This seminar will provide a step by step approach to evaluating coverage; identify factors to consider in determining how to proceed after an initial coverage determination has been made; and review the who, when, what, where and discovery process of the Declaratory Judgment Action. The speaker will discuss options for how to proceed after the initial determination has been made. Attendees will better-understand the role of the coverage attorney, and what occurs during the discovery process of a Declaratory Judgment Action. This seminar is designed for all insurance professionals who are involved in the coverage evaluation process and who may handle, be exposed to, or otherwise involved in a Declaratory Judgment Action, including claims professionals, agents, brokers, underwriters, risk managers, and attorneys.

Richard J. Cohen, J.D., is managing partner of Goldberg Segalla LLP, a law firm with offices in Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, is chair of the firm’s insurance coverage litigation practice group. He graduated from the State University of New York at Buffalo's School of Management with distinction and its School of Law cum laude. He handles first and third-party coverage and bad faith matters involving personal and commercial lines.

Cohen is a national author and lecturer on insurance coverage and bad faith, and has authored the annual Survey of New York Insurance Law published in the Syracuse University Law Review. He is the former National co-chairman of the Insurance Company Relations Subcommittee of the Defense Research Institute (DRI), and currently serves as subcommittee chairman of both the Insurance Law and Construction Law Committees of DRI. He is also a CPCU Society instructor.

Cohen is admitted to practice in all the State and federal courts in New York and Pennsylvania, including the United States Courts of Appeal for the Second and Third Circuits. He was named to the Buffalo Law Journal's/Business First's Who's Who in Law in 2006 and 2007.