Dirk W. de Roos is a partner in the Faegre Baker Daniels Denver office. For three decades, he has counseled clients on insurance coverage and risk management issues and has litigated nationally on insurance coverage issues and in claims handling disputes.

Dirk has substantial experience representing parties in all phases of the insurance process. He provides counseling and litigation on a wide range of complex insurance issues including the following:

Commercial General Liability Policies. Dirk serves as exclusive national coverage counsel for a captive insurance company under its general liability policy.

Specialty Lines. Dirk's experience includes everything from "A to Z"—from insurance for Arabian horses to coverage for a zoo, mass media and marketing, sporting events, nonprofit public exhibitions, art shows and aircraft insurance. Dirk has also represented insurers before the Colorado Division of Insurance, including successful defense of an insurer in an investigation of credit insurance practices.

Errors and Omissions. Dirk has broad experience in errors and omissions, particularly with fiduciary and administrative error claims and ERISA fiduciary claims.

Directors and Officers Liability Policies. Dirk has experience both as counsel selected to defend such claims, as well as resolution of coverage and claims handling disputes under D&O policies.

XS/Umbrella/Surplus Lines Coverage. Dirk's experience lies principally in the areas of allocation and claims handling disputes.

Employment Practice Liability Policies. Dirk is not only a seasoned employment defense litigator. He has also routinely handled coverage issues and claims disputes including sexual harassment, discrimination, terminations in violation of public policy and policy exclusions dealing with employment-related acts.

He also deals with insurance issues underlying various types of employee benefit plans such as employer group health plans, long-term disability plans, and the interplay between private and governmental insurance and coordination of benefits issues.

Dirk has extensive experience in state and federal court at the trial and appellate levels, including the following:

• Summary judgment victory on duty to defend for a corporate client requiring an insurance company to provide a defense on putative class action claims alleging a class membership of more than 61,000 members.
• Won summary judgment on insurance plan coverage issues for an employer against claims for $5 million arising from alleged wrongful termination and denial of medical benefits coverage under an employer group health plan.
• Obtained summary judgment for an insurance company client in a bad faith action arising under an E&O policy in a claim by the insured's former employee that his termination and subsequent loss of medical benefits under an employer group health plan was based upon an error in enforcement of insurance plan provisions.
• Successfully defended a nonprofit board in six related multiplaintiff cases seeking to enforce rights under E&O policies arising from acts of a negligent insurance plan administrator retained by the board.
• Summary judgment against an insurance company for breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful denial of pension plan benefits to a terminally ill former employee. This case arises out of Dirk's role as national monitoring counsel on claims by a major medical service provider for collections under both COBRA claims and other payment sources.

Honors

• Super Lawyers — Civil Litigation Defense, 2007; Employment Litigation, 2006 
• Go-To Lawyer for Civil Litigation Defense — Super Lawyers (Corporate Counsel Edition), 2008
• American Bankruptcy Institute Distinguished Service Award
• Outstanding Lawyers of America — since 2003
• Best of the Bar — Nominated for Insurance Law, 2004

Professional Associations

• American Arbitration Association
• American Bankruptcy Institute
• Association of American Business and Insurance Attorneys
• Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel
• International Asset Recovery Team
• Society of Insurance Receivers
• The Defense Research Institute

Presentations

Dirk is a frequent speaker on a variety of insurance, litigation and related topics for organizations such as the Colorado Bar Association, the Denver County Bar Association, the National Center for Continuing Legal Education, the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel and the American Bankruptcy Institute. Presentations on insurance topics include the following:

• Employment Law Update
  Colorado Hospital Association Health Care Regulatory Update (2010) 
• Enforcing or Invalidating Class Arbitration Waivers
  Legal Trends and Best Practices in Class Arbitration, Colorado Bar Association CLE (2008)
• Current Issues: Insurance Problems in Litigation and Bankruptcy
  X/S Surplus Lines Association Annual Convention, Naples, FL 
• Economic Crime, Insurance and Civil Recovery Under the American System
  10th Annual Cambridge Symposium: International Legal Issues, Cambridge, England
• Insurance Insolvency Issues
  American Bankruptcy Institution, Winter Leadership Conference, Phoenix, AZ

Legal Updates

• Legal Trends and Best Practices in Class Arbitration
  The Colorado Lawyer (2011)
• Three New Laws Aim to "Rein in Health Insurance"
  Faegre.com (2008)
• Further Regulation Not the Answer to Mortgage Problem
  The Denver Post (2008)
• Weathering the Economic Downturn Successfully
  Denver Business Journal (2008)
• Current Issues in Insurance Law
  Aspatore Publishers/Thomson Business Publishing (2008)
• Insurance Defense Strategies
  Successfully Defending Insurance Litigation, Aspatore Books (2007)
• "Looking Down a Rocky Road", Winning Legal Strategies for Insurance Law
  Aspatore Inc. Publishers (2006)
• Risk Management/Managing ERISA Risks; Some Thoughts on Limiting Liability
  TRENDS (2006)
• Insurance and Tort Desk Reference Handbook
  Couch on Insurance
• Advertising Injury
  Insurance and Liability Reporter
• The Dangers of Conventional Wisdom
  Excess/Surplus Lines Claims Association
• Editorial Board
  Insurance and Liability Reporter
• Editorial Board
  Municipal Liability Reporter