Bernard Bell joined Heller Ehrman in 2006 and is a member of the firm’s Insurance Recovery Practice Group. 

Experience

Mr. Bell represents corporate policyholders and their individual directors and officers in complex insurance coverage matters. He works with policyholders on litigation, and negotiates alternative dispute resolutions for recoveries on insurance claims arising from property damage and business interruption losses, as well as alleged asbestos, environmental, products, intellectual property, and directors' and officers' liabilities. Clients include companies in the oil refining and marketing, chemical, gas and electric utility, manufacturing, pharmaceutical, financial services, apparel and real estate industries.

Mr. Bell has decades of civil litigation experience in federal and state courts on a broad assortment of matters, including insurance, environmental, securities, and products liability claims. He spent five years as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice, representing the government in environmental enforcement litigation in various federal courts.

Mr. Bell routinely writes, speaks, and chairs continuing education programs on insurance coverage issues, has co-chaired (policyholder side) insurance litigation subcommittees of the American Bar Association, and carries a steady docket of litigation matters for the firm's pro bono clients. Mr. Bell is ranked in the highest tier of national insurance litigators (handling complex cases throughout the country) in the 2007 edition of Benchmark: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigators, an independent research publication of Legal Media Group and Institutional Investor.  Mr. Bell has an AV peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell.

Publications

• "401(k) 'Excessive Fees' Lawsuits: Fiduciary Liability Policies Likely To Cover Plan Fiduciaries,"  Policy Perspective , Winter  2007
• Co-Author, "Understanding Commercial Property Insurance,"   New Appleman Insurance Law Practice Guide, Chapter 31   2007
• "Can D&O Insurance Protect Outside Directors Against 'Personal Wealth' Settlement Demands?,"   Policyholder Advisory   02.2005
• Co-Author, "The Art of the Joint Resolution: Negotiate Technical, Financial and Legal Questions Together,"   Legal Times Special Report on Dispute Resolution   12.17.1997
• Co Author, "Proving Continuous Environmental Property Damage Throughout Successive Policy Periods in Jurisdictions Employing a 'Damage-in-Fact' Trigger,"   Environmental Claims Journal, Vol. 9, No. 4, Summer  1997

Speaking Engagements