Kimberly A. Cereijo

Kim represents insurers in complex professional liability matters in myriad industries. She offers a breadth of experience, routinely advising insurers on issues of insurance coverage and underlying liability exposure in connection with claims against lawyers, health care institutions and providers, architects, engineers, insurance agents, and real estate agents and brokers. Kim serves as coverage and monitoring counsel, and litigates coverage issues nationwide. Kim also serves as defense counsel for professionals in high-exposure professional liability claims.

Representative Matters

• Helped to secure a favorable outcome in June 2016 in a jury trial relating to rescission of an accountants’ policy. Cont’l Cas. Co. v. Marshall Granger & Co., 921 F. Supp. 2d 111 (S.D.N.Y. 2013), 6 F. Supp. 3d 380 (S.D.N.Y. 2014). The Second Circuit affirmed the judgment for the insurer. Cont’l Cas. Co. v. Marshall Granger & Co., No. 16-2384, 2017 WL 2416902 (2d Cir. June 5, 2017).
• Set important Fourth Circuit precedent regarding the operation of so-called “innocent insured” provisions in a case holding that a professional liability policy’s innocent insured provision did not save coverage where the policy’s prior knowledge condition to coverage had not been satisfied. Bryan Bros., Inc. v. Cont’l Cas. Co., 660 F.3d 827 (4th Cir. 2011) and 704 F. Supp. 2d 537 (E.D. Va. 2010). Cont’l Cas. Co. v. Battery Wealth, 474 F. App’x 898 (4th Cir. 2012).
• Obtained summary judgment for her client in a case addressing the critical issue of the scope of insured “professional services” under an accountants professional liability policy. Navigators Ins. Co. v. Hamlin, No. 6:14-cv-196-MC, 2015 WL 1084825 (D. Or. Mar. 10, 2015).
• Achieved a significant favorable decision from the Fifth Circuit clarifying the line between when an insurer can control the defense of a case and when an insured must have independent counsel. Coats, Rose, Yale, Ryman & Lee, P.C. v. Navigators Specialty Ins. Co., 489 F. App’x 769 (5th Cir. 2012).
• Managed a portfolio-wide project for an insurance client regarding review and audit of more than 1,000 health care claims.
• Advised an insurance client on a potential multimillion-dollar global A&E exposure.
• Assisted in the defense of a prominent District of Columbia lawyer in a closely watched legal malpractice case brought by a Nobel Prize laureate, obtaining a defense jury verdict following a nine-day trial (2011).
• Negotiated a confidential favorable resolution of a claim against a real estate professional and related coverage litigation.
• Served as lead counsel in a confidential arbitration involving insurance coverage and allocation issues.

Affiliations

• American Bar Association (ABA)
  • ABA Section of Litigation
  • ABA Standing Committee on Lawyers’ Professional Liability
• Maryland Bar Association
• Professional Liability Underwriting Society
• Defense Research Institute

Recognitions

• Named to Law360’s Insurance Authority Editorial Advisory Board (2018, 2024)
• Received a Business Insurance magazine “Break Out” Award (2017)
• Named one of DC’s “Super Lawyers” (2016-2020) and “Rising Stars” (2014-2015) for Insurance Coverage by Super Lawyers magazine
• Named by The Legal 500 US a “recommended lawyer” in Insurance Law (2015, 2018)
• Included in The Best Lawyers of America directory for Insurance Law (2024-2025)