Celestine Montague

Celestine Montague is a Principal in the firm's Insurance Law Department. She counsels and defends regional and large, multi-line insurance carriers in first- and third-party insurance coverage and bad faith matters. This includes crime; cyber, media, and technology; directors and officers (D&O), financial lines, and errors and omissions (E&O); professional liability; and commercial general liability. She has served as Coordinating Counsel for a national multi-line insurer, and provides guidance on preventing, handling, and defending extra-contractual claims in jurisdictions throughout the United States.

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• Negotiated coverage disputes among multiple carriers, policyholders, brokers, and claimants, involving various issues, including indemnification provisions, additional insured agreements, and competing other insurance provisions.
• Represented carriers in litigation involving claims-made and reported issues, underwriting history, the formation and reformation of contracts, changes in coverage positions, asset purchase agreements, reinsurance agreements, claims servicing agreements, professional services exclusions, interrelated wrongful acts provisions and prior act exclusions, Insured status, and bump-up provisions.
• Represented insurers at the coverage review stage vis-à-vis the potential for coverage under multiple coverage part policies, providing coverage opinions, recommendations, and coverage position letters.
• Reviewed the potential for coverage under policies issued to individuals, businesses, housing associations, religious and cultural organizations, tribal entities, governmental units, and political subdivisions.
• Advised and represented clients on the duty to defend and independent counsel; an insurer’s duty to advance; an insurer’s right to reimbursement; the allocation of defense costs among insurers and policyholders; the effect of exhaustion provisions, deductibles, and self-insured retentions; an insurer’s rights and obligations to intervene in underlying actions to interject special verdict forms and/or special interrogatories; and the need to consider bonding/surety issues.
• Advised clients regarding various statutes and regulations, including state claims-handling statutes, the False Claims Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Employment Retirement and Income Security Act (ERISA), the Federal Tort Claims Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, Pennsylvania Wage Payment and Collections Law, and the Whistleblower Protection Act.