PRACTICES
OVERVIEW
Adam Berardi represents major national and international insurance companies in coverage disputes and complex commercial litigation around the country. He is Co-Chair of the firm’s Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith Practice Group. His practice focuses primarily on resolution of complex coverage claims for long-tail liabilities involving environmental cleanups, mass tort and product liability, many of which regularly involve hundreds of millions of dollars of disputed coverage. He has significant experience litigating and advising clients on various other high profile disputes involving concussion claims in professional sports, media claims, and opioids. Adam is also experienced in alternative dispute resolution proceedings and frequently counsels clients to achieve cost-effective resolution of coverage disputes through the use of mediation or arbitration.
Adam also has considerable experience both litigating and advising insurers on a wide variety of complex and emerging coverage issues under employment practices liability, professional liability, and directors and officers policies, including high exposure claims involving securities and intellectual property disputes.
Because of his broad range of experience representing insurers, Adam is often called upon by non-insurer corporate clients to advise on risk management practices to limit potential liability and on procuring adequate and comprehensive insurance to avoid future coverage disputes. Adam also regularly advises corporate clients on environmental and product compliance regulations. He continues to stay abreast of the emerging issues, helping clients navigate coverage issues arising from PFAS, climate change, and coastal erosion claims.
While in law school, Adam served as an Associate Editor of the Villanova Environmental Law Journal and was an Executive Committee member of the Environmental Law Society.
Recognition and Involvement
Recognition & Involvement
Adam was previously selected in a survey of his peers as a Pennsylvania "Rising Star" by Super Lawyers and currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Philadelphia Lawyer’s Club.
Adam provides volunteer legal services through the Philadelphia VIP Pro Bono Organization and The Committee of Seventy, a non-partisan political oversight committee whose main function is to ensure equal rights and access to all voters. He also regularly works with the SeniorLaw Center to draft wills and powers of attorneys for seniors.
In his free time, Adam enjoys playing golf and hiking with his dog, Marty (McFly).
Credentials
Bar and Court Admissions
Pennsylvania
Massachusetts
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
Education
Villanova University School of Law, JD, 2007
Clemson University, BA, 2004
News & Insights
Memberships
American Bar Association
Massachusetts Bar Association
Pennsylvania Bar Association
Pennsylvania Defense Institute
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
- Successfully secured ruling from the Ohio Court of Appeals that coverage for alleged injurious exposures to coal tar pitch was barred by a liability policy’s absolute pollution exclusion
- Obtained summary judgment based on late notice defense in multisite environmental litigation involving more than $100 million in alleged groundwater cleanup costs
- Defeated summary judgment on the duty to defend by obtaining New York choice-of-law in the policyholder’s home state of Ohio
- Represented a major insurance company in an appeal before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals involving a dispute as to the applicability of the products hazard aggregate limit
- Achieved significant ruling in Pennsylvania Commerce Court that Pennsylvania’s “Bad Faith” Statute does not apply to out-of-state insureds
- Counseled national insurance carrier in class action filed by former NFL players against the NFL for long-term injuries they allegedly sustained due to medications and other allegedly negligent treatment provided by the NFL during the players’ NFL careers
- Represented insurer in complex coverage matter involving alleged contamination of waterways by poultry industry
- Counseled insurer in mediation involving hundreds of contaminated former gasoline stations and bulk storage plants
- Represents multiple insurers in connection with numerous environmental, asbestos and other underlying claims involving Fortune 500 company policyholder