Representative Matters

Representative matters on which Dale has served as lead counsel to insurers or reinsurers include claims arising from: 

• Product liability claims against manufacturers or distributors arising from alleged defects in pharmaceutical, medical device, construction product, herbicide, automobile component, and other products (direct and reinsurance) 
• Governmental and private party opioid distribution claims against distributors and pharmacies (direct insurance) 
• Global warming liability claims (direct insurance) 
• COVID-related insurance losses (reinsurance) 
• Aviation insurance losses related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict (reinsurance) 
• Natural gas or gasoline pipeline leaks, explosions and fires (direct insurance) 
• Industrial accidents, including explosions and fires (direct insurance) 
• Commercial property fire losses (reinsurance) 
• Environmental soil and groundwater contamination claims arising from radioactive materials, former manufactured gas plants, manufacturing operations, and other causes (direct and reinsurance) 
• Asbestos bodily injury claims (reinsurance) 

Education

Vanderbilt University School of Law, J.D. 
Albion College, B.A., Philosophy 

Licenses

Illinois 

Publications

Manual on Complex Insurance Coverage Litigation (1994 Aspen Press) (Co-Chair of ABA task force that drafted first edition) 

Professional and Volunteer Organizations

Dale has given innumerable presentations in the U.S., Bermuda, and London on insurance or reinsurance claim issues.  

Dale was formerly an equity partner at Lord, Bissell & Brook, Chicago. He spent the first seven years of his practice in the Business Litigation group where he handled many types of contract and business tort disputes.  

Dale has had a commitment to pro bono work throughout his career. He has, for example, handled cases in the Northwestern University Juvenile Justice Program, defending first-time offenders in Cook County Juvenile Court, the University of Chicago ICJ Clinic on Entrepreneurship, assisting people with limited means to organize their own businesses, and the Cook County Circuit Court uncontested adoption program, representing grandparents or other relatives seeking to adopt children abandoned by or removed from the custody of their birth parents. In addition to assisting those of limited means with legal matters today, Dale is honored to be a volunteer and board member for The Catalyst Program, an organization that seeks to assist our many highly capable, accomplished, and motivated veterans transition from military service to civilian work and professions.