Biography

Mr. Mandel focuses his practice advising insurers in complex commercial insurance coverage disputes and litigation. These disputes typically involve losses ranging anywhere between millions and billions of dollars, and concern primary, excess, and/or umbrella coverage for property and casualty liabilities, construction defects, aviation liabilities, directors and officers liabilities, financial institution and fidelity liabilities, professional liability matters, and workers’ compensation liabilities. He has represented clients in federal court, state court, and arbitration.

Cases in which Mr. Mandel has been involved include:

• Defending an insurer in an approximately $100 million healthcare liability insurance coverage dispute concerning whether an umbrella policy became primary coverage upon the exhaustion of a fully-fronted and fully-funded primary policy.
  
• Representing insurers that issued third-party liability insurance policies as part of the owner controlled insurance program for one of the largest and most expensive private real estate developments in United States history in connection with disputes over coverage for alleged construction defects.
  
• Representing the insurer of a global hospitality company in a dispute over the availability of insurance coverage for millions of dollars of losses arising out of an airplane crash.
  
• Defending a professional liability insurer regarding coverage for claims made against a prominent global law firm arising out of the activities of a United States government lobbyist.
  
• Representing an insurer that provided approximately $150 million of coverage in excess of an employer’s self-insured workers’ compensation liabilities in a class action litigation regarding the availability of coverage for decades’ worth of alleged workers’ compensation violations.
  
• Defending a leading global engineering firm against a $35 million lawsuit arising out of the largest retaining wall collapse in New York City history.

Publications

• “Know Your Risks before Going Green in Construction,” Law360 (May 16, 2013; co-authored with Stevi A. Raab)
  
• “First Circuit Permits Insurer to Retain Policy Premiums Despite Rescission," Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog (May 15, 2013)
  
• “In Defective Construction an “Occurrence”? The Answer Isn’t So Concrete," Insurance Coverage Law Report (May 1, 2013)
  
• “Insurance Coverage Issues for Green-Related Building Projects,” Sedgwick’s Construction Defect Quarterly (April 26, 2013)
  
• “Limiting An Insured’s Right To Independent Counsel,” Law360 (July 17, 2012)
  
• “Theoretical Allegations of Property Damage Do Not Trigger the Duty to Defend,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Update (October 2010)
  
• "Guilty Plea to Specific Intent Crime Does Not Prove That Insured Acted Intentionally," Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Update (November 2007)

Activities, Memberships, and Accomplishments

During law school, Mr. Mandel was a summer clerk for the Honorable Clarence C. Newcomer of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and served as an intern with the National Labor Relations Board (Region 29).

He is a member of both Phi Beta Kappa, and the Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania.