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Environmental Insurance

Environmental risks, whether from historical contamination, ongoing operations, or unforeseen incidents, represent significant financial exposures for businesses. Greenbaum has broad-based experience in reviewing, analyzing, negotiating and consummating environmental insurance policies that were developed by insurers specifically to address environmental risks in both transactional and operational settings by providing certain types of insurance for pollution legal liability and, in some circumstances, cleanup cost overruns. These specialized policies are designed to cover risks that are typically excluded from standard commercial general liability (CGL) policies, which often contain broad pollution exclusions. Our extensive experience in the nuanced field of environmental insurance on behalf of developers, manufacturers, contractors and other clients encompasses policies written in connection with multi-million-dollar environmental cleanups, brownfield and other high-stakes development and redevelopment projects, as well as long-term groundwater remediations and other complex cleanups.

We provide guidance related to the complex array of environmental insurance products available in the market, which includes pollution and/or remediation legal liability insurance, integrated commercial general liability with pollution liability insurance, cleanup cost cap (or stop loss or cost containment) insurance, lender environmental protection insurance, and contractor's pollution liability insurance. Specific endorsements or standalone policies are available to address common indoor environmental contaminants such as mold, lead and asbestos. Miscellaneous specialized environmental risk coverage, such as products liability, financial assurances for underground storage tanks and landfills, coverage for specific transactional risks, environmental infrastructure projects and coverage for specific types of industries, such as automobile dealers, marinas, agricultural, healthcare, renewable energy, power generation, higher education, hospitality, municipalities and cities, may also be available.  

We work closely with clients and brokers to negotiate policy terms, conditions, exclusions, and endorsements that are specifically tailored to the client's unique risk profile and transactional needs. Should an environmental incident occur, or a claim be made, we support clients throughout the negotiation and settlement of claims. We have also spearheaded many successful claims against insurers for environmental remediation cost liability under the older general liability policies. Our emphasis on resolution of these claims through negotiated settlements has resulted in numerous settlements through which our clients have recouped millions of dollars in cleanup and associated costs.