© 2018 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(June 11) – Akerman continued its growth in Texas with the addition of four Houston insurance litigation experts led by partners David Clark and Kristen McDanald.
McDanald says Akerman’s platform was a key motivating factor in making the move.
“In addition to its premier insurance litigation practice, we were really attracted to the firm because of its significant bench strengths in other practices areas that will allow us greater opportunities to cross-sell our services with all else the firm has to offer,” she said.
It is also a homecoming of sorts for Clark and McDanald, who are joined by associates Rick Gene Boepple and Mark Shutt. Before helping start Parsons McEntire McCleary, they practiced at Beirne Maynard & Parsons, the Houston-based firm that Akerman absorbed to enter the Texas market in 2016.
Akerman has since more than doubled its headcount to 65 attorneys in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin.
“With David and Kristen, we continue to attract top talent across Texas to serve clients in strategic sectors of rising importance to them,” Scott Marrs, Regional Managing Partner – Texas of Akerman, said in a statement.
“We are confident their arrival will bring immediate value to our Houston team and nationally, as we continue developing exceptional teams of lawyers dedicated to problem-solve our clients’ most complex disputes and transactions.”
Clark concentrates his practice on representing commercial auto insurance carriers in both first party and third party claims and litigation, including property damage claims, underinsured motorist claims, and claims of bad faith in the first party context, and purported Stowers claims in the third party context.
McDanald provides her clients with claims handling advice and exposure analysis in connection with policy limits settlement demands made in third party context for multiple U.S. insurance carriers.
“[David and Kristen] bring new coverage panel attachment serving the interests of a prominent Oklahoma- and Texas-based insurer that provides national coverage, with an emphasis on the western United States and the Gulf Coast,” Lawrence Rochefort, chair of Akerman’s litigation practice, said in a statement.
© 2018 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.
If you see any inaccuracy in any article in The Texas Lawbook, please contact us. Our goal is content that is 100% true and accurate. Thank you.