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Kenneth Gorenberg
OVERVIEW

Kenneth M. Gorenberg

Partner

Chicago

One N. Wacker Drive
Suite 4400
Chicago, IL 60606-2833

P 312-214-5609

F 312-759-5646

Ken Gorenberg represents businesses in insurance coverage matters, as well as in product liability, professional liability and commercial litigation. Whether litigation or counseling, Ken always focuses on the business problem or opportunity at the heart of the matter. He partners with his client to create and implement a strategy tailored to the specific client and matter.

OVERVIEW

Ken Gorenberg represents businesses in insurance coverage matters, as well as in product liability, professional liability and commercial litigation. Whether litigation or counseling, Ken always focuses on the business problem or opportunity at the heart of the matter. He partners with his client to create and implement a strategy tailored to the specific client and matter.

Ken has resolved coverage issues involving an alphabet soup of insurance policies, including CGL, D&O, E&O, EPLI, PLL and WC/EL, as well as first-party property policies, crime bonds and surety bonds. He offers a deep understanding of loss-sensitive insurance programs, having litigated disputes involving workers’ compensation claim handling and deductible and retrospective premium billing.

Ken also works in the trenches of product liability, professional liability and commercial litigation, including as national coordinating counsel for defendants in asbestos, benzene and other toxic tort litigation. Ken brings his underlying litigation experience to bear in insurance coverage litigation, negotiation and counseling for corporate policyholders.

Ken has a truly national practice. He has won trials, arbitrations and appeals in dozens of jurisdictions across the country. Still, Ken considers litigation only one of many ways to solve problems, and he is particularly adept at developing multiple possible exit strategies that a client may pursue.

Clients and colleagues also tap Ken’s unique perspective in transactional matters. He often negotiates, drafts or reviews risk allocation provisions in contracts, including indemnification, insurance and limitation of liability. He has drafted special contracts and manuscript endorsements to insurance policies to effectuate parties’ risk allocation preferences. He also participates in due diligence on insurance coverage and product liability issues in corporate mergers and acquisitions.

Earlier in his career, Ken represented insurance companies. This experience has made Ken a more effective advocate for businesses because he knows how insurance companies think, operate and make decisions.

Ken frequently delivers continuing legal education seminars to practicing lawyers, and judges moot court and other competitions for law students. He also contributes his time to legal aid clinics and pro bono representation of indigent clients.

A native of South Jersey, Ken continues to ride the high of the Philadelphia Eagles’ 2018 Super Bowl victory, and he is also a fan the Phillies, 76ers and Flyers. His golf game is only slightly better than average, but he broke through with the round of his life in 2017.

Professional and Community Involvement

Fellow, American College of Coverage Counsel

Co-chair, Product Liability Subcommittee of the American Bar Association Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee

Member, American Bar Association Forum on Construction, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, and Business Law Section

Member, Defense Research Institute

National commissioner and Midwest regional board management committee member, Anti-Defamation League

Volunteer, Chicago Volunteer Legal Services

Moot court judge, American Bar Association and University of Chicago Law School

Adjunct instructor, DePaul University Law School

Member, National Commission of the Anti-Defamation League

Kenneth Gorenberg Best Lawyers 2025Gorenberg_ACCEC

EXPERIENCE
EXPERIENCE
  • Represented a packaging supplier in a successful multi-party mediation of both liability and insurance coverage relating to the supplier’s customer’s decision to recall popular food products due to alleged contamination of the packaging. The customer’s claims against the packaging supplier were resolved confidentially and without litigation, with a substantial contribution by the supplier’s insurance carriers.
  • Drafted new contractual indemnification and insurance requirements and new “additional insured” insurance policy endorsements for a manufacturer of residential construction materials. Because the client maintains a high deductible, it had often been forced to pay for its insurer’s defense of homebuilders as “additional insureds” on construction defect claims. The new provisions Ken wrote are expected to limit the client’s exposure for such claims.
  • Advocated for an industrial cleaning service facing a federal court lawsuit for property damage caused by the client’s allegedly defective work on the restoration of a manufacturing facility that had suffered an extensive fire. The client was being defended by panel counsel hired by the client’s insurance company. Because of an apparent conflict of interest, Ken persuaded the insurer to replace the panel lawyer with new attorneys selected by the client. Ken then negotiated with the insurer to resolve coverage issues and fund a settlement of the federal court litigation.
  • Represented a franchisor as “additional insured” on its franchisee’s policy, in convincing the insurer to pay its full policy limit to settle a case alleging that the franchisee’s home renovation work exposed the homeowners and their children to asbestos that allegedly may cause one or more of them to develop cancer in the future.
  • Defended the successor of a policyholder against a lawsuit in federal court in Connecticut in which an insurance company alleged that the indemnity provision of a claim services agreement required the policyholder to reimburse the entire amount of a product liability settlement and defense costs. The client only had to pay its deductible, and the 1980s occurrence-based CGL policies remain in place.
  • Represented a bank suing in Illinois state court under a financial institutions bond for coverage of losses on a $10 million loan that was issued to refinance a hotel. After defeating a dispositive motion filed by the insurance company, the bank obtained a settlement of its claim.
  • Represented a subcontractor defendant in a construction accident case, including a third-party claim against the general contractor for contractual defense and indemnity. The client appealed the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, where the client won complete indemnification and attorneys’ fees.
  • Represented a workers’ compensation self-insurers trust fund in a breach of contract case against the fund’s third-party administrator (TPA). The client alleged that the TPA committed widespread mishandling, causing excessive losses and expenses among more than 3,000 self-insured workers’ compensation claims. The client obtained a favorable $2.35 million judgment following a bench trial in federal court in Atlanta and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.
  • Represented a refining technology company in a wrongful death/professional negligence action involving the death by mesothelioma of an inspector and engineer at a foreign oil refinery for which our client allegedly specified the use of asbestos-containing products. After three weeks of trial before a jury, the L.A. Superior Court granted non-suit in favor of our client due to a lack of evidence presented by the plaintiff.
  • Represented an automotive fuel pump manufacturer that was named in a suit involving a fuel pump that was modified and installed by other companies in a small aircraft that crashed. On behalf of our client, filed an insurance coverage case and obtained summary judgment against the insurer’s denial under an aircraft products exclusion. Airtex Products, LP et al v. American Home Assurance Co., Superior Court of California, County of Riverside, Case No.: RIC 1111153.
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