Overview
Insurance coverage and litigation partner Sara Brundage handles complex issues and disputes involving domestic and international commercial insurance companies, captives and risk-retention groups, self-insured entities, and other corporate entities on coverage, claim loss, cyber liability, and risk analysis. Sara’s extensive experience includes professional and general liability, advertising, construction, data security and privacy, directors and officers, employment, environmental, errors and omissions, and product liability disputes.
Sara also advises on issues ranging from third-party liability claims to reinsurance issues, bad faith exposure, risk management, and coverage disputes. Her award-winning expertise includes interpreting and constructing everything from policy language to manuscript policies, as well as reservation of rights and denial letters. Recognized as one of the nation’s most respected insurance coverage experts by such publications as Chambers USA, Michigan Lawyers Weekly, and Michigan Super Lawyers, Sara is a frequent speaker at industry seminars and for clients on insurance risk, coverage, and related issues.
Services
Practice Areas
Experience
Representative Matters
- Successfully resolved various batch claims involving captives and sexual misconduct claims with reinsurance funds totaling more than $1 billion
- Represented a captive in a four-week arbitration in Bermuda and London involving complex reinsurance disputes arising from the pre-suit settlement of numerous medical malpractice claims due to experimental procedures on hundreds of patients
- Negotiated a favorable settlement with a reinsurer involving a coverage dispute over Criminal Acts exclusion application
- Represented the insured in successful negotiations to secure coverage with a cyber carrier arising from the release of confidential business records of thousands of clients stored electronically on the company’s server
- Counseled a prominent healthcare system in securing contributions from various reinsurers following the settlement of multiple medical malpractice lawsuits involving instrument sterilization claims
- Obtained a favorable dismissal of a $30 million claim for withdrawal fees against former subscribers of a reciprocal insurer
Prior Experience
- Pretzel & Stouffer, Chartered, Associate, 2006-2011
Credentials
Education
- cum laude
- Spanish Literature
- Organizational Studies
Admissions
- Illinois
- Michigan
Court Admissions
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
Recognition
Awards
- Listed in Chambers USA, 2024
- Band 1 (top tier) in Insurance in Michigan
- Michigan Lawyers Weekly’s Women in the Law Class of 2019
- Michigan Super Lawyers’ Rising Star, 2013–2016
Professional & Community Involvement
State Bar of Michigan
- Insurance and Indemnity Law Section, 2012-present
- Litigation Section, 2012-present
Illinois State Bar Association, 2006-present
American Bar Association, 2006-present
Ingham County Bar Association, 2012-present
Kalamazoo Bar Association 2012-present
Chicago Bar Association, 2006-present
Chicago Bar Foundation Young Professionals Board, 2009-2012
Huntington’s Disease Society of America
- Drive to Cure HD Committee, 2013
PRO BONO
Michigan Immigrant Rights Center volunteer attorney assisting Spanish-speaking domestic violence victims to prepare and submit citizenship applications pursuant to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA)
Open Roads Bike Program volunteer attorney