Gregory S. Capps Partner

Greg Capps, Team Leader of the Firm’s Insurance Industry Practice Group, is a member of the Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith Practice Group and Reinsurance Practice Group. Greg is a well-respected attorney among his peers, clients and co-counsel and is known for his responsiveness, leadership and ability to work collaboratively to obtain favorable results. Greg has a broad commercial litigation and arbitration practice focusing primarily on complex long-tail insurance coverage, environmental coverage and reinsurance matters. His practice involves counseling as well as trial and appellate work before federal and state courts and arbitration panels. For over twenty years, Greg has advised and litigated on behalf of insurers on a wide range of issues including environmental, asbestos, pharmaceutical, sexual assault, and other types of claims. More recently, Greg has been called upon to represent ceding companies, both in court and before arbitration panels on a myriad of issues, including follow-the-fortunes, accumulation, recovery of declaratory judgment expenses, offset and other allocation-related issues.

Clients routinely call upon Greg for his advice with respect to complex claims handling practices or legal issues, involving environmental policies and/or CGL policies. His clients count on him for his responsiveness and comprehensive, well-thought, analyses. Prior to joining White and Williams, Greg was a partner at a firm where, in addition to his insurance coverage practice, he also represented product manufacturers in product liability and breach of warranty claims and represented medical and other professionals, including accountants, insurance brokers and lawyers, in malpractice cases. Because of his experience defending product liability and malpractice claims, Greg has vast knowledge of the court system and issues underlying the coverage disputes that arise.

Representative Matters

• Recently provided coverage/claims handling advice to a major insurer on a new program providing a package policy to healthcare senior living facilities
• Favorably litigated a multi-state environmental coverage dispute and won the “forum” battle and successfully obtained summary judgment on a key issue - choice of law - at the trial court level
• Obtained a favorable settlement for an insurer concerning underlying asbestos bodily injury claims and arising out of the 1985 Wellington Agreement
• Successfully negotiated a resolution of a twenty (20) year coverage dispute for underlying asbestos bodily injury claims. The agreement involved over $100 million in coverage and resulted in a complex third-party reinsurance agreement and favorable payout terms over many years
• Won a “renewed” motion for summary judgment dismissing claims for coverage arising out of respiratory devices and asbestos/silica containing products on “justiciability” grounds
• Obtained a favorable ruling on behalf of a cedent in a complex reinsurance arbitration addressing “one event” language in the reinsurance treaty
• Successfully arbitrated a reinsurance dispute on behalf of foreign reinsurers involving premium adjustment dispute under medical malpractice reinsurance contract
• Represented ceding company in reinsurance dispute involving accumulation and recovery of declaratory judgment expenses issues
• Successfully mediated a multi-million dollar claim arising out of a fatal catastrophic trucking accident involving a significant punitive damages component
• Successfully defeated claim seeking more than $4 million in attorney fees and interest before trial and appellate court, including the New Jersey Supreme Court

Recognition & Involvement

Greg has been AV® rated by the Martindale-Hubbell peer review rating system.

While maintaining a heavy case load, Greg believes strongly in providing pro bono services and giving back to his community at large. Greg is currently a Member of the Board of Directors for the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia, where he also continues to represent children through the attorney volunteer service program. He has handled numerous cases, including one where his advocacy skills resulted in reuniting a troubled family after obtaining proper Department of Public Welfare services and other social services for them.

Greg also volunteers by teaching Civics at Roxborough High School one day a month through the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Advancing Civics Education program and provides counsel to senior adults through the Senior Law Center.

Previously, while his children were growing-up, Greg served as President of the Board of Directors of Cheltenham Sports, a non-profit organization providing recreational and sports activities to residents in Cheltenham Township, and coached a girl’s travel soccer team for 10 years.