Larry D. Mason is a renowned trial and appellate litigator and counselor to many national and international businesses across diverse industries. Based in Chicago but with experience litigating and counseling clients through complicated and high-profile matters across the country and internationally, he dedicates most of his practice to insurance coverage, reinsurance, commercial litigation, environmental and toxic torts, and complex insurance regulatory matters. He also focuses on professional liability for clients in insurance, environmental, construction, and related industries; products liability; and identifying emerging risks. He brings his extensive experience to leadership positions in the firm, where he is chair of the Environmental and Mass Torts Coverage, First-Party Property, and Construction Coverage subgroups.

Formidable and respected as a trial and appellate litigator, Larry also regularly provides assistance to underwriters concerning policy and endorsement drafting, market strategy, and the development of new insurance products. Larry’s risk and litigation avoidance practice helps his business clients to avoid litigation by working with business leaders, risk managers, and underwriters to identify risks in developing fields and to proactively address emerging risks, devise risk management strategies and solutions, and offer general counsel to top-level executives.

For over three decades, Larry has been a thought leader in the insurance-law community. Inside the courtroom he has been a pioneer, litigating many cases of first impression advancing new interpretations of law and new defenses. Outside he has written and spoken on the most pressing issues in insurance and related fields. And he has served as an expert witness in complex, multi-issue cases.

Larry’s experience includes commercial litigation involving multiple lines of insurance and reinsurance; first-party property and third-party liability; agent and broker liability; D&O/E&O; product liability; contracts; bad faith; toxic torts and occupational diseases; technology and cybersecurity; intellectual property disputes; rescission; reformation; anti-competitive practices, employment disputes, breach of covenants not to compete; life and disability; EPL; defense of self-insured employers and professional employer organizations (PEOs); workers’ compensation; professional-liability defense for construction companies and their executives, architects, engineers, and contractors; and complicated cross-discipline cases arising from environmental, structural, or other catastrophic damages, including business interruption and lost revenue.

Larry’s thought leadership in service to the insurance and reinsurance industries and defense of insurance professionals in E&O matters has included a wide variety of complex insurance regulatory issues. His work has been particularly influenced by his service on multiple insurance company boards of directors where insurance regulatory and related licensing issues are of paramount concern. Among other challenges, he has counseled and protected clients’ interests concerning insurance company acquisitions, mergers and start-ups, regulatory approval of policy forms and endorsements, and compliance with state-specific requirements impacting underwriting and claims-handling practices.

Widely known as “The Problem Solver,” Larry has a practice encompassing a broad spectrum of first- and third-party coverage, reinsurance, and defense issues. He frequently is called on to protect the interests of insurers and reinsurers in complex insurance coverage disputes and to defend their insureds concerning a variety of third-party liability issues. He has applied his extensive experience in handling large catastrophe losses and the complex cross-discipline problems that arise from these claims to a wide array of business interests.

In his environmental defense practice, Larry also offers clients in-depth knowledge of state and federal regulations, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and others. He also litigates matters involving contamination and exposure to chemicals and substances such as acetyl propionyl, asbestos, benzene, diacetyl, 1,4-Dioxane, glyphosate, mold, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), nanotechnology, lead, silica, Legionella, and COVID-19. In addition to handling adversarial matters, Larry counsels clients concerning litigation avoidance by providing strategic advice regarding environmental compliance and strategy.

Larry has continued to diversify his cross-disciplinary practice over the years, in keeping with the philosophy that has driven his entire career: An insurance attorney’s success has to rest on a foundation of diverse, deep, and balanced engagement with the dynamic and multifaceted issues involved in underlying claims. This belief propelled Larry to the forefront of developing fields, including asbestos and other environmental and construction hazards, cyber risks and cyber insurance, and liability issues related to climate change — all practices in which he is a recognized authority. This breadth of substantive experience facilitates the synergy Larry brings to his practice and to his clients, as he’s been able to provide coverage as well as defense counsel.

Larry’s clients benefit from his wide-ranging curiosity and the passion it brings to his work. His lifelong interest in architecture and construction, for example, fuels his deep and robust understanding of the challenges his clients in property insurance, construction and related fields face. His experiences in executive, financial, and project management positions at his synagogue, as well as his roles on the Board of Directors and Audit and Independent Committees of the several insurance companies equip Larry with an uncommon fluency in business, finance, management, and risk management. He understands the work his clients love as well as he does the legal concerns that would keep them from it.

His experience in property- and liability-insurance coverage dovetailed with his interest in construction, pushing him to explore environmental law and its frequent applications to property and liability cases. Early in his career, Larry handled declaratory judgment actions stemming from the Penn Mutual and One Meridian Plaza fires in Philadelphia, where he took a leading role on all environmental matters. Throughout the subsequent decades, he has continued his work as a lead trial and appellate counsel protecting domestic and international insurers’ interests in significant environmental coverage disputes all across the United States.

Larry frequently contributes to the firm’s Global Insurance Services webinar series, presenting on emerging legal issues involving the insurance industry, and is a regular contributor to the firm’s Environmental Law Monitor blog.