Michael A. Kotula has 35 years of experience handling complex coverage litigation involving asbestos, environmental pollution, health hazards including opioids, lead paint and benzene, toxic tort, product liability, personal and advertising injury, construction accident and defect, sexual abuse, financial services and other insurance coverage claims.

Michael also counsels large institutions, businesses and property owners on effective risk transfer, leveraging insurance coverage and underlying liability insights. He drafts risk-transfer provisions in leases and other agreements and reviews insurance policies for compliance with risk-transfer requirements. He drafts insurance policy language for insurance companies and institutional clients. He counsels healthcare providers and drafts risk retention group insurance policies and endorsements.

Michael has qualified to serve as an expert witness on insurance coverage matters, and has testified at trial in New York and New Jersey.

After law school, Michael clerked for the Honorable Curtis von Kann, J.S.C., in the District of Columbia Superior Court, Civil Division, assisting with management of a caseload of numerous civil cases, researching and writing opinions and orders.

Michael wrote the chapter on “Environmental and Toxic Tort Coverage Issues” for New Appleman Law of Liability Insurance. He also wrote a chapter on “As Damages” for The Reference Handbook on the Commercial General Liability Policy, published in the 2023, 2014 and 2010 editions by the ABA’s Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.

A frequent speaker on insurance coverage issues, he has spoken at seminars for the American Bar Association, the Defense Research Institute, Practising Law Institute, Mealey’s, the New Jersey Institute for Continuing Legal Education and the New York Law Journal, as well as for national and international insurance and reinsurance companies. In addition, Michael is an editor of the ABA TIPS Law Journal, and a past chair of the Excess, Surplus Lines and Reinsurance General Committee of the ABA TIPS Section, and is active in offering CLE on complex coverage matters.

Court Admissions

U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Eastern, Western, and Northern Districts of New York, the District of New Jersey and the District of Columbia

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second, Third, and Fourth Circuits

Bar Affiliations

American Bar Association – Insurance Practice Section

Defense Research Institute

Education

George Washington University Law School, J.D. with Honors

Emory University, B.A.

News & Publications

• Rivkin Radler’s Insurance Practice Ascends in The Legal 500 Rankings
  June 11 | 2025
• 56 Rivkin Radler Attorneys Named 2024 New York Metro Super Lawyers®/Rising Stars
  October 24 | 2024
• The Legal 500 Recognizes Rivkin Radler’s Insurance Practice
  June 13 | 2024

Legal 500 recommends Michael in the Insurance: Advice to Insurers category. He has been recognized by Who’s Who Legal: Insurance & Reinsurance as a leading practitioner, among a select group of attorneys from around the world and was selected for inclusion in Who’s Who Legal Thought Leaders: USA. He has been named to Super Lawyers in Metro New York in Insurance Coverage and earned the AV Preeminent^TMrating from Martindale-Hubbell, its highest rating, for over 20 years.

Legal 500 recommends Rivkin Radler’s Insurance Coverage practice in the Insurance: Advice to Insurers category. The Insurance Coverage Practice Group is recognized in the Chambers USA directory in the Insurance: Dispute Resolution: Insurer category, and in Best Law Firms Metropolitan New York Tier 1 for Insurance Law.

Michael represented insurers in the CVS opioid coverage case, which resolved claims for over $6 billion in indemnity costs.  In re: CVS Opioid Insurance Litigation, — A.3d –, 2025 Del. LEXIS 316 (Del. 2025) (over 2,300 opioid lawsuits brought by state and local governments and third-party payors did not seek “damages because of bodily injury” or property damage).  The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed two decisions of the Superior Court awarding summary judgment to the insurers.  In re: CVS Opioid Insurance Litigation, 301 A.3d 1194 (Del. Super. Ct. New Castle Cty. Aug. 25, 2023); In re: CVS Opioid Insurance Litigation, C.A. No. N22C-02-045 PRW CCLD (Del. Super. Ct. New Castle Cty. August 20, 2024).

He secured judgment for an excess insurer that policies did not afford coverage for three large construction defect matters in the Tocci Building case in Massachusetts federal court, which was affirmed in the First Circuit.  Admiral Ins. Co. v. Tocci Bldg. Corp., 594 F. Supp. 3d 201 (D. Mass. 2022) (claims did not involve “property damage caused by an occurrence”), aff’d on other grounds, 120 F. 4th 933 (1st Cir. 2024) (claims were barred by exclusions j.5. and j.6.).

Michael represented insurers in the Sherwin-Williams lead paint public nuisance coverage case in Ohio, which involved over $100 million in indemnity costs.  Sherwin-Williams Co. v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London, 260 N.E.3d 380 (Ohio 2024) (payment by an insured to an abatement fund that was not to compensate for past harm but rather to eliminate future harm was not “damages” under the insurance policies).

He represented London insurers in the Stomley insurance coverage action over a well blowout and damages for total loss of well and cleanup costs, and a penalty for violations of law.  Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London v. Stomley Sales & Consulting, LLC, Index No. 651616/2021 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. N.Y. Cty. Sept. 22, 2023) (claim untimely under a claims-made and reported coverage, and coverage barred by several exclusions and insuring agreement terms under CGL coverage).

Michael won a decision in the North Carolina Supreme Court, in a case of first impression, adopting pro rata time-on-the-risk allocation for defense and indemnity costs, with allocation to the insured for uninsured periods, in a long-tail benzene health hazard and asbestos coverage case.  Radiator Specialty Co. v. Arrowood Indem. Co., 881 S.E.2d 597 (N.C. 2022).  The Court also held that excess policies did not follow form to noncumulation clauses in underlying insurance where the follow form clause contained an exception for terms relating to the amount and limits of liability. He had previously won summary judgment in the trial court that excess policies had no duty to defend or to pay or reimburse defense costs, and successfully tried the case in a bench trial to a no-pay final judgment for an insurer client. Radiator Specialty Co. v. Arrowood Indem. Co., Case No. 13 CVS 2271 (N.C. Super. Ct. Mecklenburg Cty. Feb. 22, 2019) (Final Judgment); Radiator Specialty Co. v. Arrowood Indem. Co., Case No. 13 CVS 2271 (N.C. Super. Mecklenburg Cty. 2016) (Orders on Allocation and Defense Costs).

He won decisions in the Ferguson Enterprises asbestos coverage case that an excess policy did not drop-down in place of an insolvent underlying policy. First State Ins. Co. v. American Home Assur. Co., 463 F. Supp. 3d 298 (D. Conn. 2020), aff’d sub nom. First State Ins. Co. v. Columbia Cas. Co., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 16655 (2d Cir. June 16, 2022).

Michael won decisions dismissing claims for defense and indemnity in the American Properties construction defect coverage case, involving underlying claims concerning 192 residential units in six buildings and common areas.  American Properties at Madison, LLC v. Interstate Fire & Cas. Co., 2021 N.J. Super. Unpub. LEXIS 1432 (N.J. Super. App. Div. July 13, 2021) (Pre-Existing Damage Exclusion and the EIFS Exclusion barred coverage under an insurer client’s primary policies issued to a developer/sponsor).

In the Carrier asbestos bodily injury coverage action, Michael won reversal of a trial court ruling that coverage is triggered by injury-in-fact as a matter of law from a claimant’s date of first exposure to asbestos, and affirmance of an award of summary judgment that excess policies had no duty to defend or to pay or reimburse defense costs for tens of thousands of asbestos claims. Carrier Corp. v. Allstate Ins. Co., 187 A.D.3d 1616, 133 N.Y.S.3d 697 (4th Dep’t 2020).

Michael won summary judgment and affirmance on appeal in the Sapa Extrusions product liability coverage action in Pennsylvania, concerning an underlying action that had sought over $100 million in past and future damages.  Sapa Extrusions, Inc. v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., Case No. 3:13-2827, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73162 (M.D. Pa. May 1, 2018), aff’d in relevant part, reversed in part, 939 F.3d 243 (3d Cir. 2019)  (there was no “occurrence” resulting in “property damage” triggering coverage).

In an action by a successive insurer for contribution for pollution cleanup costs for a gasoline release from an underground storage tank, Michael won decisions that an insurer client was provided late notice under several years of primary coverage. State of New York v. Flora, Index No. L61-13 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Albany Cty. 2017), aff’d, 173 A.D.3d 1402, 102 N.Y.S.3d 771 (3d Dep’t 2019), leave to appeal denied, 34 N.Y.3d 910, 119 N.Y.S.3d 73 (2020).

Michael successfully tried Amtrak’s Sunnyside Yard $30 million environmental contamination claim in a three-week jury trial in Brooklyn to a no-pay verdict for an insurer client in the Amtrak environmental contamination, health hazard and asbestos coverage action seeking over $179 million. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s, London v. National Passenger Railroad Corp., Case No. 1:14-cv-04717 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 27, 2017).

He won summary judgment in the Troy Belting asbestos coverage action in New York that a putative policyholder failed to meet its burden of proving the terms and conditions of 25 years’ worth of allegedly missing primary insurance policies. Pacific Employers Ins. Co. v. Troy Belting & Supply Co., Case No. 1:11-cv-912, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 134224 (N.D.N.Y. Sept. 29, 2016).

Michael won summary judgment in the Fairbanks asbestos bodily injury coverage case that Georgia law would adopt a pro-rata time-on-the-risk allocation of indemnity costs, and would hold the policyholder responsible for the orphan share attributed to an insolvent insurer, and that umbrella policies had no duty to pay defense or indemnity costs because of an asbestos exclusion. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Fairbanks Co., 170 F. Supp. 3d 634 (S.D.N.Y. 2016).

Michael won summary judgment that numerous excess policies had no duty to defend or to pay or reimburse defense costs for tens of thousands of black lung and asbestos claims in the Mine Safety action in Delaware. Mine Safety Appliances Co. v. AIU Ins. Co., 2014 Del. Super. LEXIS 49 (Del. Super. New Castle Cty. 2014).

He won decisions in the Ross Development environmental insurance coverage action in federal court in South Carolina, involving significant cleanup costs at a former manufacturing facility in Charleston.  Ross Dev. Corp. v. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co., 910 F. Supp. 2d 828 (D.S.C. 2012), aff’d, 526 Fed. Appx. 299 (4th Cir. 2013) (claims for defense and indemnity of RCRA contribution and fraudulent conveyance action under more than 20 years of primary CGL policies were barred by the “sudden and accidental” and absolute pollution exclusions).

Michael won summary judgment that excess policies had no duty to defend or to pay or reimburse defense costs for tens of thousands of asbestos claims in the IMO Industries asbestos coverage action in New Jersey. IMO Industries, Inc. v. Transamerica Corp., Docket No. L-2140-03 (N.J. Super. Ct. Mar. 20, 2008).

He counseled major insurance companies in connection with the W.R. Grace bankruptcy action, which involved massive asbestos liabilities.

Michael won decisions on trigger of coverage and allocation that environmental cleanup costs at two landfill sites did not reach the attachment points of umbrella policies of an insurer client in the Wolverine World Wide action in Michigan. Wolverine World Wide, Inc. v. OneBeacon Ins. Co., 2007 Mich. App. LEXIS 657 (Mich. App.), appeal denied, 2007 Mich. LEXIS 2846 (2007).

He successfully represented a insurers in the New Jersey Waste Management environmental insurance coverage action, involving claims for over $1 billion of insurance coverage at 134 polluted waste sites in 28 states and Canada. See, e.g., Waste Management, Inc. v. Admiral Ins. Co., Opinion Docket No. HUD -L-931-92 (N.J. Super. Hudson Cty. 1998, 2000) (granting summary judgment to Fireman’s Fund as to four alleged lost policies, and at five test sites on after-acquired and after-involved liability issues).

Michael served as counsel for an insurer client in a successful jury trial and a subsequent appeal in the ACC Chemical environmental insurance coverage action in Iowa, which sought over $100 million of insurance coverage, resulting in a no-pay judgment. Fireman’s Fund Ins. Co. v. ACC Chemical Co., 538 N.W.2d 259 (Iowa 1995) (holding late notice barred claims for coverage).