Thierry V. Barkley concentrates his practice in insurance work including coverage opinions, declaratory relief, interpleaders, defense of bad faith litigation, and life, health, disability, and ERISA litigation.
Thierry obtained summary judgment authoring the economic loss doctrine for the City of Reno that was eventually adopted by the Court on rehearing in Calloway v. City of Reno, 116 Nev. 250, 993 P.2d 1259 (2000). He has defended several difficult bad faith cases including trying a first party bad faith disability insurance case where summary judgment was granted by the Nevada Fed. Dist. Court and affirmed by the Ninth Circuit (dismissal of bad faith and punitive damages) in McCalla v.Royal Maccabbees Life Ins. Co., 2001 WL 791721 (9 Cir. Nev. 2001); Defense verdict in a four-week bad faith case in Clark County [Nov. 2019] in Grammar v. CHA-Trust et al. and a $400K verdict against the TPA CHASSI settled out of court after Appeal.
Besides authoring hundreds of coverage opinions, Thierry has successfully handled declaratory relief actions. In Foremost Ins. v. Bowden, 2006 WL 1966745 (D. Nev. 2006) the Fed. Dist. Court granted summary judgment on statutory rescission in a first party fire loss action. In Federal Ins. Co.v. American Hardware Mut. Ins. Co. 184 P.3d 390 (Nev. 2008) the Nevada Supreme Court en banc decided a certified question from the Nev. Fed. Court and clarified the test for additional insurance endorsements and rejected the vicarious liability minority doctrine. Thierry has argued complex punitive damage cases before the Nevada Supreme Court including Granite Const. Co.v. Ryne, 107 Nev. 651, 817 P.2d 711 (1991). The Court in Countrywide v. Thitchener, 192 P.3d 242 (2008) eventually adopted Thierry’s earlier arguments that implied malice in law as a matter of common law punitive damages should be rejected and reversed Granite’s decisional implied malice in law standard.
Admissions
- Nevada
- U.S. District Court, District of Nevada
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Supreme Court
Memberships
- State Bar of Nevada
- Washoe County Bar Association
- Defense Research Institute
- Regional Editor for Covered Events
- State Liaison for the DRI Insurance Law subcommittee and the Lawyers & Professionalism committee
Community Involvement
- Resident of the Jaycees(Ely), Esteem Lecturing Knight for the Elks, and Past Grand Knight (2006) and Trustee for the Ponderosa Council 4928 Holy Cross Parish
- Sparks (2007) and District Secretary (2007-2008) for the Master of the Fourth Degree Nevada Dist. Junipero Serra Province.
- Knights of Columbus
Education
- J.D., California Western School of Law, 1979
- Associate Editor, California Western International Law Journal
- Director & Member, Phillip C. Jessup Moot Court Team
- B.A., University of California Los Angeles, 1976
Clerkships
- California 4th District Court of Appeals, 1979
- Nevada Seventh Judicial District Court, 1979-1981
Honors
- Top Rated Lawyer-AV® Preeminent™, Martindale-Hubbell
- Lawyers of Distinction Awardee, 2023
- Marquis Who’s Who, 2024
Languages
- French