APC Investment Co., U.S. District Court, Central District of California

National Coordinating Counsel for biopharmaceutical company faced with personal injury claims arising out of clinical trial for monoclonal antibody medicine. Breaux v. Medarex, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana; Krantz v. Medarex, U.S. District Court, Utah Central Division; Janssen v. Medarex, Florida State Court

Lead counsel for a defense contractor in toxic tort lawsuits arising out of alleged groundwater contamination or air pollution near ordnance assembly and testing, R&D and rocketry facilities in Northern and Southern California. Baier, Kerr, Taylor and Yeh v. Aerojet-General Corp., U.S. District Court, Central District of California; Gatter v. Aerojet-General Corp., Los Angeles Superior Court; Haynes v. Aerojet-General Corp., Sacramento Superior Court; Caldwell v. Aerojet-General Corp., Sacramento Superior Court

Lead counsel for global U.S.-based food company in defense of litigation brought by the California Attorney General under Proposition 65. People of the State of California v. Frito-Lay, Inc., et al.

Lead counsel for a major electronics manufacturer in defense of alleged product liability class actions. Beaver v. Sony Electronics, Circuit Court, Third Judicial Circuit, Madison County, Illinois; Niemeier v. Sony Electronics, Missouri Circuit Court, City of St. Louis; Graham v. Sony Electronics, Superior Court of New Jersey, Law Division, Atlantic County; Vargo v. Sony Electronics, Court of Common Pleas, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; Ameen v. Sony Electronics, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee; Ziegler v. Sony Electronics, Connecticut State Court

Lead counsel for a major oil company in defense of mass tort and property damage suits arising out of claims related to the Stringfellow and McColl disposal sites. Stringfellow, Riverside (California) Superior Court; McColl, Orange County (California) Superior Court