Senior Complex Claims Consultant / Claims Counsel - Environmental / Professional Liability

Senior Complex Claims Consultant / Claims Counsel - Environmental / Professional Liability

Department: Claims Administration & Adjusting

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Home United States

Reporting To: Michelle Edborg

Compensation: $110,000 - $135,000 / year

Description

Davies North America is looking for a candidate that will be responsible for managing and resolving high-severity, complex insurance claims with a strong emphasis on coverage analysis, policy interpretation, and strategic claim resolution. The position focuses on Environmental Liability and Professional Liability claims, including exposures arising from pollution events, site contamination, and professional services.

The successful candidate will manage a portfolio of complex claims that may involve seven-figure exposures, multi-party disputes, regulatory involvement, remediation costs, bodily injury, property damage, professional negligence allegations, expert disputes, and excess implications. This role requires strong technical claims expertise, coverage analysis capability, litigation management experience, and the ability to partner effectively with carriers, insureds, defense counsel, coverage counsel, environmental consultants, engineers, experts, and internal stakeholders.

This position is well-suited for either an attorney with insurance coverage, environmental liability, professional liability, or litigation experience, or a senior complex claims professional with demonstrated experience managing high-exposure environmental and professional liability claims.

This role is well-suited for either an attorney with insurance coverage experience or a senior complex claims professional with deep expertise in environmental and professional liability lines.

Key Responsibilities

• Independently manage a portfolio of high-severity environmental and professional liability claims from assignment through resolution.
• Handle matters involving significant financial exposure, including claims with seven-figure reserves, demands, settlements, or potential judgments.
• Evaluate liability, damages, causation, scope of remediation, professional standard of care, regulatory exposure, contractual risk transfer, and excess exposure.
• Analyze environmental reports, remediation estimates, expert reports, engineering evaluations, professional services contracts, pleadings, and damages assessments.
• Develop and execute claim resolution strategies based on investigation, legal risk, policy obligations, technical evidence, litigation posture, and business objectives.
• Provide clear, independent evaluations and recommendations to carriers and internal stakeholders.
• Maintain accurate and thorough documentation of claim strategy, liability analysis, damages evaluation, coverage issues, reserves, and resolution activity.

• Oversee complex litigated environmental and professional liability claims, including pollution liability, environmental impairment, consultant liability, architects and engineers liability, construction-related professional liability, and other specialty liability matters.
• Direct and partner with defense counsel on litigation strategy, discovery, expert retention, remediation analysis, dispositive motions, mediation preparation, and trial planning.
• Review and analyze pleadings, discovery responses, technical reports, site assessments, expert opinions, remediation plans, contracts, mediation briefs, and trial assessments.
• Establish litigation plans, budgets, and key milestones in partnership with counsel and carriers.
• Attend and actively participate in mediations, settlement conferences, strategy meetings, and significant litigation events.
• Provide strategic recommendations regarding settlement, continued defense, alternative dispute resolution, or trial preparation.

• Review and interpret environmental liability, pollution liability, professional liability, E&O, excess, umbrella, and specialty liability policies.
• Analyze policy language, endorsements, exclusions, claims-made provisions, pollution exclusions, professional services definitions, notice issues, and allocation concerns.
• Provide recommendations related to defense obligations, indemnity exposure, reservation of rights, coverage defenses, and allocation.
• Draft, review, or provide input on reservation of rights letters, coverage position letters, disclaimers, and denial letters, as appropriate.
• Partner with coverage counsel, in-house legal teams, carriers, and internal stakeholders on complex coverage matters.
• Identify and escalate coverage disputes, bad faith concerns, excess exposure, regulatory concerns, and other high-risk claim developments.

• Evaluate settlement demands and develop negotiation strategies based on liability, damages, technical evidence, remediation exposure, professional negligence allegations, venue, coverage, and verdict risk.
• Negotiate settlements within authority and make recommendations for matters requiring additional approval.
• Manage reserves in accordance with carrier guidelines and claim exposure.
• Participate in mediations and settlement conferences involving high-value environmental and professional liability disputes.
• Balance legal risk, financial exposure, policy obligations, regulatory considerations, and business objectives when recommending claim resolution.

Skills, knowledge & expertise

Required (one of the following):

• Juris Doctor (JD) with active bar membership in good standing, or
• 7-10+ years of senior-level experience handling Environmental Liability, Pollution Liability, Professional Liability, or similar complex claims.
• Demonstrated experience handling claims with significant financial exposure, including seven-figure settlements, reserves, demands, or potential judgments.
• Strong litigation management experience, including directing outside counsel and developing litigation strategy.
• Experience evaluating liability, damages, technical expert evidence, coverage, reserves, settlement value, and trial risk.
• Demonstrated expertise in insurance coverage analysis and policy interpretation.
• Experience issuing, drafting, reviewing, or advising on coverage positions, including reservation of rights letters, disclaimers, or denial letters.
• Active adjuster licenses in applicable jurisdictions, or ability to obtain additional licenses as required.
• Strong negotiation, analytical, documentation, and communication skills.

• Environmental liability, pollution liability, architects and engineers, consultant liability, construction professional liability, E&O, or professional liability claims experience.
• Experience working with environmental consultants, engineers, remediation experts, coverage counsel, and defense counsel.
• Experience working in a Major Case Unit, Complex Claims Unit, Specialty Claims Unit, or Excess Claims environment.
• Prior experience as Claims Counsel, Coverage Counsel, National General Adjuster, Executive General Adjuster, Senior Claims Examiner, Complex Claims Specialist, or Senior Complex Claims Consultant.
• Strong understanding of bad faith risk, excess exposure, allocation, regulatory issues, coverage litigation, and complex professional liability evaluation.

Benefits

At Davies North America, we are dedicated to supporting the well-being and future of our qualifying employees. Our comprehensive benefits package includes:

• Medical, dental, and vision plans to support your health and that of your family
• A 401(k) plan with employer matching
• Time-off policies, including Discretionary Time Off (DTO) for exempt employees and Paid Time Off (PTO) for non-exempt employees
• Paid holidays
• Life insurance and short-term and long-term disability coverage

Benefit offerings, eligibility, and required employer contributions may vary based on role, classification, and applicable federal, state, and local laws, including those tied to an employee's primary work location.

Where required by law, the Company provides paid sick leave, paid family and parental leave, and other mandated benefits in accordance with applicable state and local requirements.

Diversity and Inclusion

Davies is dedicated to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace that embraces a wide range of perspectives and experiences. We believe that diversity of thought is essential for innovation and creativity, and we actively promote an environment where all voices are valued and heard.

Compensation Transparency:
The salary range listed reflects the full compensation band for this role across all locations. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as skills, experience, qualifications, and geographic location, which may impact the final offer. We share ranges to remain transparent and consistent with pay equity practices.