Robert Jacques

Robert also helps clients place coverage and consider risk management more broadly, including directly advising boards of directors and risk managers. Robert’s clients come from a range of industries, including tech, life sciences, financial services, private equity, higher education, consumer products, agricultural, and automotive.

Robert also has experience representing companies in non-insurance litigations, particularly defending against product liability claims and asserting administrative actions against various governmental agencies. Robert maintains an active pro bono practice focused on criminal justice and insurance counsel for non-profits.

Prior to joining Morgan Lewis, Robert worked in the litigation departments of two other international law firms in Washington, DC.

Insurance

• Counseled debtors and committees of unsecured creditors in high-profile bankruptcy reorganizations and liquidations, including securing tail-coverage on favorable terms and developing novel insurance-related fiduciary claims
• Represented a pharmaceutical company and its captive insurer in NJ state court in property/cyber coverage dispute against numerous insurers and reinsurers for a claim arising out of the NotPetya malware event
• Represented a global investment company in a D&O coverage dispute arising from a going private transaction
• Represented a securities industry trade association in submission of an amicus brief to the New York Court of Appeals concerning the insurability of Securities and Exchange Commission disgorgement payments, leading to a grant of leave to appeal and favorable reversal of underlying judgment
• Acted as appellate counsel for a third-party claims administrator on a professional liability claim resulting from handling of an underlying automotive matter
• Represented a non-listed real estate investment trust in first-party property coverage disputes over flood and mold damage at hotels
• Represented a nonprofit in a first-party business interruption claim resulting from flooding of headquarters
• Successfully resolved a first-party contamination coverage claim arising from a Listeria-related recall of frozen food products
• Successfully resolved a claim of an international nongovernmental organization on a first-party “crisis coverage” claim resulting from the murders of an employee, client, and taxi driver in Kenya
• Successfully resolved a claim of a global procurement and distribution services company in a first-party property coverage dispute arising from a Nigerian warehouse fire
• Advising private equity companies regarding various types of insurance claims arising from investment activities and portfolio company operations
• Counseled special purpose acquisition companies on the purchase of pre- and post-merger D&O insurance
• Counseled buyers and sellers in M&A transactions on the purchase of representation and warranty (R&W) insurance
• Counseled various companies on the purchase and recovery of key person life insurance
• Represented a university and summer camp concerning coverage for alleged sexual abuse by former employees
• Represented a real estate company with D&O coverage claims arising from civil litigation with the Department of Justice and the Internal Revenue Service
• Favorably resolved a first-party property damage and business-interruption claim of a major beverage company arising from unexpected disruption to its product distribution network
• Represented a paper-manufacturing company with claims under various coverages and policy programs with respect to asbestos and environmental liabilities
• Represented an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) benefits plan and fiduciaries to secure coverage under a fiduciary-liability policy for class action litigation
• Represented court-appointed receivers and bankruptcy trustees in various matters to marshal insurance and noninsurance assets

Product Liability Defense

• Represented an airbag/restraint systems manufacturer in product liability litigation, consumer litigation, and investigations by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the DOJ
• Obtained a complete pre-discovery dismissal of separate product liability and subrogation actions arising from a Salmonella-related recall of packaged chicken products
• Advised a life sciences company regarding exposure of European entities and officers to US litigation risk
• Advised a consumer mobility company regarding product liability strategy and insurance programs
• Represented a pharmaceutical company in anticoagulant product liability litigation

Administrative Challenges

• Successfully resolved a major telecommunication company’s Employee Retirement Income Security Act preemption challenge to determinations of the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board
• Represented a for-profit university in an administrative action and federal lawsuit against the US Department of Education regarding discharges of student loans
• Defended a municipality in various legal challenges brought in administrative and judicial venues regarding changes to the operation of a local airport
• Represented a pharmaceutical manufacturer to compel the Food and Drug Administration’s consideration of a new drug application
• Represented a vaping-products manufacturer in an Administrative Procedure Act challenge to FDA deeming regulations under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act

Criminal Justice

• Represented a death-row inmate in Texas with respect to his federal habeas petition
• Represented neuroscientists and criminologists in filing an amicus brief with the Michigan Supreme Court regarding the science of adolescent brain development as relevant to the imposition of mandatory sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, leading to a favorable decision on behalf of criminal defendants
• First-chaired a criminal trial in a Maryland state court, obtaining a judgment of acquittal on charges carrying a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence
• Successfully obtained a reduced sentence of incarceration for a criminal defendant in DC federal court before then-Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson