Partner

James M. Altieri is a senior litigation partner at Drinker Biddle & Reath and chair of the firm’s nationally recognized insurance coverage practice. Jim is also a managing partner of the firm and chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.  His practice involves complex commercial litigation in courts throughout the country on behalf of clients in the financial services, insurance, pharmaceutical, entertainment, consumer products and related industries.  Jim joined the firm in 1985 after practicing at the law firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York.  He has been a member of the firm since 1988.
 
Since the beginning of his career in 1975, Jim has handled bench and jury trials in state and federal courts as well as matters proceeding through arbitration.  In addition to general corporate litigation matters, his practice focuses on insurance coverage litigation including issues arising out of directors and officers, fiduciary, casualty, property and errors and omission exposures.  Representative engagements include:

• National counsel to a global insurer in connection with the defense and resolution of all coverage claims arising out of childhood abuse claims against religious and other legally responsible entities;
  
  
• Lead counsel to a global insurer in connection with the defense and resolution of the single largest consolidated diocesan sexual abuse litigation in history (the Archdiocese of Los Angeles);
  
  
• Counsel to a multi-line insurer in connection with one of the largest FDA-induced national recalls in history;
  
  
• Defense through a jury verdict after a five-week trial of a bad faith, punitive damage case against a national insurer arising out of a multi-million dollar first-party property claim;
  
  

• Defense through jury verdicts of a Fortune 500 Company in wrongful death actions arising out of the crash of a corporate jet in New York. The case was tried before a jury for three months in the Southern District of New York;
  
  
• Defense through jury verdicts of several product liability cases against leading automobile manufacturers.  The cases were tried in state courts in New York;
  
  
• Successful defense of bad faith litigation against a national insurer arising out of alleged pre- and post-litigation claims administration in connection with underlying toxic tort class action litigation;
  
  
• Defense and award of summary judgment on behalf of a global fiduciary liability insurer in connection with a $70 million ERISA underlying class action;
  
  
• Defense of a national insurer in connection with comprehensive environmental coverage claims arising out of underlying private and governmental environmental cleanup initiatives;
  
  
• Representation of major pharmaceutical companies in the defense of product liability litigation and in the prosecution of claims involving counterfeit or diverted pharmaceutical or consumer health products;
  
  
• Representation of corporate clients in post-employment practice litigation including trade secret, misappropriation, theft of ideas and breach of confidentiality and non-solicitation agreement matters in state and federal courts in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey, including trial of a misappropriation and non-solicitation case in the District of Connecticut;
  
  
• Representation of an international, institutional money management and mutual fund firm in connection with governmental claims arising out of alleged late trading and market timing practices;
  
  
• Defense of major law firms in connection with malpractice actions against the firms;
  
  
• Defense of an international designer and manufacturer of industrial boilers and dryers in connection with a multi-million dollar claim for breach of contract commenced by a state entity in New Jersey; and
  
  
• Defense of a leading entertainment company in connection with claims arising out of screen and theatrical productions as well as losses arising out of the operation of theme parks.

Jim is a member of the American and New Jersey State Bar Associations, as well as the Associations of the Federal Bar and the Bar of the City of New York. He is admitted to the New York, New Jersey and Arizona Bars; the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York; the District of New Jersey and the District of Arizona; and the United Sates Courts of Appeal for the Second and Third Circuits.