PRACTICES
OVERVIEW
Marc Penchansky has a varied practice with a focus on insurance coverage and related litigation, class actions, insurance broker and agent liability, medical malpractice, and appeals. Marc is regularly involved in first-party insurance claims involving catastrophic losses from events like hurricanes, floods, windstorms, and collapses. He also has extensive experience in conventional and artificial (EIFS) stucco coverage litigation and other moisture intrusion cases. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Marc has handled dozens of COVID-19 business interruption claims and represented carriers in subsequent litigation.
Marc frequently assists carrier clients with claims investigations, coverage analyses, examinations under oath, and resulting litigation including litigation over alleged bad faith. He also aids carriers in pursuing pre-litigation settlement through appraisal.
Marc’s experience with third-party claims includes national sports concussion litigation, consumer class actions, construction accidents, construction defects, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking. Carriers often ask Marc to determine whether it has a duty to defend or indemnify the policyholder, and when necessary, he participates in litigation to resolve any outstanding issues.
Marc also has significant experience representing insurance agents and brokers in litigation alleging breach of professional liability. In this capacity, he is engaged in all aspects of the litigation and has been involved in cases defining the scope of a producer’s duty to insureds and third parties.
As a former appellate law clerk, Marc is also involved in many of the appeals that arise at the firm. He represents clients in intermediate New Jersey and Pennsylvania appellate courts, the New Jersey and Pennsylvania Supreme Courts, and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. His extensive appellate experience includes jurisdictional challenges, interlocutory appeals, and expedited appeals that often involve complex and novel issues.
As an appellate attorney, Marc also assists trial teams in all practice areas with complex motion practice, evidentiary issues, and litigation strategy. Marc is asked to identify appellate issues and ensure proper preservation of error. He also works to ensure that positive results are unassailable on appeal. His peers routinely ask him to step into ongoing litigation to draft and argue motions on key issues that will profoundly influence the disposition of the case.
Marc has extensive experience in medical malpractice defense, particularly with EMTALA cases. He has also supervised a team of attorneys in discovery matters including productions for large-scale antitrust matters and government investigations.
Marc earned his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Richmond School of Law, where he was an active member of the law review, member of the honor society, and served as research assistant to two professors. Prior to entering private practice, Marc was a judicial clerk to the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He also served as a staff attorney for the Third Circuit, at which time, he spent several months as an elbow clerk to the Honorable Jane Roth. After his clerkships, Marc served in the appellate department of a midsize law firm that mainly represented nursing homes and hospitals. He also has experience working in the antitrust and toxic torts departments of a large international firm.
Credentials
Bar and Court Admissions
Pennsylvania
New Jersey
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania
Education
University of Richmond School of Law, JD, magna cum laude, 1998
Rutgers University, BA, 1994
News & Insights
REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS
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Retained following the entry of an adverse summary judgment ruling finding that a contractor had a duty to indemnify a condominium association and its management company for injuries sustained by the contractor’s employee and for the contractor’s alleged failure to procure insurance that met the requirements in a service agreement between the association and contractor, and promptly reversed that decision through an interlocutory appeal in the New Jersey Appellate Division.
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Obtained summary judgment, and defeated class certification, on behalf of an event security company in Maryland class action consisting of hundreds of young female dancers who were spied upon by a convention center public safety officer who inappropriately used the facility’s surveillance cameras to view and record the dancers’ dressing area
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Litigation counsel to various insurers for COVID-19 insurance claims
- Successfully obtained declaratory relief extricating insurer from liability for defense and indemnification for a California class action against manufacturer of non-stick copper pans that failed to perform as advertised, as such faulty workmanship claims failed to constitute an “occurrence” under the manufacturer’s commercial general liability insurance policy
- Reversed on appeal a jury’s defense verdict for a bank in a suit brought by a federal receiver for the bank’s participation in a Ponzi scheme on grounds that trial court erroneously concluded that Pennsylvania did not recognize a cause of action for aiding and abetting fraud and for other errors concerning the erroneous admission of evidence, resulting in exposure to the bank on retrial well in excess of $20 million
- Drafted successful summary judgment motion on behalf of insurance broker in a multi-million-dollar litigation where the broker was alleged to have violated its duty to provide insurance quotes to its client; successfully defended the entry of summary judgment on appeal
- Successfully defended on appeal before the Pennsylvania Superior Court a negligence action filed by a subcontractor’s employee against the general contractor
- Drafted successful motion to dismiss class action on behalf of a large automotive insurer who was accused of improperly renewing its policies
- Obtained reversal from Pennsylvania Superior Court of trial court’s refusal to dismiss first-party claim for uninsured motorist benefits at the pleading stage; convinced Superior Court that Insured had failed to adequately plead a viable cause of action against her insurer and had failed to point to any conduct that amounted to bad faith
- Drafted successful petition for review to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of an insurance broker against claims of township employees who alleged that the broker fraudulently prevented the payment of a large insurance claim; the Supreme Court’s grant of the petition led to a favorable resolution of the matter before an opinion was issued
- Successfully defended on appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, a dismissal of plaintiff’s breach of contract claim and bad faith claim based on Pennsylvania four-year statute of limitations for contract actions and two-year statute of limitations for bad faith claims
- Secured the early dismissal of a large medical malpractice litigation based on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)
- White and Williams Defeats Emergency Injunction Requests To Force Use of Ivermectin To Treat COVID-19 Patient
- Court Rules That Assignment of Claims Against Insurance Broker Was Void
- District Court in The Middle District of Pennsylvania Dismisses Hotel’s Claim for Lost Business Income Due To COVID-19
- White and Williams Successfully Defends on Appeal the Dismissal of Class Action Lawsuit
- Third Circuit Court of Appeals Affirmed Summary Judgment in a National Origin and Age Discrimination Case
- Professional Liability Group Defeats Claim of "Special Relationship" Between Insurance Broker and Insured