Partner

Insurance Coverage

Expertise

Max is a New York-licensed attorney with more than 25 years’ experience handling and supervising insurance coverage litigation, and providing coverage opinions, involving a wide variety of issues under commercial general liability, commercial auto, workers’ compensation and employers’ liability, commercial property, homeowners, umbrella, and directors’ and officers’ policies. He also has extensive appellate experience, having briefed and argued over 60 coverage-related appeals.

In recognition of his prominence in the insurance coverage litigation field, Max was admitted in 2013 as a Fellow of the American College of Coverage and Extra Contractual Counsel.

Max Advises

  • Insurance companies
  • Property owners
  • Contractors
  • Publishers
  • Retail Businesses

Experience Highlights

  • Preserver Ins. Co. v. Ryba, 10 N.Y.3d 635 (N.Y. 2008) (finding $100,000 policy limit of employers’ liability policy issued to New Jersey insured was enforceable even though accident occurred in New York, which mandates unlimited coverage)
  • Badillo v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y., 92 N.Y.2d 790 (N.Y. 1999) (finding commercial property insurers have no duty to conduct UCC searches for lienors against damaged property before paying property loss proceeds to insureds)
  • Cirone v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y., 76 A.D.3d 883 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep’t 2010) (finding claimant who secured judgment against insured, which had been found in prior litigation to have breached policy’s notice provisions, could not, as insured’s assignee, pursue bad-faith-refusal-to-settle claim against insurer)
  • Lucarelli & Sons, Inc., 64 A.D.3d 856 (N.Y. App. Div. 4th Dep’t 2010) (finding insured excavation contractor sued for dampness-related damages to houses due to alleged failure to excavate at proper elevation in relation to seasonal high groundwater elevation was not entitled to coverage under general liability policy based on business-risk exclusions)

Career History

Previous Law firms

  • Kennedys CMK, New York, NY, Partner (2017 – 2023)
  • Carroll, McNulty & Kull, New York, NY, Partner (2015 – 2017)
  • AmTrust North America, New York, NY, National Coverage Counsel/Principal, in-house coverage firm (Law Office of Max W. Gershweir) (2014 – 2015)
  • Tower Group Companies, New York, NY, National Coverage Counsel/Principal, in-house coverage firm (Law Office of Max W. Gershweir) (1996 – 2014)

Bar Admissions

  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • US Court of Appeals, Second & Third Circuits
  • US Federal District Court, all New York Districts
  • New York

 Education

  • University of California, Los Angeles, J.D. (1993)
  • Middlebury College, B.A., (1990)
  • Hunter College H.S., (1986)

Expertise

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Max is a New York-licensed attorney with more than 25 years’ experience handling and supervising insurance coverage litigation, and providing coverage opinions, involving a wide variety of issues under commercial general liability, commercial auto, workers’ compensation and employers’ liability, commercial property, homeowners, umbrella, and directors’ and officers’ policies. He also has extensive appellate experience, having briefed and argued over 60 coverage-related appeals.

In recognition of his prominence in the insurance coverage litigation field, Max was admitted in 2013 as a Fellow of the American College of Coverage and Extra Contractual Counsel.

Max Advises

Back to top

  • Insurance companies
  • Property owners
  • Contractors
  • Publishers
  • Retail Businesses

Experience Highlights

Back to top

  • Preserver Ins. Co. v. Ryba, 10 N.Y.3d 635 (N.Y. 2008) (finding $100,000 policy limit of employers’ liability policy issued to New Jersey insured was enforceable even though accident occurred in New York, which mandates unlimited coverage)
  • Badillo v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y., 92 N.Y.2d 790 (N.Y. 1999) (finding commercial property insurers have no duty to conduct UCC searches for lienors against damaged property before paying property loss proceeds to insureds)
  • Cirone v. Tower Ins. Co. of N.Y., 76 A.D.3d 883 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep’t 2010) (finding claimant who secured judgment against insured, which had been found in prior litigation to have breached policy’s notice provisions, could not, as insured’s assignee, pursue bad-faith-refusal-to-settle claim against insurer)
  • Lucarelli & Sons, Inc., 64 A.D.3d 856 (N.Y. App. Div. 4th Dep’t 2010) (finding insured excavation contractor sued for dampness-related damages to houses due to alleged failure to excavate at proper elevation in relation to seasonal high groundwater elevation was not entitled to coverage under general liability policy based on business-risk exclusions)

Career History

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Previous Law firms

  • Kennedys CMK, New York, NY, Partner (2017 – 2023)
  • Carroll, McNulty & Kull, New York, NY, Partner (2015 – 2017)
  • AmTrust North America, New York, NY, National Coverage Counsel/Principal, in-house coverage firm (Law Office of Max W. Gershweir) (2014 – 2015)
  • Tower Group Companies, New York, NY, National Coverage Counsel/Principal, in-house coverage firm (Law Office of Max W. Gershweir) (1996 – 2014)

Bar Admissions

  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • US Court of Appeals, Second & Third Circuits
  • US Federal District Court, all New York Districts
  • New York

 Education

  • University of California, Los Angeles, J.D. (1993)
  • Middlebury College, B.A., (1990)
  • Hunter College H.S., (1986)