Jeff Bowen
Jeff Bowen joined Lindemann Miller Bowen in January 2023, working from Madison, Wisconsin. Prior to joining this insurer-side firm, Jeff represented insureds in complex claims under all types of policies for more than thirteen years, with a particular focus on professional, directors and officers, and general liability policies. Jeff graduated from Yale Law School, clerked on both the Ninth and Eleventh Circuit Courts of Appeals after graduation, and then spent the first four years of his career working at Munger, Tolles & Olsen in Los Angeles, focusing on complex commercial litigation.
Jeff returned to his home state of Wisconsin and joined the insurance recovery practice at Perkins Coie, where he spent eleven years representing global manufacturing companies, large financial institutions, and other national and international businesses in significant insurance coverage disputes, particularly with respect to D&O and professional liability policies. Jeff then formed his own insurance coverage litigation boutique with three other partners from Perkins Coie, including his wife Freya, and several years later the two of them joined Lindemann Miller Bowen. They are presently co-chairs of the firm’s professional lines practice.
Jeff’s experience includes arbitrations in London and the U.S.; arguments before state and federal trial courts; taking and defending fact and expert witness depositions; and substantial briefing on a wide variety of insurance issues in complex litigation.
Representative Matters
Representative clients from both the insurer and policyholder side of Jeff’s coverage practice include:
General liability policies
- An excess insurer of a large manufacturer facing dozens of products liability and wrongful death lawsuits alleging injuries stretching over ten years.
- An excess insurer of another large manufacturer facing a substantial multi-district litigation in connection with alleged PFAS liability as well as numerous environmental lawsuits.
- A trustee in bankruptcy seeking general liability coverage for a wrongful death claim brought by the estate of workers killed in an explosion.
- Religious institutions (and trustees of those institutions after bankruptcy) seeking general liability coverage for historical claims of sexual abuse.
- A manufacturer seeking both general liability coverage and contractual indemnity following a fatal car accident.
D&O and professional liability policies
- A large asset manager seeking D&O coverage for securities claims arising out of the alleged channeling of investments into inappropriate funds.
- Another large asset manager seeking coverage for resolution of an SEC investigation and the associated payment of substantial monies to plaintiffs.
- A mutual fund advisor seeking corporate D&O coverage for claims against related funds.
- An international automobile manufacturer seeking D&O coverage for overlapping claims brought by governmental entities and class action plaintiffs impacting multiple policy years.
- A hedge fund seeking D&O coverage for claims of corporate waste after an acquisition target entered bankruptcy.
- A large retail chain seeking D&O coverage for “bump up” claims following a go-private transaction.
- A large contractor seeking D&O coverage for claims under the False Claims Act raised by an alleged whistleblower.
- A fertility clinic seeking professional liability coverage for damage to stored embryos.
- A law firm seeking professional liability coverage for claims brought by underlying defendants in lawsuits filed by the firm.
- A health care system seeking coverage for lawsuits challenging the collection practices of its contract partner.
Representative clients from Jeff’s general commercial litigation practice include:
- A professional sports team in a royalty dispute with its league.
- Former owners of a successful manufacturing company in a dispute with the purchaser of the company over interpretation of the Asset Purchase Agreement.
- A large television network in a royalty and copyright dispute with a partner network.
- A log home construction company in a copyright dispute with a rival company.
- A professional sports team seeking media coverage for claims arising out of social media posts.
Education
Yale Law School
American College of Coverage Lawyers
American Law Institute
Licenses
Wisconsin
California
Professional and Volunteer Organizations
Jeff has also frequently presented and published on insurance and general litigation issues. Jeff is a member of the American Law Institute and a fellow at the American College of Coverage Counsel. He has also been an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Wisconsin -Madison Law School for more than a decade. He is a co-author of the Mutual Fund Litigation and Insurance Practice Guide, a Matthew Bender publication whose most recent edition will be published next year. He served as the Insurance Committee Co-Chair at the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution. His pro bono work primarily focuses on representing immigrants before agencies and courts.