Kristin V Gallagher
Partner | Basking Ridge,
United States
Kristin.Gallagher@kennedyslaw.com
+1 908 647 8390
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Profile
Education
- Seton Hall University School of Law, JD, 1995
- Fairfield University, BA, 1992
Kristin is a partner in the New Jersey office and has spent over two decades litigating, mediating, and arbitrating insurance coverage matters in federal and state courts around the country. She represents clients in the areas of commercial property and casualty, product contamination and product recall, professional liability, directors’ and officers’ liability, advertising liability, cyber risk, and environmental and mass tort claims. She also has significant experience in all aspects of bad faith litigation, including claims between primary and excess insurers.
Kristin’s practice includes counseling insurers on large claim losses, risk analysis, policy drafting, bad faith exposures and general business matters. She is also a frequent lecturer on a myriad of insurance and litigation topics.
Earlier in her career, Kristin served as Law Clerk to The Honorable Peter E. Doyne, P.J.S.C., Superior Court of New Jersey, Bergen County. Kristin is currently a member of the Defense Research Institute, Council on Litigation Management, National Association of Professional Women, Litigation Counsel of America and National Association of Insurance Women, and is a founding member of the firm’s Women's Initiative. She also serves as an elected member of the Board of Education in Washington Township, New Jersey.
"Kristin's stellar reputation and tactical awareness make her one of the best attorneys in the insurance coverage Bar."
Qualifications and admissions
- New Jersey
- New York
- US District Court for the District of Colorado
- US District Court for the Northern District of Florida
- US District Court for the District of New Jersey
- US District Court for the Eastern, Northern and Southern Districts of New York
- US Court of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Ninth and Eleventh Circuits
- New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department
Market recognition
- Ranked lawyer and notable practitioner for 'Insurance (New Jersey)'
Chambers USA 2025 - Ranked lawyer and notable practitioner for 'Insurance (New Jersey)'
Chambers USA 2024 - Ranked lawyer and notable practitioner for 'Insurance (New Jersey)'
“Kristin Gallagher acts on a wide range of insurance disputes, including covering disputes involving property damage, business interruptions, product liability, professional risk and catastrophic events.”
"Kristin is very responsive."
Chambers USA 2023 - Ranked lawyer and notable practitioner for 'Insurance (New Jersey)'
"Kristin's stellar reputation and tactical awareness make her one of the best attorneys in the insurance coverage Bar."
"She is an excellent coverage lawyer and a good writer."
Chambers USA 2022 - Ranked lawyer and notable practitioner for 'Insurance (New Jersey)'
"Kristin Gallagher acts on a wide range of insurance disputes, including covering disputes involving property damage, business interruptions, product liability, professional risk and catastrophic events."
"Kristin is everything I need in a lawyer - responsive, knowledgeable, and very strategic."
Chambers USA 2021 - Ranked lawyer and notable practitioner for 'Insurance (New Jersey)'
"Kristin Gallagher handles coverage disputes relating to product liability, professional risk and catastrophic events. "She is smart, knowledgeable and responsive to our needs," reports a client, adding: "She understands our business, is innovative in her thinking and conscious of our focus on cost reductions."
Chambers USA 2020 - Recognized for inclusion in the New Jersey Super Lawyers list for Insurance Coverage (2017-2018)
Awards
Work highlights
- Lead counsel in a coverage dispute arising out of an underlying multi-district Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) litigation in which the alleged violations potentially total $2.8 billion in fines under the Act.
- Successfully represented an insurer in a dispute with its policyholder, a national healthcare company, regarding damages resulting from a data breach.
- Successfully defended a specialty lines insurer in a dispute with professional NASCAR racer Tony Stewart regarding coverage under a policy for an underlying wrongful death action stemming from Stewart’s participation in a sprint car race.
- Successfully represented an excess insurer with respect to a dispute under a product recall policy with respect to $15 million incurred in connection with a highly publicized recall of uninspected beef.
- Lead coverage counsel for a global insurer in the World Trade Center litigation.
Presentations and publications
Presentations
- “Lessons learned from the largest claims of the 21st century,” In-House Client Training (May 2025)
- “Navigating claims with additional insureds,” In-House Client Training (April 2025)
- “Policy construction & DICE analysis,” In-House Client Training (March 2025)
- “Los Angeles wildfires: California fair claims handling,” In-House Client Training (January 2025)
- “Bad faith issues & defense costs,” In-House Client Training (December 2024)
- “The State of Bad Faith,” In-House Client Training (September 2022, May 2023, December 2024)
- “The clock is ticking – How to defuse time limit demands,” In-House Client Training (September 2023)
- “Dangerous States for Bad Faith,” In-House Client Training (August 2023)
- “2023 Insurance Coverage Litigation,” presented for the American Bar Association (March 2023)
- “Making, analyzing and responding to policy limits settlement demands in an era of social inflation and nuclear verdicts,” presented for the ICLC Litigation Conference (February 2023)
- “COVID 19 business interruption claims and litigation landscape US,” In-House Client Training (January 2022)
- “Hot Topics in Insurance Coverage” In-House Client Training (April 2020)
- “Preventing, mitigating and resolving the business Impacts of coronavirus/COVID 19 with ADR” In-House Client Training (April 2020)
- “COVID-19 Issues” In-House Client Training (April 2020)
Publications
- Co-author, “Los Angeles wildfires’ far-reaching impact on the insurance industry,” published for Kennedys (January 2025)
- Co-author, “New Jersey Supreme Court rules that COVID-19 business interruption claims may be dismissed at the pleadings stage,” published for Kennedys (January 2024)
- Co-author, “Key amendments to New York's Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Action,” published for Kennedys (February 2022)
- Co-author, “Understanding New York's Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act,” (January 2022)
- Co-author, “The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals COVID-19 decisions,” published for Kennedys (October 2021)
- Co-author, “COVID-19: commercial property litigation trends in the United States,” (February 2021)
Report decisions
- Axis Ins. Co. v. Stewart, 198 F. Supp. 3d 4 (N.D.N.Y. July 2016)
- Bingham v. 347 11th St., LLC, 140 A.D. 686 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. 2nd Dep’t June 1, 2016)
- Carolina Cas. Ins. Co. v. Red Coats Inc., 624 Fed. Appx. 992 (11th Cir. August 17, 2015)
- Goldstone Amber St. Realty Corp. v. New York Mar. & Gen. Ins. Co., 127 A.D. 3d 691, (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. 2nd Dep’t April 2015)
- Jene’ Barranco, et al. v. Hog Wild Trucking, Inc. et al, Cause Number 2011-0209 (Miss. Cir. Ct. October 18, 2013)
Insurance and reinsurance