Biography

Mr. Cancio focuses his practice on counseling domestic and international insurers, London Market Insurers, and Bermudian insurers and representing insurers in complex insurance coverage litigation in state and federal courts, arbitrations, and mediations, involving a wide range of issues, including, construction defects, product liability, environmental liability, asbestos and toxic torts, religious institutions liability (including clergy sexual abuse), public entity liability (including civil rights violations and law enforcement misconduct), copyright infringement and unfair competition, false advertising, intellectual property, antitrust, class actions, consumer fraud, securities fraud, healthcare, and bad faith.

Mr. Cancio has experience with a wide range of occurrence and claims-made policies at the primary, umbrella, and excess levels, including, Commercial General Liability, Directors and Officers, Employment Practices Liability, Errors and Omissions, First-Party Property, Auto, Healthcare, and Builder’s Risk.

Mr. Cancio’s representative matters include:

• Represent London Market Insurers in coverage litigation in federal court involving hundreds of claims against religious institutions for alleged childhood sexual abuse and fraud.
• Represent international insurers in coverage litigation involving claims against cities, municipalities, police officers, and other state officials over alleged police brutality and constitutional rights violations, including false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.
• Represent Bermudian insurer in arbitration pursuant to the London Arbitration Act involving claims made against major international agricultural and chemical company for bodily injury, property damage, and environmental contamination caused by chemical product.
• Represent Bermudian insurer in litigation involving claims for bodily injury, property damage, environmental contamination, and business interruption against oil pipeline owner and operator resulting from oil pipeline spill.
• Represent and represented domestic and Bermudian insurers in multiple matters involving allegations of construction defect (including Chinese Drywall) and bad faith against owners and developers in California and Illinois.
• Represent Bermudian insurer in professional liability claim made against healthcare company in Arizona.
• Represented international insurer in complex coverage litigation involving D&O policy and allegations of bad faith; obtained summary judgment ruling of no bad faith, which eliminated client’s exposure to over $20 million in damages.
• Represented insurer in complex construction defect coverage litigation in Florida involving the construction of a high end golf course.
• Represented insurer with exposure over $265 million in coverage litigation in the US and litigation in Latin America over class action lawsuits filed against international fruit company alleging intentional support of terrorist organizations and violation of international human rights.
• Represented insurer with exposure in excess of $70 million in complex coverage litigation over MDL class action suits filed by the Federal Trade Commission, State Governments, and individuals against pharmaceutical company alleging price fixing fraud of generic drugs and Medicaid and Medicare fraud for manipulating drugs’ average wholesale price.
• Represented insurer with exposure of over $75 million to victory in the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in coverage litigation involving multiple class action suits alleging fraud in marketing and pricing of a synthetic thyroid drug.

Publications & Presentations 

• Presented: “Risk Exposures Faced By Public Entity Pools,” presented at the ABA’s 21st Annual Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Mid-Year Program, Phoenix, Arizona (February 14, 2013).
• Author: “Supreme Court of Georgia Allows Recovery of Damages for Diminution of Value Under Real Property Policy,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Blog (June 2012).
• Author: “Fifth Circuit: Driving in Violation of Criminal Plea Is Not an "Occurrence" Under Texas Law,” Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Update (March 2012).
• Co-presented: “Construction Defect Coverage Litigation – Where Are We Now and What's Next? An overview, recent developments, and "green" buildings,” Sedgwick’s Chicago Seminar Series (October 5, 2011).
• Author: "Insurer Has Duty to Defend Sexual Abuse Claims Where Negligence of Partner Is Alleged," Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Update (March 2011).
• Author: "Exhaustion by Actual Payment Is Required to Trigger Excess D&O Policies," Sedgwick’s Insurance Law Update (July 2010).
• Co-author: "Divide or Conquer? A Primer on Allocation Between Covered and Uncovered Claims and Insured and Uninsured Parties" course materials, American Bar Association’s Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee CLE Seminar (March 2007). 
• Co-author: "Toxic Tort and Environmental Law Section Case Law Update" meeting materials, The Federation of defense & Corporate Counsel, Winter Meeting (March 2005).

Memberships & Honors

He is a member of the American Bar Association (Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section), the Chicago Bar Association and the Hispanic National Bar Association. He is a member of the Loyola University Chicago School of Law Dean’s Diversity Advisory Council and served in the Associate Board of the Chicago Committee on Minorities in Large Law Firms from 2007-2012. In 2010, Law & Politics, the publisher of Super Lawyers Magazine named him an “Illinois Rising Stars 2010” in Insurance Coverage, an honor awarded to only 2.5 percent of lawyers in Illinois.

Other Distinctions/Languages