David Butman

Full Profile

David has over 25 years of experience litigating and arbitrating insurance, reinsurance, and commercial disputes before courts and tribunals across the United States. He has served as lead and co-lead counsel to US and foreign insurers, cedents, and reinsurers in high-exposure, multi-party coverage litigation and arbitration, as well as to businesses and individuals in contract, antitrust, employment, and product liability matters.

David’s experience ranges from the representation of a major US casualty reinsurer seeking rescission of its reinsurance contracts before a private arbitration panel, to litigating forum disputes and arguing appeals. His insurance coverage practice focusses on significant third-party and first-party loss, excess liability, toxic tort, environmental contamination, and bad faith. David has negotiated and closed commutation agreements and coverage-in-place agreements with an aggregate value in the billions. 

In addition to his litigation practice, David is regularly called upon to advise insurers, reinsurers, and brokers on US economic and trade sanctions regulations administered and enforced by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). OFAC regulations present unique challenges to the day-to-day operations of companies in the (re)insurance industry, and David’s industry knowledge enables him to effectively advise companies on the application of OFAC regulations to their business. With 20 years of experience advising insurers on OFAC regulations, David has conducted dozens of internal investigations and prepared as many voluntary disclosures and license applications on behalf of his insurance industry clients under a myriad of OFAC sanctions programs.

Admissions

• Illinois
• US District Courts for the Northern and Central Districts of Illinois
• US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin 
• US District Court for the Western District of Michigan 
• US Court of Appeals for the Third, Sixth, and Seventh Circuits

Education

• J.D., with Honors, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Illinois Institute of Technology, Program in Environmental and Energy Law
• B.S., University of Wisconsin-Madison

Experience

Insurance & Reinsurance

• Argued and obtained a unanimous decision from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals reversing the District Court’s refusal to compel arbitration of Section 155 claims, resulting in a victory on the merits.
• Obtained pro rata, time-on-risk allocation and right to recoup defense and indemnity summary judgment rulings in Kentucky state court.
• Obtained favorable choice of law and pro rata, time on risk allocation summary judgment rulings in Michigan state court. 
• Convinced a Missouri court to retain jurisdiction over an insurance coverage action notwithstanding a first-filed complaint in Illinois and convinced the Illinois court to yield to the Missouri court’s jurisdiction. 
• Convinced an Illinois court to retain jurisdiction over an insurance coverage action notwithstanding a Tennessee court’s prior decision to proceed with a competing action, causing the Tennessee court to reconsider its decision and dismiss the competing action. 
• Obtained a unanimous USD 10 million arbitration award that included the rescission of four casualty reinsurance treaties, restitution for all losses paid under the treaties, interest and the recovery of all attorneys’ fees and costs.
• Convinced a panel of reinsurance arbitrators to invoke its inherent authority to require a financially distressed, recalcitrant reinsurer to post pre-hearing security to ensure funds would be available to satisfy his client’s claims and to protect the integrity of the arbitration process.

Litigation

• Obtained a complete victory against a congregation’s planned expansion in a well-publicized religious rights zoning matter involving the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA).
• Lead counsel for a waste hauler in a multi-million-dollar breach of contract action filed by a waste-to-energy facility in Cook County, Illinois. David was retained late in the litigation and immediately filed counterclaims for breach of contract and fraudulent misrepresentation. After defeating challenges to the counterclaims and aggressively defending against the allegations made against his client, David negotiated a release of all claims brought against his clients and obtained a monetary settlement in satisfaction of his client’s counterclaims.
• David was counsel for an office equipment distributor against third-party claims for breach of express warranty and implied contractual indemnity in Sangamon County, Illinois. David obtained a complete victory for his client on summary judgment.

OFAC Compliance

• David has made disclosures to OFAC and obtained licenses under various sanctions programs, including the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, Iranian Transactions Regulations, Syria Sanctions Regulations, and Sudanese Sanctions Regulations.  
• Advised (re)insurance broker in relation to processing US dollar premium and commissions involving Russian risks. 
• Counselled (re)insurance brokers on implementing policies and procedures under General License H to allow their foreign subsidiaries to engage in authorized transactions involving Iran.
• Advised foreign aviation reinsurers in international air crash cases implicating the Iranian Transaction Regulations. 
• Advised US and foreign political risk insurers and reinsurer with respect to the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, including conflicts posed by foreign anti-blocking laws.
• Obtained no-action letter for a London-based reinsurance broker’s transmission of an Iranian reinsurer’s claim payments.
• Obtained no action letters for US reinsurers of life policies assumed under semi-automatic treaties.
• Advised insurers, reinsurers, and (re)insurance brokers on developing and improving their OFAC compliance policies and procedures.