Nancy Sher Cohen

Career

Nancy Sher Cohen leads Lathrop GPM's Insurance Recovery & Counseling practice team, is the Partner in Charge of the firm's Los Angeles office and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee. She practices in the area of insurance coverage, product liability, toxic & mass tort, class actions, and general commercial litigation. Her insurance practice includes prosecuting insurance coverage cases, providing counsel to clients with regard to designing insurance coverage strategies, conducting policy review, advising on policy implications resulting from a merger or acquisition, and other insurance related issues. She also handles complex business litigation, including Superfund, cost recovery and contractual litigation.

Nancy has been lead counsel in the prosecution of many insurance coverage lawsuits related to life insurance claims and environmental and product liabilities, resulting in recoveries in excess of $1.5 billion. Her extensive insurance coverage practice has included first-party claims involving business interruption, third-party claims involving reimbursement for environmental liabilities and prosecution of claims by Holocaust survivors against insurance carriers that failed to pay life insurance benefits. She was lead counsel for the lender on the World Trade Center in prosecuting claims for insurance coverage for the towers. She is also trial counsel for an international bank on prosecuting coverage claims involving life insurance policies. Nancy also advised on insurance issues related to Los Angeles' successful bid for the 2028 Summer Olympics. Nancy is also lead counsel in complex environmental litigation including cost recovery litigation in connection with a Southern California Superfund Site.

In addition, Nancy has extensive experience, including pre-trial and trial, in state and federal courts handling mass tort and complex multijurisdiction tort actions and as lead counsel in toxic tort cases. She has represented aerospace companies and chemical suppliers in actions brought by individuals for personal injuries allegedly resulting from exposure to toxic chemicals in the workplace. She has also represented a consumer electronics company in class action litigation nationwide.

Nancy advises, counsels and litigates cases for biotechnology companies in product liability and insurance matters arising from clinical trials of investigational new drugs.

She also has represented talent in entertainment litigation, including representation of Clint Eastwood in the trial of Locke v. Eastwood and David E. Kelley in copyright litigation.

Her clients have included Fortune 500 and similar companies such as Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., Aerojet, Alpha Therapeutic, ARCO, Arconic, BP, GMAC Commercial Mortgage, Heinz, Capmark, McDonald's, PinnOak Resources, Sony Electronics, Inc., Block Real Estate Services, Mitsubishi Chemical, and Meggitt Corporation.

Nancy has been named in 2022 one of the Top 100 Attorneys in Los Angeles by the Los Angeles Business Journal. Nancy has been listed as a leading insurance coverage attorney in Chambers USA since the ranking's inception in 2003. In the 2022 Chambers & Partners California Insurance: Policyholder category individual rankings, Nancy received praise for her handling of high-profile disputes, including the following: "Nancy delivers well-informed counsel, ensuring that critical concerns are not overlooked or underemphasized." "She is very practical and solution-oriented." "She has done an outstanding job of managing difficult litigation." In 2017, she was named to The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame list. In 2021, National Law Journal named her as an "Insurance Law Trailblazer". She is frequently featured in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, which has named her one of the top women litigators and most influential lawyers in California. Nancy also has been featured in numerous articles in the legal and business press, including The Recorder, California Law Business, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and San Francisco Examiner. In 2017, for the fourth consecutive year, Nancy was named a National and Local "Litigation Star" by Benchmark Litigation. She was also named to the publication’s "Top 10 Insurance Stars in the U.S." list.

She was Deputy General Counsel for the Rampart Independent Review Panel, which was charged by the Los Angeles Police Commission with performing a review of the Los Angeles Police Department, and was the Deputy General Counsel for the Los Angeles County Citizens' Commission on Jail Violence.

A dedicated community leader, Nancy currently serves on the board of directors or as an active member of the following organizations: Jewish Federation (2015-present); President, Valley Beth Shalom (2014 – 2016); Loyola Law School Board of Overseers (Board Member, 2000-2017); California Women’s Law Center (1999-2005); Chancery Club (1997-present); Bet Tzedek Legal Services (former President, 1998). Nancy is an accomplished trial lawyer and is a Fellow (2006-present) and Member of the Board of Directors (2019-present) of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and a Senior Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America.