John M. Wilson

• Argued and won before the California Supreme Court in Montrose Chem. Corp. v. Super. Ct. (2020), a seminal victory establishing policyholders’ right to “electively stack” multiple years of excess policies to insure against continuous loss claims. This win was ranked the Top Appellate Reversal of 2020 by the Daily Journal and resulted in John being named a Law360 Insurance MVP for the second time
• Argued and won before the California Supreme Court in Fluor Corp. v. Superior Court of Orange County, a landmark victory concerning assignment of insurance rights that overcame Court’s prior ruling in Henkel Corp. v. Hartford (2003). This win received recognition among the Daily Journal Top Verdicts of 2015, and resulted in John being named a Law360 Insurance MVP and earning Latham the award for Law360’s Insurance Group of the Year
• Lead counsel for multiple successful trials in Los Angeles Superior Court (Complex Division) on behalf of Montrose, seeking more than US$200 million in a multi-phase litigation against 25 excess insurers involving over US$200 million in environmental liabilities under historic CGL policies
• Co-chaired successful bench trial in US$100 million coverage case involving multiple cutting-edge issues of first impression, including determining the number of occurrences for thousands of underlying bodily injury claims, “completed operations” limits, assignments of interest between policyholders, and allocation issues
• As lead counsel for Cigna, obtained summary judgment in Delaware Superior Court, establishing coverage under managed care errors and omissions policies in case involving over US$150 million in legal fees and settlement payments relating to the delivery of healthcare services
• Lead counsel for Canadian Solar Inc. in successful trial in US District Court (N.D. Cal.) seeking recovery of US$70 million in product warranty losses insured under solar power contractual liability policies underwritten by multiple international insurers
• Co-chaired successful arbitration trial of a US$40 million dispute concerning insurance defense of mass tort claims and environmental enforcement actions, and related bad faith claims
• Argued and won multiple dispositive motions for GE in the successful resolution of a US$100 million bad faith and coverage litigation for environmental losses sustained by its subsidiary, United Nuclear Corporation
• Lead counsel in a successful seven-day bench trial in Los Angeles Superior Court to establish the existence of multiple lost policies, which doubled the potential insurance recovery against insurer in a case involving over US$200 million in environmental liabilities

John served as law clerk to Judge Cynthia Holcomb Hall of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.