Blank Rome LLP announced that Linda Kornfeld, David Thomas and Julia Holt have joined the firm’s Los Angeles office in the Insurance Recovery group.
Kornfeld joins as partner and vice chair of the group, Thomas joins as partner, and Holt joins as of counsel. The team comes to Blank Rome from Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, where Kornfeld was the Los Angeles office’s managing partner. The move to Blank Rome also reunites Kornfeld with Jim Murray, Chair of Blank Rome’s Insurance Recovery practice, and a number of her colleagues who joined Blank Rome from Dickstein Shapiro in February 2016.
A release from the firm continues:
“We are thrilled to welcome Linda, David, and Julia to Blank Rome,” said Alan J. Hoffman, Chairman and Managing Partner. “With more than 25 years of experience, Linda is one of the top insurance recovery litigators—both on the West Coast and nationally. She and her team are highly regarded and respected in the industry, and have achieved unmatched results on behalf of their corporate policyholder clients. Our Insurance Recovery group and our Los Angeles office have experienced impressive growth over the past several years, and we’re confident that Linda, David, and Julia will be excellent additions to the team.”
“I have known Linda for 15 years, and am so happy that she, David, and Julia – who is also a Dickstein Shapiro alum – are joining us at such an exciting time,” said Jim Murray, Chair of Blank Rome’s Insurance Recovery practice. “In less than two years at Blank Rome, our insurance recovery team has had the opportunity to solidify our position as one of the leading practices in big law in terms of size, experience, and capabilities. Having Linda back on the team, along with her top-notch colleagues, enhances our national practice in unparalleled ways.”
“Joining Blank Rome is such an incredible opportunity for me and my team,” said Ms. Kornfeld. “Personally, I could not pass up the chance to rejoin my former colleagues from Dickstein Shapiro, for whom I have so much respect. David, Julia, and I are impressed with what Blank Rome’s insurance recovery team has accomplished in a short period of time, making it the go-to practice that it is today. I am excited to lead the charge of building the practice on the West Coast, while providing our clients with the benefit of this expanded national bench of leading insurance recovery lawyers. Equally as important, I am looking forward to continuing my career-long focus on women’s leadership and advancement efforts with my new colleagues throughout Blank Rome, who have a shared passion for and commitment to these important issues.”
Linda D. Kornfeld, Partner and Vice Chair, Insurance Recovery Practice Group
Ms. Kornfeld has dedicated her trial and appellate practice to representing companies in high-stakes insurance coverage litigation for over 25 years. She has focused extensively on claims involving property and weather-related business interruption issues, data breach and privacy issues, and professional liability, asbestos, and environmental liabilities. Her clients include telecommunications companies, universities, real estate developers, manufacturers, and nonprofit organizations. She also provides strategic counseling to senior executives and in-house counsel on how to mitigate risk and maximize their insurance recoveries.
Ms. Kornfeld is considered one of the nation’s leading insurance recovery litigators by Chambers USA, which describes her as “valued by clients as a ‘very thorough and prepared lawyer’ with a deep level of insurance expertise across a broad range of coverage areas. She is praised for the quality and practical applications of her advice, as well as her oral advocacy, which one client describes as ‘professional, economical, very direct and matter-of-fact.’”
Ms. Kornfeld is named one of California’s “Top 100 Women Lawyers” by the Daily Journal, a “Litigation Star” and one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” by Benchmark Litigation, and a 2016 “Woman Worth Watching” by Diversity Journal, a recognition highlighting women based on their trailblazing strategies that make a difference in their workplace, the marketplace, and the world at large. Focused throughout her career on women’s leadership and advancement in the legal industry and other professions, she also serves as a West Coast leader of the Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Alliance and frequently speaks and writes on women’s issues.
Admitted to practice in California, Ms. Kornfeld received her J.D., with honors, from George Washington University Law School, and her B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
David A. Thomas, Partner
Mr. Thomas has an insurance recovery, complex commercial litigation, and consumer litigation practice that includes contract disputes, unfair competition and trade practices claims, and insurance recovery litigation. He has particular experience representing and counseling policyholders in both litigation and non-litigation matters relating to a broad array of commercial insurance lines, including cybersecurity and privacy, commercial general liability, umbrella, D&O, bankers professional liability, employment practices liability, and first-party property and business interruption. Mr. Thomas’ practice extends to representing and counseling consumers and individual policyholders harmed by fraudulent and unfair practices in the sale of life and health insurance products and insurance-related transactions.
Mr. Thomas serves as a member of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee.
Admitted to practice in California, Mr. Thomas received his J.D. from Harvard Law School and his A.B., with departmental honors and distinction, from Stanford University.
Julia K. Holt, Of Counsel
Ms. Holt focuses her practice on representing insureds in complex insurance coverage and other disputes. Her experience includes both first-party and third-party insurance disputes involving claims for copyright infringement, misappropriation of likeness/right of publicity, trade disparagement, class action securities fraud, Department of Justice and grand jury investigations, actuarial malpractice, class action predatory lending, class action right-of-way/trespass, class action property and environmental damage, class action toxic tort, personal injury/class action mass tort, insurance broker-agent liability, and reinsurance. She also has significant experience in patent infringement, unfair competition, and antitrust litigation. Ms. Holt’s clients include Fortune 500 companies, technology corporations, healthcare corporations, entertainment studios, film and television production companies, and individual talent in the entertainment and sports industries.
Ms. Holt is actively involved in pro bono work and has completed numerous adoptions for foster children in Los Angeles County. In addition, she has represented foster parents in administrative hearings to obtain the state benefits to which they are entitled.
Admitted to practice in California, Ms. Holt received her J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center and her B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles.
