Pamela A. Bower

Pamela A. Bower represents policyholders in insurance recovery, coverage and bad faith matters under directors and officers’ liability policies, employment practices liability policies, errors and omissions policies, general liability policies, umbrella and excess policies, and other business and personal lines insurance policies. Her insurance practice extends to all phases of negotiation and litigation, including mediation, arbitration, trial and appeal.

Ms. Bower’s recent verdicts/results include:

• Franjo Vernic DBA SF Rehabitat v. Lincoln General Insurance Company, In Liquidation, Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania No. 4 LIN 2017, decided 12/3/2020.  Obtained Commonwealth Court’s order affirming reversal of insurance Liquidator’s notice of determination of claim value of $0 and confirming an award of the full claim amount of the $1,000,000 policy limit, plus defense fees and costs.
• Confidential/Doe Insurance Company. Obtained payment for fire victims of both the full occurrence (bodily injury) liability limit and the full personal injury (habitability) liability limit in light of both injury and habitability complaints, against fire insurer who argued for payment of single occurrence liability limit only.
• Confidential/Doe Life Insurance Company. On behalf of insured organization and the heirs of its deceased employee, obtained contract exception and effective reversal of life insurer’s denial of life insurance coverage based upon clerical error omitting deceased employee from list of insured employees, for full payment of insured amounts.
• Confidential v. Doe Insurance Company. On behalf of individual homeowner policyholder, obtained full recovery of damages resulting from extensive water intrusion to interior of unit caused by misdirected downspouts in a townhome complex, after both first party and third party insurers refused coverage on the basis of water and flood exclusions.
• Gonzalez v. Fire Insurance Exchange, et al. Ms. Bower and co-counsel Randy Hess obtained a reversal of summary judgment by the 6th District Court of Appeal in a case involving Truck Insurance Exchange’s failure to defend a policyholder in a suit that included allegations of sexual misconduct. The appellate court ruled in favor of the policyholder, observing that the duty to defend the action was not necessarily eliminated by inclusion of allegations of excluded sexual misconduct, contrary to the position taken by the insurer. This decision affirmed important Supreme Court authority concerning an insurer’s duty to defend, that has been almost entirely ignored by insurers and other appellate courts.
• Confidential v. Doe Insurance Company. Ms. Bower and Mr. Hess obtained a multi-million dollar payment to their client who sued its D&O insurer for breach of contract and bad faith. The insurer had initially denied coverage for losses sustained by a fabless semiconductor company when it was sued by a competitor for solicitation of workforce and disparagement. Ms. Bower obtained a reversal of the denial, but the insurer still refused to pay all covered loss and suit was filed. The insurer ultimately paid a multi-million dollar settlement in resolution of claims based on its initial wrongful denial of coverage and its subsequent delay in payment of policy benefits once coverage was acknowledged.
• Confidential v. Doe Insurance Company. On behalf of their policyholder client, Ms. Bower and co-counsel Randy Hess successfully negotiated a multi-million dollar confidential settlement for property damage to a fabrication facility, including business interruption losses, under a commercial property policy after coverage had been denied entirely based on the contamination exclusion.
• Douglas v. Pacific Specialty Insurance Company, San Mateo County Superior Court. Ms. Bower and co-counsel Randy Hess received an $8 million verdict against an insurer for breach of contract, insurance bad faith, and punitive damages. The jury awarded compensatory damages of $668,604.72, including policy benefits and Brandt fees, and punitive damages of $7,329,395.30. The 12-member jury unanimously found breach of contract, insurance bad faith, and malice, oppression or fraud.

Ms. Bower earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California, Berkeley, and her law degree from Santa Clara University School of Law. Ms. Bower is admitted to practice before all courts of the State of California, as well as the Northern, Eastern, Central and Southern Districts of California and the Third and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal. She is a member of the Santa Clara County Bar Association and the Santa Clara County Trial Lawyers Association.  She has served on numerous bench-bar committees and has regularly acted as speaker/panelist in insurance coverage and bad faith matters.

Ms. Bower has continuously earned an AV® Preeminent™ 5.0 out of 5.0 Peer Review Rating, the highest available rating for legal ability and ethics, as recognized by Martindale-Hubbell, Inc. She has regularly been selected as a Northern California Super Lawyer® in Insurance Coverage since 2010, an honor given to only the top 5% of attorneys in Northern California. In addition, Ms. Bower has been awarded a “Superb” (10.0 out of 10.0) rating from Avvo™, an online lawyer rating service.

Ms. Bower is pleased to represent both commercial and individual policyholders in insurance recovery and coverage matters and all phases of insurance litigation.