Stefano V. "Steve" Calogero

Stefano V. Calogero has litigated and tried coverage disputes between policyholders and insurers for over twenty years and around the country, including over 40 cases tried to a jury verdict. Underlying claims involved in these matters have included environmental waste sites, asbestos, tobacco, silica, breast implants, and hearing loss. He presently serves as regional counsel for environmental and other toxic tort coverage matters for a major insurer.

In significant matters Mr. Calogero has:

• represented, on an ongoing basis, various insurance carriers in defense of claims pertaining to injuries sustained by professional athletes;
• litigated coverage issue for claims arising out of defective products by national manufacturers of roofing shingles, faucets, and polybutene pipes;
• represented insurers in coverage claims relating to construction defect claims arising out of New Jersey condo units resulting in settlements of dozens of defendants;
• won summary judgment on coverage claims arising from paint fumes in commercial buildings leading to early settlements;
• obtained summary judgment for an insurer regarding the application of the policy's pollution exclusion for a former manufacturing facility in Massachusetts involving over 30 years of waste disposal, including nuclear waste;
• won a non-jury verdict in one of the first environmental coverage trials in New Jersey involving contamination at a former Agent Orange facility along the Passaic River;
• represented insurers of asbestos claims in the context of major corporation bankruptcies resolving over $100 million in policy limits and Bankruptcy Code 524(g) protection for insurers;
• obtained a trial verdict for an insurer in a waste site claim against a major chemical company involving costs at the waste site in excess of $30 million;
• argued before the New Jersey Supreme Court on the right to jury trial in context of declaratory judgment actions involving coverage disputes;
• obtained summary judgment for an insurer on workers' liability policies where the insured sought coverage for toxic workplace exposures; and
• litigated bad faith claims brought by policyholders in various states, including Texas, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and New York.

From 1981 to 1987, Mr. Calogero worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Bronx County, New York where he was a member of the Major Offense Bureau and Homicide Grand Jury.