Profile
Mr. Godwin focuses his practice on representing carriers in insurance coverage actions and claims nationwide. Types of policies at issue include liability, directors & officers professional liability, aviation, environmental impairment, builder’s risk, surety and life.
Insurance Coverage
Mr. Godwin has litigated coverage actions involving a wide variety of claims, most including a bad faith component, as well as contamination caused by the release of hydrocarbons, PCBs, solvents, sewage, lead, arsenic and other toxic metals.
He has represented insurers in actions, including at trial, concerning bodily injuries allegedly resulting from exposure to asbestos, lead, tobacco, EMF, pesticides and other toxic chemicals/products.
Other example representations include investment fraud, and commercial real estate and construction claims.
Product Liability
Mr. Godwin has coordinated (with partner Justs Karlsons) products liability claims nationally for a major auto manufacturer.
He represented manufacturers in a variety of product liability actions. Examples include claims involving steel pipe used for transportation of petroleum products, animal control devices, and automobile restraint systems.
Environmental Experience
Mr. Godwin represents developers, contractors, water districts and trusts in actions involving contamination from landfills, underground storage tanks, tannery operations, manufactured gas plants, semiconductor facilities and water treatment plants.
Presentations and Publications
Lost a Duty to Defend? The Duty to Defend Under a Missing Liability Policy, published in Coverage, Vol. 21, No. 3, (January/February 2011).
“Strategic Considerations for Selection of Forum,” presented at ABA/Annual Meeting of the Insurance Coverage Committee of the Litigation Section (March 7, 2009).
Limits Don’t Grow on Trees: Why Limits of Multi-Year Policies Cannot Be Annualized, published in the ABA Midyear Meeting Materials, Tucson, Arizona (March 2006).
"How Much Coverage Do We have? Pushing the Limits of Multi-Year Policies," presented at the ABA Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Meeting, Tucson, Arizona (March 2006).
"Privileged Communications and the Claims Adjusting Process," presented at the ABA Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Meeting, Tucson, Arizona (March 2004).
"Fundamentals of Insurance Coverage Litigation," presented in San Francisco (CEB, April 27, 2001).
"Corporate Acquisitions: Environmental Liability Coverage for Successor Entities," presented at Mealey's Emerging Insurance Coverage Issues Seminar, Boston, Massachusetts (April 2000).
“No Settlement and No Judgment Means No Coverage,” presented at ABA Midyear Meeting, Tucson, Arizona (March 1999); and published in Coverage, Vol. 9, No. 4 (July/August 1999).
Co-authored Scientific Expert Testimony: Who Is Watching the Gate in California? published in California Litigation, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Spring 1995).