Terri Sutton
Terri.Sutton@kennedyslaw.com
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Profile
Education
- Seattle University School of Law, JD (summa cum laude), 2011
- Beloit College, BA, 1999
Terri Sutton is a partner in the Seattle office. She has a wide range of experience advising insurers and litigating complex coverage issues under medical malpractice, general, professional, pollution, and excess/umbrella policies, treaty and facultative reinsurance, and directors and officers and employment practices liability coverages, and bad faith. Terri routinely drafts policy forms for insurers, risk retention groups, and risk pools.
Prior to joining Kennedys, Terri worked as a commercial lines underwriter at a national insurance company. As a result of this experience, she brings a unique knowledge of the insurance business to her legal practice.
Terri has experience in all phases of litigation, from mediation to trial and appellate work.
Terri earned her Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation in 2005 and was awarded the Loman Education Foundation Academic Excellence Award as a top scoring designee. She also served on the Certified Insurance Counselor (CIC) casualty curriculum advisory committee for the National Alliance for Insurance Education and Research.
Terri is a past president of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the CPCU Society, where she also held roles as the Interest Group Governor for the CPCU Society's Legal and Regulatory and Agents and Brokers interest groups, and a member of Washington Defense Trial Lawyers (WDTL).
Terri earned her law degree summa cum laude from Seattle University School of Law, where she was an associate editor of the law review. Terri received her Bachelor of Arts in economics and management from Beloit College, in Beloit, Wisconsin.
Terri is also the board chair of Provail, an organization empowering children and adults with disabilities to engage in life according to their own choices.
Qualifications and admissions
- Oregon
- Washington
- US District Court, Oregon
- US District Court, Eastern and Western Districts of Washington
- US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- US Supreme Court
Market recognition
- Washington Super Lawyers, 2023
- Top 50 Women in Washington- Washington Super Lawyers, 2022
- Best Lawyers in America "Ones to Watch" 2021-2022
- 2018 Outstanding Litigation Associate Award by the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers Association
Work highlights
- Won summary judgment on behalf of the insurer in a dispute over whether the insured was entitled to defense costs incurred in resolving lawsuits with the four major broadcast networks. The central question in the coverage dispute was whether the policy's "Media Exclusion" applied. This result was affirmed by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
- Successful summary judgment of dismissal of a $2.25M legal malpractice claim involving an admitted mistake by a lawyer. This result was affirmed on appeal.
- Successful summary judgment of dismissal of a $1.5M bad faith claim under a claims-made-and-reported insurance policy.
- Successful summary judgment of dismissal of bad faith claims arising from an insurer’s filing of a declaratory judgment action while providing a defense to the insured.
- Successful rescission action of a professional liability insurance policy based upon misrepresentations in the application.
Presentations and publications
- “Avoiding bad faith claims in Washington,” In-House Client Training (October 2024)
- “Benson vs. CCRRG Case Study – The Members’ Toolkit at Work,” presented at the National Risk Retention Association’s 2022 National Conference (November 2022)
- “Mock Summary Judgment: The Over-Prescribing Physician,” presented at the CPCU Society's In2Risk 2021 (September 2021)
- “Where’s Waldo? Uncovering the Latest Developments in COVID-19 Coverage,” presented at the American Bar Association's Women in Insurance Network Virtual Regional CLE Program (November 2020)
- “Coronavirus: Insurance Implications,” presented for Insurance Library (March 2020)
- “CGL Insurance and the Opioid Epidemic,” presented at the Ohio Institute of Insurance and Franklin University Speaker Series (May 2019)
- “The Opioid Epidemic and Casualty Insurance,” presented for the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society (May 2019)
- “Policy Drafting Issues,” presented at the Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals Education Day (May 2019)
- “Avoiding Bad Faith on the Pacific Northwest,” presented for the Pacific Northwest Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society (April 2019)
- “Keodalah v Allstate: Insurance Professionals Beware,” presented for the Pacific Northwest Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters Society (February 2019)
Insurance and reinsurance
Education
Healthcare