Bracewell recently bolstered its litigation practice in Houston by bringing on corporate policyholder litigator Vincent Morgan.
Morgan was previously at Pillsbury, where he practiced for almost two decades and was the former managing partner of the firm’s Houston office. Bracewell leaders expect Morgan to enhance the firm’s insurance recovery capabilities.
“Vince is, without a doubt, one of the top insurance coverage lawyers in Texas and, really, everywhere. His arrival adds a new and valued expertise to our litigation practice,” Stephen Crain, chair of Bracewell’s litigation section and a member of the firm’s management committee, said in a statement.
The past chair of the Insurance Law Section of the State Bar of Texas has aided clients – which include exploration and production companies, pipeline operators, oilfield services companies and healthcare organizations – in obtaining billion-dollar recoveries for catastrophic claims.
While Morgan regularly represents clients on the full range of commercial coverages, he is currently helping clients across a variety of sectors navigate the complexities of COVID-19 claims. He says new lawsuits are being filed every day by both insureds and insurers, and this will likely continue until trends develop in the caselaw that can provide guidance to help parties resolve these claims.
“Right now everyone is focused on getting coverage for property damage and business interruption losses, but we will soon see an uptick in claims against insureds, such as personal injury claims due to alleged exposure, workers compensation and employment claims from employees who had to physically report for work and were infected, as well as securities claims against directors and officers for failing to adequately prepare for and manage through this crisis,” Morgan added.
Morgan is Bracewell’s third lateral partner addition in the past month. The Houston-based firm has also recruited two new Washington, D.C. partners with significant experience in renewable energy – tax expert Don Lonczak and wind and solar transactions and projects pro Danielle Varnell.
Lonczak joined the firm from Baker Botts. His broad transactional experience includes structuring renewable energy projects eligible for the production tax credit (PTC) or investment tax credit (ITC).
Varnell was previously at Jones Day, where her clients included Houston-based NRG Energy and Invenergy. Over the course of her career, she has advised on the sale or development of more than 8,000 megawatts of wind generation, 6,000 megawatts of solar generation and 4,000 megawatts of nuclear generation assets, with an aggregate value over $40 billion.