Calfee’s Insurance Recovery lawyers serve corporate insurance policyholder clients in Ohio and nationwide. For nearly 40 years, the team has helped clients secure money from their insurance companies to cover their losses and liabilities. The group's core values of creativity, focusing on the issues that matter, and attentiveness to clients guide insurance recovery efforts in discerning the path of least resistance to maximize insurance dollars.
The group's mission is to find and secure the most insurance dollars to cover clients’ losses and liabilities. Calfee gets money for clients from their insurers for first-party losses, liabilities to third parties, and the cost of defending against third-party claims.
Calfee's insurance recovery services include identifying insurance assets to provide coverage, developing and presenting coverage claims to insurance companies, negotiating resolutions to insurance coverage disputes both directly and through mediation, and litigating against insurance companies in state and federal courts nationwide and in alternative dispute resolution forums such as arbitration.
Insurance coverage law is a labyrinthine world unto itself. Having been deeply immersed in this craft, Calfee's attorneys possess specialized knowledge of and experience with most forms of insurance, as well as the nuances of the sometimes perplexing laws, language, procedures, and customs surrounding insurance coverage claims.
Calfee's Insurance Recovery team members routinely face the maneuvers used by insurers that typically give them the upper hand when dealing with a policyholder who lacks coverage counsel, and the team is steeped in the tools available to anticipate, respond to, and neutralize those efforts and shift the balance in the policyholder’s favor.
Insurance Coverage Partners James Sullivan and Matt Chiricosta and Senior Counsel Jodi Spencer are three of only 21 lawyers in the state of Ohio certified as Insurance Coverage Law Specialists by the Ohio State Bar Association.
Calfee has been recognized as a Leading Law Firm for Insurance: Policyholder by Chambers USA, most recently in Band 1 in Ohio (2025).
Calfee is one of only three law firms ranked in this practice in the state. Chambers USA commentators note that "The team boasts an impressive reputation with decades of experience in policyholder insurance representation. Calfee is well known for its capabilities in risk mitigation and cost recovery strategies and provides representation in all aspects of insurance coverage policy disputes, including those surrounding M&A transactions. The firm has an impressive roster of clients that includes those in the academic, healthcare, and manufacturing sectors."
Clients interviewed by Chambers USA researchers said, "The Calfee team is proactive in communication, problem-solving, idea generation, and general advisory input. The attorneys have exceptional communication skills; they have promptly answered my questions and explained legal intricacies in a way that was easy to understand. One of the main reasons we use Calfee is because it has such great knowledge of our company. They are my go-to firm and reasonably priced. They are good about making strong, practical recommendations. They're extremely knowledgeable. The team is creative in devising solutions to coverage problems that don't begin with antagonistic litigation. The Calfee lawyers have been outstanding, professional, and articulate in resisting the denial of coverage. They are the best outside counsel I have ever used."
Calfee was selected for inclusion in the 2026 "Best Law Firms" rankings in the following areas:
Calfee was selected for inclusion by Benchmark Litigation 2026 as a Highly Recommended Law Firm in Dispute Resolution in Ohio. Additionally, 15 of Calfee's Litigation partners have been ranked by Benchmark Litigation as "Litigation Stars" in the U.S. (National), Midwest, and Ohio and as “40 & Under" and "Future Stars" Honorees.
Experienced with most types of insurance policies, our Insurance Recovery attorneys have helped our clients secure insurance coverage totaling hundreds of millions of dollars for many kinds of losses and liabilities, including:
We represent public and private companies, private equity funds, captive insurance programs, and individual policyholders in evaluating and maximizing insurance coverage and in handling insurance disputes ranging in magnitude from thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Our approach to recovering money from insurance companies involves working closely with our clients’ chief financial officers, corporate risk managers, in-house counsel, outside defense counsel, and insurance brokers.
"Calfee's Insurance team is creative in devising solutions to coverage problems that don't begin with antagonistic litigation. The Calfee lawyers have been outstanding, professional, and articulate in resisting the denial of coverage."
Client quote, Chambers USA
