Consulting Practice of Stephen E. Sellick, M.A.

• Insurance Coverage - Asbestos Claims
• Insurance Coverage - Environmental
• Mass Tort Claims

For a direct link to Mr. Sellick's website, click on: www.gnarusllc.com.

Stephen Sellick has been deeply involved in asbestos insurance coverage claims. For example, he:

• Developed an insurance allocation model to determine the exposure of multiple insurance carriers to a manufacturer's asbestos claims.
• Testified before a state court regarding the appropriate methodology for handling asbestos product liability claims for which exposure dates are not known and for allocating costs to triggered years and policies. This analysis involved a detailed review of client claims databases and claims handling methodologies, as well as a stratified sample of claims files and statistical analyses to determine exposure profiles for claims for which dates of exposure are not known. The court accepted Mr. Sellick's methodologies.
• Provided settlement assistance and expert testimony on behalf of a Fortune 50 diversified manufacturing company regarding asbestos product liability and environmental insurance coverage. Assignments include developing projections of future asbestos claims and costs as well as the development of an insurance allocation model to determine net present value exposure of excess insurance carriers to claims.
• Conducted a review of an insurer's asbestos claims databases and claims handling procedures, including replication and recommended modification of the process by which surrogate dates of first exposure are assigned to asbestos plaintiffs for which that information has not been collected.

top

Mr. Sellick has worked on many engagements related to environmental insurance claims. More specifically, he:

• Testified several times regarding insurance allocation models constructed to determine the exposure of numerous insurance carriers to historic environmental remediation costs incorporating various assumptions regarding limits, trigger and allocation techniques, treatment of defense costs, and other factors.
• Developed and insurance allocation model to determine the exposure of multiple carriers to over 500 environmental remediation sites for purposes of settling claims disputes. Insurance in question include primary, reinsurance, and excess policies. Various insurance models constructed incorporate various assumptions regarding limits, trigger and allocation techniques, treatment of defense costs, and other factors.
• Developed models to project environmental remediation costs at over 500 sites at issue in an insurance coverage dispute; modeling techniques include probabilistic analysis for almost 30 high-profiles sites and other approaches to develop estimates for remaining sites.
• Developed an insurance allocation model to determine the exposure of several insurance carriers to a client's environmental remediation costs for purposes of settling claims disputes.
• Provided settlement assistance for several insurance companies by evaluating the amount and allocation of historical and future remediation and defense costs regarding environmental claims brought by a number of different industrial manufacturing policyholders.
• Provided settlement assistance for a Fortune 50 diversified manufacturing client in a bankruptcy proceeding. Mr. Sellick reviewed the likely future remediation-related costs at a closed manufacturing site, resulting in a successful settlement of the client's claim against a company in liquidation.

top

In regard to mass tort claims, Mr. Sellick:

• Performed work on behalf of a national coalition of companies to develop cost estimates for several asbestos reform proposals. This effort involved modeling total U.S. asbestos disease incidence and liability projections under various legal, medical, and legislative scenarios.
• Worked with numerous companies to develop probabilistic or other appropriate models to evaluate their potential future silica and asbestos liability (both products and non-product claims) for purposes of obtaining insurance and/or other financial products to aid in managing that liability, for due diligence in financial transactions, and to assist in financial disclosures.
• Developed a model to estimate potential losses associated with lead personal injury claims for over 500 minors and adults based on analysis of settlement and jury verdicts in lead personal injury cases and available characteristics of claimant population.
• Developed a probabilistic model to estimate future incidence and settlement and defense liability arising from alleged exposure to beryllium. Modeling developed projection of future disease based on estimated exposed population, claims to a defendant arising from those diseases, defendant payment associated with those claims, and insurance allocation of the resulting cash flow projections.
• Employed probabilistic litigation risk analysis to quantify the potential liability associated with latex allergy tort claims to assist in client strategic decision-making and in settlement discussions leading to insurance recoveries.
• Conducted an analysis of silicone breast implant claims. In this assignment for an insurance arbitration before a London-based arbitration panel, Mr. Sellick reviewed client claims databases and claims handling procedures, sampled claims files, and performed statistical analyses of claims data to determine whether indemnity payments varied by implant type in order to understand insurance occurrence definition.

top