Industries
Insurance
Time and again, the nation's leading insurance companies hire Wheeler Trigg O'Donnell to defend first- and third-party claims that represent significant litigation priorities. From defending major class actions that involve an entire industry to defeating bad faith lawsuits that would set dangerous precedents nationwide, WTO lawyers have the experience, knowledge, and client-comes-first service philosophy to lighten the pressures facing adjusters and in-house attorneys.
WTO lawyers have extensive trial and appellate experience representing national commercial insurers and their insureds in high-stakes and high-profile disputes in federal and state courts and state supreme courts. For example, in 2016, Law360 named Travelers v. Stresscon, which WTO won for Travelers in the Colorado Supreme Court, one of the top five insurance cases of the year.
Class Actions
WTO is home to one of the premier class action defense practices in the nation. Six WTO attorneys have tried seven certified class action trials to juries, obtaining defense verdicts and favorable mid-trial settlements. Our teams have defeated certification and obtained dismissals of class action matters more than 175 times, and we have litigated class actions in 33 states. Insurers such as Allstate, AXIS, Farmers, and USAA have turned to WTO for the defense of class action litigation and trials.
Cases
- Won a defense victory on appeal in a multimillion dollar insurance and construction defect dispute, overturning an adverse jury verdict, winning judgment on the most significant portion of the claim, and receiving a complete retrial on all other issues.
- Won on an issue of first impression before the Colorado Court of Appeals for an insurance company. The published opinion states that administrative determinations in workers' compensation proceedings do not have preclusive effect in subsequent bad faith cases, protects the efficiency of administrative proceedings, and preserves employers' ability to present complete defenses at trial.
- Won a favorable result for a multinational insurance company accused of insurance bad faith, intentional interference with a contract, and bid rigging and price fixing in violation of the Colorado Antitrust Act.
- Won a complete defense judgment for an errors and omissions insurer that was sued for bad faith by an engineering firm. WTO attorneys proved that the policyholder did not comply with all of its policy obligations.
- Won dismissal of a putative class action involving several thousand medically-fragile children asserting claims against a New Mexico health plan.
Attorneys

