Steven B. Lesan
Partner
He/Him/His
San Diego
steven.lesan@lw.com
+1.858.523.5453
PRACTICES
- Complex Commercial Litigation
- Environment, Land & Resources
- Insurance Counseling & Recovery
- Litigation & Trial
INDUSTRIES
- Aerospace, Defense & Government Services
- Energy & Infrastructure
- Entertainment, Sports & Media
- Hospitality, Gaming & Leisure
- Technology
EDUCATION
- JD, University of San Diego School of Law, 2013
magna cum laude - BA (Hons), University of California, Santa Barbara, 2009
with distinction
LANGUAGES SPOKEN
PROFILE
Steven Lesan represents policyholders in high-stakes insurance matters, including coverage disputes and bad faith litigation, policy negotiations and renewals, and strategic portfolio management.
Steven regularly handles matters in state or federal courts, or before arbitration panels related to a full spectrum of policies, including:
- Cyber, data, and privacy
- Comprehensive general liability
- Directors and officers liability
- Errors and omissions
- Environmental impairment liability
- Builders risk
- Film production
- Business interruption claims
- Property policies
He has established an impressive track record recovering hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of Fortune 500 policyholders in complex and often cross-border insurance disputes. His sophisticated strategic instinct and exclusive focus on representing policyholders has led to precedent-setting decisions at the California Supreme Court, and favorable ADR solutions to seemingly intractable issues.
Steven's client representation also touches on every aspect of insurance advising, including:
- Claims counseling through the life cycle of the pursuit for coverage
- Negotiating custom insurance products
- Strategically managing insurance portfolios and policy procurement
- Counseling on insurance-related aspects of corporate transactions and post-restructuring
- Diligencing insurance, indemnity, and “long-tail” liabilities
Steven has served as an adjunct professor at the University of San Diego School of Law, lecturing on insurance and environmental law issues.
Prior to practicing law, Steven served as a judicial extern for Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit, and for Judge Thomas J. Whelan of the US District Court for the Southern District of California, and as a law clerk for the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, Office of the Inspector General. While in law school, Steven was the comments editor for the San Diego Law Review.
EXPERIENCE
Steven's client work includes representing:
- An application-based ride-sharing company in a breach of contract and bad faith action against its cyber insurer; the matter settled favorably shortly after Latham conducted targeted bad faith discovery in a confidential JAMS arbitration
- Montrose Chemical Corporation in a US$250+ million environmental coverage lawsuit that is one of the highest-profile insurance disputes in the nation; won a unanimous victory in Montrose Chem. Corp. v. Super. Ct. (2020), a landmark decision establishing policyholders’ right to “electively stack” multiple years of excess policies to insure against continuous loss claims
- Fluor Corporation, an engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services organization, in conjunction with its ongoing pursuit of insurance coverage and prosecution of bad faith actions for failing to defend and indemnify Fluor in connection with lawsuits alleging property damage and bodily injury; secured a unanimous victory in the California Supreme Court, Fluor Corp. v. Super. Ct. (2015), a landmark ruling allowing policyholders to assign rights to insurance coverage without obtaining prior insurance company consent
- A sovereign American Indian tribe in insurance litigation over its insurers’ denials of coverage for business interruption precipitated by COVID-19 and its far-reaching repercussions
- Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. to secure insurance coverage in connection with the Portland Harbor Superfund Site in Oregon