Nicholas Insua

Practice Areas

Nick’s insurance recovery litigation practice focuses on representing policyholder clients in catastrophic first-party property damage and business interruption claims for insurance recovery. In his third-party liability coverage work, Nick represents companies and executives under D&O and E&O policies and has represented clients under general liability insurance policies for all manner of underlying claims, including long-tail environmental and asbestos claims that have involved complicated coverage and allocation issues. Nick has gone to verdict in jury and non-jury trials on several cases and has worked on insurance and reinsurance arbitrations, including domestic and foreign confidential arbitrations. He has also served as an arbitrator.

Nick is a partner in Reed Smith’s New York and Princeton offices.

Nick is an active and dedicated leader in pro bono legal service, serving on both the Reed Smith Pro Bono Committee and the Pro Bono Committee for the New York office. Before joining Reed Smith in 2022, he held a leadership position in pro bono practice at another major law firm, demonstrating a longstanding commitment to public interest work. He is a member and past chair of the Pro Bono Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association and currently serves on the Board of Volunteer Lawyers for Justice.

In his own pro bono practice, Nick has represented clients seeking asylum and other forms of relief from deportation, including advocacy before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His work has also extended to disaster relief efforts: following Superstorm Sandy, Nick collaborated with Volunteer Lawyers for Justice and other organizations to provide critical insurance coverage support to affected individuals. He authored a manual addressing insurance coverage issues for storm victims and a separate guide for attorneys assisting those victims. Additionally, he managed and supervised nearly a dozen pro bono insurance coverage cases related to the aftermath of Sandy. More recently, he partnered with the ACLU of Delaware to challenge soliciting and anti-loitering laws.

He is co-author, with partner Rich Lewis, of Business Income Insurance Disputes, a leading treatise on business interruption and time-element insurance issues. He has also taught or guest lectured at Rutgers and Seton Hall law schools, and has been a frequent speaker and publisher on insurance issues.