Robin Cohen Profiled by Law360 in its

Robin is a seasoned trial lawyer who has secured more than $5 billion in insurance assets for a “who’s who” list of top corporations. She leads an elite group of 35 trial lawyers across offices in New York, Texas and California who have built an impressive record of litigating and trying many of the nation’s largest insurance recovery cases.

In a feature profile in Law360, Robin stresses how important it is for young lawyers, especially women, to find ways to distinguish themselves and their practice. “Figure out what makes you tick…and how you can differentiate yourself from the pack,” she explains. Robin notes that her practice is most distinguished by its courtroom prowess, which helps influence early settlements and case resolutions. “We love going the distance, including trying cases. When we represent Fortune 50 companies and we actually file lawsuits — most of those lawsuits that involve tens of millions, if not hundreds of millions — get resolved very quickly.”

Earlier this year, Robin served as lead counsel for the Associated Press (AP) when the company’s insurers declined coverage after the Second Circuit ruled that an underlying suit could continue past the motion to dismiss stage, exposing AP to substantial liability. Shortly after filing suit, Robin secured “significant payments” from all of the insurers in support of the settlement of the underlying action.

• Robin also served as lead counsel for Pfizer in securing a critical Delaware Superior Court decision which granted Pfizer’s motion for partial summary judgment and held that excess carriers Arch and U.S. Specialty cannot invoke certain specific exclusions in their policies to deny coverage for Pfizer’s costs of settling an underlying shareholder dispute. The decision allows Pfizer to continue pursuing recovery of its costs to defend and settle multidistrict litigation.

This achievement followed a December 2018 decision that Robin obtained before the Delaware Superior Court as lead counsel for AR Capital. Here, the Court ordered that insurers must pay in excess of $70 million to cover costs that the company incurred to defend and resolve underlying securities matters.

Robin is perennially recognized as a leading insurance litigator by all the major legal directories and industry publications. She has been named one of the “Top 100 Trial Lawyers” and “Insurance Lawyer of the Year” by Benchmark Litigation. She is ranked in Band 1 (highest rating) both nationally and in New York for corporate policyholder insurance disputes by Chambers USA. Robin has also been recognized as a “Plaintiff Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal based on her track record of success for corporate policyholders.

With 165 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, and Washington, D.C., McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. Since 2006, the firm has secured 11 nine-figure jury verdicts and 13 eight-figure jury verdicts. The firm has also won more VerdictSearch and The National Law Journal “Top 100 Verdicts” over the last 10 years than any other law firm in the country. Courtroom successes like these have earned McKool Smith critical acclaim and helped the firm become what The Wall Street Journal describes as “one of the biggest law firm success stories of the past decade.” McKool Smith represents clients in complex commercial litigation, insurance coverage, intellectual property, bankruptcy, and white collar defense matters.