Kyle Brinkman is a partner in Blank Rome’s policyholder-only insurance recovery practice.
He helps companies and their directors and officers understand and obtain payment from their insurance coverage—from preemptive analysis of coverage for potential risks, to claim advocacy and negotiation, through alternative dispute resolution and litigation.
Having focused his practice exclusively on insurance recovery from day one of his legal career, Kyle has helped clients understand and resolve coverage disputes involving nearly all major commercial insurance types. Examples include:
- Commercial General Liability (“CGL”) insurance coverage for asbestos, mass tort, environmental, personal injury tort, and various product liabilities;
- Commercial Property and Business Interruption insurance coverage for fire, hurricane, other severe weather, theft or mysterious disappearance, and other losses;
- Management Liability including Directors’ and Officers’ Liability (“D&O”), Employment Practices Liability (“EPL”), and Fiduciary Liability insurance coverage for breach of fiduciary duty, derivative, employment, government investigation, and shareholder claim liabilities;
- Pollution Legal Liability (“PLL”) insurance coverage for presence of pollutants and other environmental risks connected to ownership, rental, or operation of real property;
- Professional Liability and other Errors and Omissions (“E&O”) insurance coverage for liability for professional services provided to clients and customers; and
- Specialized industry insurance coverages including Food Contamination, Marine (Cargo, Hull & Machinery, Liability, Property, Protection & Indemnity), Media Liability, etc.
Kyle has experience working with businesses in a large variety of industries, including as examples: chemical, pharmaceutical, and other manufacturing; data science and technology; defense; energy exploration and production; entertainment; financial; food; logistics; private equity investment; real estate investment (“REITs”); and regulated utilities. He also has advised companies on insurance issues arising from corporate transactions and has assisted both debtors and creditors with insurance coverage issues arising in bankruptcy proceedings.
In 2023, Kyle was part of a team that successfully took a Fortune 500 company’s insurance dispute involving major international product liability losses to arbitration and served as second chair in a publicly traded REIT’s coverage lawsuit in New Jersey state court, where he and his colleagues successfully opposed insurer motions for summary judgment and reconsideration on the REIT’s claim for PLL pollution business interruption coverage for the COVID-19 pandemic.