Dan Koenig

Daniel W. Koenig is a member of the firm’s Business Litigation Practice Group, including the Insurance Litigation Committee and the Trucking and Transportation Committee.  Dan handles matters in both state and federal courts involving contract disputes, insurance coverage disputes, personal injury / wrongful death litigation, employment-related litigation (e.g., enforcement of non-competition agreements and wrongful termination claims), unfair trade practices, and other types of commercial litigation.  Dan also has extensive experience representing the interests of his clients at mediation.    

A significant portion of Dan’s practice consists of representing motor carriers and their drivers involved in serious accidents, from the critical time immediately following an accident up to and throughout the litigation process.  Dan is a member of Nexsen Pruet’s Rapid Response team with the Trucking Industry Defense Association.  He has successfully handled accident cases involving multiple fatalities, a variety of serious personal injuries, as well as significant property damage and lost profits.  Dan also has experience successfully challenging citations and penalties assessed against motor carriers relating to alleged violations of special permits issued by the Department of Transportation.    

A substantial portion of Dan’s practice is also dedicated to resolving insurance disputes, including the preparation of coverage opinions concerning the duty to defend and/or indemnify insureds or alleged additional insureds, working with claim handlers and in-house counsel of insurers to resolve disputes before litigation commences, monitoring underlying litigation in which an insurer has or may have a duty to defend or indemnify a party, and handling all aspects of coverage/bad faith/unfair trade practices litigation in the event a lawsuit is filed.  Dan has successfully handled cases involving various types of insurance policies, including commercial general liability policies, builders’ risk policies, credit life and disability policies, business and personal auto policies, umbrella policies, E & O policies, policies with self-insured retentions, as well as fidelity bonds for financial institutions.  For an example of an insurance coverage case successfully handled by Dan, see The Estate of John M. Mason, by and through its duly appointed Executor, Jeanette W. Mason v. Universal Underwriters Life Insurance Company, 2006 WL 2847288 (W.D.N.C. 2006).    

Dan, along with Jim Bryan of the Greensboro office, filed an Amicus Curiae brief in the N.C. Supreme Court on behalf of the Trucking Industry Defense Association (TIDA).  The issue involved the minimum insurance coverage for commercial motor vehicles.  The insurer members and trucking company members of TIDA wanted to weigh in on the appealed issue, and the N.C. Supreme Court reversed the decision of the N.C. Court of Appeals as requested in the brief.  Read the brief here.

Dan stays up-to-date on recent developments in his areas of practice by, among other things, attending seminars, conferences, and meetings of the Defense Research Institute and the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section of the ABA.  Some recent seminars Dan has attended include:

• DRI Trucking Law Seminar (Phoenix, AZ – April 2008 and Chicago, IL – March 2006)
• Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Midyear Program (Marina Del Ray, CA – 2008)
• Transportation Megaconference VIII (New Orleans, LA – March 2007)
• TIDA 2007 Mini Seminar, Miami, FL (February 2007)
• DRI 2006 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (October 2006)
• National Institute for Trial Advocacy – Building Trial Skills, Southeast Regional, Chapel Hill,    NC - May 20-26, 2006

Dan is also active in the Greensboro community, presently serving as Vice President of his church, Ebenezer Lutheran; Vice Chairman of the Board of Seven Homes (a foster care and adoption services agency); and as a member of the Grantmaking Committee of the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro's Future Fund.  Dan has previously served on the Board, Executive Committee, and as Chairman of the Personnel Committee of the Greensboro Opera Company.  Dan also enjoys playing USTA league tennis and spending time with his wife and daughter.

Daily Express, Inc. v. Bryan E. Beatty, Secretary of Crime Control & Public Safety, ____ S.E.2d ____ (N.C.App. 2010)