ATTORNEY HOWARD N. WOLLITZ (SBN #58674)
HOWARD N. WOLLITZ is a Name Partner at WILLIAMS WOLLITZ HAKAKIAN PC. MR. WOLLITZ graduated from UCLA Law School, having served as a member of the Board of the Editors of the UCLA Law Review. He has decades of legal experience with a specialty in insurance coverage and insurance bad faith. He represents clients in insurer versus insurer litigation, in defense of lawyer professional liability claims, in lawyer ethics, in reinsurance, in policy drafting, and in expert witness engagements. MR. WOLLITZ has counseled commercial insurers as well as lawyer and doctor professional liability insurers on all types of coverage issues, bad faith avoidance, and bad faith defense. He frequently is asked by various companies to work with underwriters to draft policy provisions for new coverages or revisions to existing coverages. MR. WOLLITZ is a Martindale-Hubbell “AV” rated practitioner, and has been recognized in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022 as a Super Lawyer.
Below is only a small portion of what MR. WOLLITZ has accomplished in his distinguished career as a Super Lawyer.
- Testified in binding arbitration as an expert on behalf of a law firm as to the reasonableness of the firm’s $500,000+ fee claim and as to the standard of care on a malpractice counter-claim.
- Testified in binding arbitration as an expert on behalf of a medical malpractice insurer defending bad faith action involving the issue of lack of written consent to settle where judgment was rendered far in excess of the physicians’ $2 million policy limit.
- Designated as plaintiff’s expert in medical malpractice insurer’s bad faith action against its errors and omission insurer where insurer conditioned settlement contribution on waiver of insured’s rights under the policy.
- Designated and deposed as defendant-insurers’ expert in bad faith action to oppose multi-million dollar attorney fee application by insureds’ attorneys based upon unreasonableness and ethical violations regarding billing practices.
- Designated as insurer’s expert in action against insured to recover back defense costs incurred as to noncovered claims, and as to related counterclaim by insured alleging bad faith, violation of independent defense counsel obligations under Cal. Civil Code § 2860, and as to alleged ethical violations by defense counsel hired by the insurer.
- Designated as insurer’s expert in bad faith case under director & officers policy issued to a homeowners’ association, involving conflicts of interest by HOA officers and directors as to other employment and business interests.
- Designated as insurer’s expert in bad faith case in federal court where coverage denied under Employee Theft Coverage portion of Business and Management Indemnity Policy.
- Designated as expert regarding lawyer’s standard of care and banking practices in suit against law firm arising out of alleged conflict of interest where law firm acted as legal counsel to bank in connection with loan transaction, but law firm’s fees paid by bank’s customer.
PUBLICATIONS, PROGRAMS AND MEMBERSHIPS
Panel Chairperson, Insurance Coverage for Business Litigators, Los Angeles Seminar, Association of Business Trial Lawyers, 1985
Emerging Trends in Bad Faith Litigation (Chap. 18), Prosecuting and Defending Insurance Claims, Cushman and Roznowski, Wiley Law Trial Practice Library, 1989
Speaker, Insurance Coverage and Bad Faith, Seminar, Statton Press, 1989
Maximizing the Use of Experts Relating to Covered Damages, a Plaintiff’s Perspective, West Coast Casualty Construction Defect Seminar, 2010
A Rebounding Economy Creates Opportunities for Commercial Construction Projects and Their Agents/Brokers, Crittenden Conferences, Inc., Middle Market Accounts Conference, 2011
Are Eight Corners Enough? Strategies for Utilizing Extrinsic Evidence in Duty to Defend Cases, CLM Annual Conference, 2013
Timing is Everything in Construction Defect Litigation, West Coast Casualty Construction Defect Seminar, 2013
Bad Faith Litigation Avoiding the Traps, Snares and Pits, Bad Faith and Coverage Mini-Conference, December 2014
The Bad Faith Set Up – Responding To Policy Limits Demands, Bad Faith Litigation Strategies, ExecuSummit Litigation Strategies Series, May 2015.
Hottest Bad Faith Topics From Around the Country, CLM New York Conference, December 2015 Expert Witnesses in Bad Faith Litigation, CLM New York Conference, December 2016
Evaluating Additional Insured Coverage and Contractual Indemnity Issues, CLM Training Program, Parsippany, New Jersey, April 2017
Author and Speaker for Target Capital Partners:Nationwide Survey of Independent Counsel Rules in Reservation of Rights & Conflict of Interest Situations, 1999
Erosion of the Case-Within-A-Case Method of Trying Causation in “Transactional” Legal Malpractice Cases, 2000
California’s Special Motion to Strike: The Anti-Slapp Statute, C.C.P. § 425.16, Application to Malicious Prosecution Actions, 2002
Speaker at numerous client seminars on insurance coverage, statutes, regulations, and duties of good faith and fair dealing.
MR. WOLLITZ has been a member of the State Bar of California since 1973 and is eligible to practice in the United States Supreme Court, the United Stated Court of Appeals, the Seventh Circuit, the Ninth Circuit, the United Stated District Courts: Central, Eastern & Southern Districts of California, the District of Colorado, the Northern District of Illinois, the District of Hawaii, District of New Mexico and District of Massachusetts.
MR. WOLLITZ resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife.