Danielle McKenzie

Full Profile

Danielle McKenzie is based in Seattle and represents insurers in coverage and bad faith litigation in Washington state and federal courts at the trial and appellate levels. She has experience advising insurers on first- and third-party coverage issues under personal and commercial lines policies, including commercial general liability, professional liability, employment practices liability, commercial auto, commercial property, and excess policies.

Admissions

• Washington
• US District Courts for the Eastern and Western Districts of Washington
• US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Education

• J.D., University of Washington School of Law, 2015. Senior Comments Editor, Washington International Law Journal.
• B.A., magna cum laude, University of Washington, 2008

Memberships

• Washington State Bar Association
• Defense Research Institute 
• Washington Defense Trial Lawyers

Experience

• Obtained Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmation of summary judgment that commercial general liability insurer was not obligated to pay USD 7.5 million covenant judgment, and that insurer did not act in bad faith when it declined to defend insured in underlying lawsuit.
• Won summary judgment that occurrence limit of liability endorsement limited excess insurer’s liability to amounts listed in the statement of values, less payments by underlying insurers.
• Won summary judgment that non-duplication provision of underinsured motorist coverage applied to amounts recovered from both motorist and non-motorist tortfeasors, and that provision did not conflict with underinsured motorist statute.
• Obtained ruling that insurer was not estopped from asserting new coverage defenses that were available after vacation of judgment in underlying tort lawsuit.

Presentations

• Co-presenter, In-house client seminar on best practices in drafting reservation of rights letters in Washington