Husch Blackwell is pleased to announce that partner Jason Fathallah has been named to The American Lawyer’s 2022 list of Midwest Trailblazers.
Based in Husch Blackwell’s Milwaukee office, Fathallah is a litigator in the firm’s Financial Services & Capital Markets group and routinely serves as national litigation counsel for major companies in a variety of industries, with a particular focus in the insurance world.
Fathallah was recognized for his unique and creative approach to defending insurers against numerous COVID-19-related business-interruption class actions and individual lawsuits, where policyholders sought significant damages.
Understanding the need for a dynamic and multi-faceted defense strategy in the face of an unprecedented number of lawsuits alleging novel legal theories, Fathallah assembled a roster of world-renowned infectious-disease experts to advise on the rapidly evolving scientific issues, and his team began trial planning before the first of multiple class actions was even filed. This allowed the team to defend the litigation aggressively, resulting in dismissals in all but one class action, which remains pending—although Seventh Circuit precedent recently established by Fathallah’s team will soon end that case as well. The team’s successes included obtaining dismissal of numerous nationwide class actions involving claims under unique coverage provisions for which no legal precedent existed prior to the pandemic.
The Trailblazer series spotlights a handful of individuals from different practice areas who are “truly agents of change,” with a goal of recognizing professionals in the Midwest who have “moved the needle in the legal industry.”