Minneapolis Partner Suzanne Jones and Senior Counsel Luke Wolf obtained dismissal of a law firm’s claim that Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani's insurer client owed it a duty to defend under a legal malpractice policy against an arbitration seeking over $3 million.
The underlying arbitration against the insured asserted several claims, all of which arose out of the insured’s alleged breaches of litigation funding agreements. GRSM filed a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss, asserting several coverage defenses under the professional liability policy. In granting the motion, the court concluded that the arbitration did not allege a “wrongful act” as required to fall within the policy’s insuring agreement, such that GRSM’s insurer client owed no duty to defend.