Lawyer Insured: Panel’s Ruling Guts Professional Liability Insurer’s Duty To Defend

(October 23, 2023, 2:00 PM EDT) -- NEW YORK — A lawyer insured on Oct. 21 filed a petition for rehearing en banc seeking to reverse the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals’ ruling that a professional liability insurer has no duty to defend its construction management company against a lawsuit arising from a home renovation project because the underlying complaint fails to allege professional services that the insured provided as a lawyer to trigger coverage, arguing that the panel’s decision “abrogates decades of black-letter New York insurance law that favors insureds, effectively gutting an insurer’s duty to defend.”...