An Introduction to The Mayerson Firm PLLC
Updated: Oct 20
Insurance coverage matters most when a business faces a consequential loss, a substantial liability claim, or a dispute over who will pay for its defense. At those moments, understanding the policy is only part of the work. Counsel must also understand the underlying dispute, the client’s business objectives, and the practical choices that will shape a recovery.
The Mayerson Firm PLLC represents policyholders in insurance coverage and recovery matters and advises clients navigating complex business disputes and insurance issues in corporate transactions. Led by Marc Mayerson, the firm brings together policyholder advocacy, litigation, and counseling. In separate engagements, Marc also serves as an arbitrator, mediator, and expert witness.
Insurance Coverage and Recovery
The firm helps policyholders evaluate their insurance rights, present claims, respond to coverage positions, and pursue recovery through negotiation or litigation. Its work encompasses property and casualty claims, liability coverage, and disputes involving defense obligations and defense costs.
The starting point is the client’s particular problem—not a presumption that every disagreement belongs in court. A coverage matter may require a focused analysis of policy language, a carefully developed presentation to the insurer, coordination with counsel defending an underlying claim, or litigation to enforce the policyholder’s rights.
Throughout that process, the objective is to connect the coverage analysis with a practical strategy: what the client needs to establish, what information must be developed, and how the insurance dispute fits within the larger business or litigation setting.
Advice Before a Coverage Dispute Arises
Insurance advice need not begin with a denial of coverage. The firm also counsels clients reviewing policy language and considering insurance arrangements before a claim develops.
That work focuses on understanding how proposed terms may operate, identifying potential gaps or disputed language, and helping clients and their insurance professionals evaluate the protection being purchased. The purpose is not to promise that a policy will eliminate uncertainty. It is to make important coverage choices more informed and deliberate.
Insurance Advice in Corporate Transactions
Corporate transactions can change both a company’s liability exposures and its access to insurance. The firm helps boards, businesses, and their counsel evaluate those changes as part of transaction planning.
This work includes:
Helping a board obtain run-off directors’ and officers’ liability protection.
Advising on the transition from a private company to a public one, including road-show and initial public offering insurance exposures.
Analyzing corporate successorship and the flow of insurance assets through mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures.
The analysis considers not only the insurance arrangements needed after a transaction, but also the rights associated with policies issued before it. The objective is to help clients understand what protection should be obtained, what insurance rights may pass to a successor or remain with another entity, and what issues need to be addressed in the transaction documents.
Counsel to Law Departments and Businesses
Coverage disputes often overlap with broader questions about litigation strategy, defense management, and the allocation of responsibility among insurers, insureds, and counsel. The firm works with law departments and other lawyers who need focused assistance with those questions.
An engagement may involve analysis of a discrete coverage issue, advice alongside an existing litigation or transactional team, or representation in a complex civil dispute. The scope should fit the assignment and complement the client’s existing resources.
The firm’s approach emphasizes substantive analysis, clear communication, and attention to the decisions that matter to the client.
Defense Costs and Legal-Billing Issues
A liability policy’s defense protection can be as important as its indemnity coverage. Disagreements about defense costs may involve the insurer’s obligations, the conduct of the underlying litigation, and the reasonableness of the work performed and amounts charged.
The firm addresses these issues in the context of the defense as a whole. The task is not simply to review numbers in isolation, but to understand the relationship between the legal work, the dispute being defended, and the applicable insurance obligations.
This work may arise in policyholder representation or in a separate expert-witness or consulting engagement. The role and scope of the assignment are established at the outset.
Arbitration and Mediation
Dispute resolution requires attention not only to the merits, but also to the process through which the parties will address their disagreement. The appropriate approach depends on the issues, the information available, the parties’ objectives, and the decisions they need to make.
The firm’s work in this area involves two distinct capacities: representing a party and serving as a neutral.
When representing a client, the firm evaluates negotiation, mediation, arbitration, and litigation as parts of the client’s overall strategy. Preparation includes identifying the disputed questions, developing the relevant record, and assessing what a proposed resolution would accomplish.
In separate engagements, Marc serves as an arbitrator or mediator. As an arbitrator, his role is to evaluate the record and decide the issues submitted for determination. As a mediator, his role is to assist the parties in examining their positions and exploring a negotiated resolution—not to advocate for either side. The capacity in which he is engaged is made clear from the beginning.
Expert-Witness and Consulting Engagements
Marc accepts expert-witness and consulting engagements involving insurance coverage, insurance practice, and defense-cost issues. These assignments draw on his experience representing policyholders and analyzing the relationship among policy language, claims handling, and the defense of underlying litigation.
Because a testifying expert’s role is to provide independent guidance to the jury, judge, or arbitration panel, Marc approaches each assignment with a commitment to objective analysis rather than a predetermined result. Although his legal practice focuses on representing policyholders, insurance companies have also relied on his testimony and analysis. His opinions reflect his own assessment of the record, informed by his experience and supported by clearly explained reasoning.
Defining the Assignment
An expert engagement begins with the questions that require examination—not with a requested conclusion. Before accepting an assignment, Marc and engaging counsel identify the proposed subject matter, the relevant experience required, and the materials needed to form an informed assessment.
The scope may include consulting with counsel, reviewing the factual record, preparing a report, or providing deposition or hearing testimony. Each assignment requires its own assessment of fit, conflicts, timing, and the proposed expert’s role.
Insurance Practice and Defense-Cost Analysis
Insurance disputes can present questions about both contractual language and the practical setting in which a policy was obtained, a claim was presented, or a defense was conducted. The assignment should distinguish among those questions and identify the matters on which expert assistance is sought.
Defense-cost assignments require consideration of the work performed in relation to the demands of the underlying matter, including its factual and legal complexity, procedural posture, staffing, litigation activity, and the responsibilities undertaken by counsel. The relevant policy language and engagement arrangements provide additional context.
The purpose is to evaluate the disputed work on a developed record, rather than treat the amount billed—or an insurer’s adjustment—as self-explanatory.
Analysis Grounded in the Record
Engaging counsel identifies the assignment, but the conclusions must follow from the materials reviewed and the reasoning applied. That process includes identifying significant assumptions, considering information that may bear against a proposed conclusion, and explaining the limits of the available record.
Where additional documents or factual development are needed, those needs should be addressed rather than obscured. A consulting assessment may also help counsel determine that a proposed position requires refinement or that the available materials do not support the opinion initially contemplated.
Serving as an expert is different from serving as a party’s lawyer. Expert analysis should explain the basis for an opinion and the connection between the supporting information and the conclusion reached. It should not merely restate a party’s arguments in the language of expertise. The proposed scope of testimony must also distinguish expert opinions from legal arguments reserved for counsel and decisions reserved for the court or tribunal.
A Focused Approach to Each Assignment
The firm’s services share a common approach: understand the problem, identify the decisions that matter, and define the work needed to address them.
For a policyholder, that may mean developing a coverage position and pursuing an insurance recovery. For a board or transactional team, it may mean evaluating how a proposed transaction affects insurance protection and existing insurance rights. For a law department, it may mean obtaining focused advice on an issue within a larger dispute. For counsel seeking an expert or parties selecting a neutral, it means evaluating Marc’s experience in relation to the proposed assignment.
Those are different engagements, with different responsibilities. The objective is to make the role, scope, and purpose of the work clear from the beginning.
Discussing a Potential Engagement
To inquire about working with the firm, please identify whether you are seeking:
Representation or advice concerning insurance coverage, recovery, or insurance issues in corporate transactions.
Assistance with a business dispute or a law-department assignment.
An arbitrator or mediator.
Expert-witness or consulting services.
An initial message can briefly describe the nature of the assignment, identify the parties needed for a conflicts review, and note any approaching deadlines. For a proposed expert or neutral engagement, please also identify the forum and the subjects to be addressed.
Please do not send detailed confidential information or substantial document collections before the firm confirms how to proceed.
Contact The Mayerson Firm PLLC at marc@mayersonfirm.com or 202.517.6607.
This introduction provides general information about the firm and its services. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Contacting the firm does not establish an engagement or constitute the firm’s agreement to act on a deadline or undertake work on your behalf.
Related: Practice Areas · Marc Mayerson’s biography.
Topics: Policyholder Representation · Insurance Coverage · Dispute Resolution
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