Darren S. Teshima

Darren Teshima helps clients through complex commercial litigation, with a special focus on intelligent risk mitigation. From providing counsel to safeguard against anticipated and unforeseen dangers to handling high stakes litigation, clients turn to him for creative solutions to protect their businesses. Chambers USA 2021 quotes clients praising him for being “collaborative and a strong negotiator." Darren’s Insurance Recovery clients are exclusively policyholders. They seek his advice to pursue claims and help them improve their coverage programs.

• Engagements

  • Premera Blue Cross in disputes with several of its insurers regarding coverage for class actions and multiple regulatory proceedings arising out of a 2014 data breach that affected more than 11 million Premera customers. Among the disputes was a declaratory relief action brought by Premera’s commercial general liability (CGL) insurer, Atlantic Specialty Insurance Company. Darren and his team convinced the Court to deny the insurer’s motion for summary judgment seeking to establish that it did not owe a duty to defend because the insurer contended that a data breach does not constitute a “publication” under a CGL policy—a hotly contested issue across the country and one of first impression under Washington state law.
  • IEC,a for-profit education company, in a lawsuit brought by the company’s educators’ professional liability insurer, seeking to recover hundreds of thousands of dollars paid to defend, and $12.5 million paid to settle, an underlying class action. On the eve of trial, the case resolved on very favorable terms for our client.
  • Braden Partners in a lawsuit against its D&O insurer who refused to provide a defense to an underlying False Claims Act investigation. Darren and his team won summary judgment establishing the insurer’s duty to advance defense costs for the underlying claim.
  • Leading Dental Insurance Provider in a dispute with its D&O insurer and E&O insurer about the applicable coverage for underlying claims about alleged managed care wrongful acts. The parties ultimately reached a negotiated resolution on favorable terms for our client.
  • Leading Disruptive Financial Services Company in obtaining coverage under its D&O and cyber policies for underlying class actions and regulatory investigations arising out of a network outage affecting millions of customers.
  • Getaround, an on-demand carsharing company, in a coverage dispute with its auto rideshare insurance company.
  • Scopely, a leading mobile gaming company, in a coverage dispute with its cyber insurer regarding coverage for a trade secrets misappropriation claim.
  • Sony Pictures, advising on insurance claims related to a cyber-attack on its network and IT infrastructure.
  • Credit Suisse in defending a dozen lawsuits brought by monoline insurers and trustees alleging claims related to RMBS transactions following the global financial crisis, including a suit brought by MBIA, which was one of the only post-crisis RMBS cases to go to trial, and one of the financial sector’s largest and most complex litigations.