Reed Smith announced that insurance recovery lawyer Bert Wells has joined the firm’s global Insurance Recovery Practice Group as a partner in New York. Wells has more than 20 years of legal experience with insurance arbitrations, mediations and negotiations, in some cases achieving nine-figure recoveries for his clients, including a $700 million Superstorm Sandy recovery.
Wells joins Reed Smith from Covington & Burling where he had been a partner from the inception of that firm’s New York office. Reed Smith’s deep bench and broad experience in insurance recovery will increase Wells’s ability to achieve insurance recovery successes by connecting the existing talent at Reed Smith with even more clients in need of top-flight quality service and advice.
“With his distinctive profile, Bert adds significant depth to our global insurance recovery team,” said Insurance Recovery Group Chair David Halbreich. “He is a highly experienced insurance recovery practitioner with world-class clients and achievements, and over $1 billion in recoveries for clients. We’re excited to welcome him to the group.”
Wells advises clients in their pursuit of insurance coverage for business interruption, property damage and cyber claims, as well as shareholder, fiduciary/retirement/benefits, errors and omissions, mass tort, environmental and other third-party liability claims. Through litigation, arbitration, negotiation and advisory services, he positions clients optimally to achieve their insurance recovery and risk management goals. Wells also advises them on the purchase of custom insurance programs to protect corporate directors and officers generally and for complex and transformative transactions.
“The firm provides an unparalleled global platform for providing the most sophisticated insurance recovery advice, and has an exceptional capacity to maximize the value of policyholders’ insurance coverage rights,” Wells said. “Our clients will be extremely well served.”
Wells joins the New York office bringing senior New York insurance law experience and adding to the growth of the office as part of one of Reed Smith’s highest performing groups.
In addition to his insurance matters, Wells has served on and chaired various standing committees of the New York City Bar Association, and is a former Trustee of the New York Hall of Science. He sits on the Editorial Board of Law360 Insurance Authority’s Specialty Lines publication.
“We are thrilled to welcome Bert to our team, where he will continue to serve existing clients with top-notch representation,” said New York Office Managing Partner Cindy Schmitt Minniti. “We also look forward to his contributions to grow the New York insurance recovery practice group and facilitate the insurance-related aspects of all of the firm’s practices.”
Before his career in law, Wells worked as an assistant professor of mathematics and researcher in university and commercial settings, including as a visiting Bellcore research mathematician at the fabled Bell Laboratories.
Wells received his J.D. from Yale Law School. He also holds a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Oxford and a M.S. and B.S. from the California Institute of Technology.
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