Emily Horsfield

Emily Horsfield is an Associate Attorney at Gierke Frank. Emily’s litigation practice involves insurance coverage disputes, bad faith claims, asbestos claims, product liability claims, negligence claims, Uniform Commercial Code disputes, and contract disputes.  A significant portion of her practice involves research and analysis of a wide array of issues involving the state and federal laws of Wisconsin, the Seventh Circuit, and various jurisdictions across the United States, as well as writing legal briefs filed in both state and federal courts, at both the trial and appellate court levels.  Prior to joining GF, Emily practiced for over four years in the New York office of White and Williams LLP, where she represented clients in a wide range of civil and commercial litigation actions filed in the state and federal courts of New York and New Jersey.

Representative Matters/ Experience

• Handled the legal research and briefing in the federal case that established the principle of New York law that, in order to be totally disabled pursuant to an individual disability policy, an insured must be unable to perform all of the important duties of “Your Occupation” under the policy.  See Simon v. Unum Group, 2009 WL 857635 (S.D.N.Y. 2009); and Hershman v. UnumProvident Corp., 660 F.Supp.2d 527 (S.D.N.Y. 2009).
• Handled the legal research and briefing in a federal case involving a novel statute of limitations issue, ultimately achieving summary judgment on behalf of the client-insurer.  Hodge v. Unum Group, 2010 WL 128625 (E.D.N.Y. 2010).
• Assisted in the successful defense of a small corporation in an arbitration involving the corporation’s termination of their Chairman of the Board of Directors, including the handling of all aspects of the AAA Arbitration and drafting and filing several pre- and post-arbitration briefs.
• Assisted in the successful defense of an insurance carrier in a rescission action involving fraudulent misrepresentations by an insured.
• Assisted in the successful defense of an insurance carrier in a breach of contract action filed by the insured and in the prosecution of the insurer’s counterclaim against the insured for fraud, which resulted in a walk-away by the insured.
• Defended multiple different insurers in several cases involving the insurer’s denial of benefits under both individual and group insurance policies.