Dean Hansell

Partner

Dean Hansell is an accomplished and successful business, environmental and energy, insurance/ reinsurance and insolvency trial and appellate lawyer. Dean Hansell's practice emphasizes class actions, complex business litigation, government enforcement actions, insurance/reinsurance and insolvency matters, international litigation and arbitration, and appeals. He is a former civil prosecutor. He was a Police Commissioner of Los Angeles for four years.

With his distinguished court record and as a former civil federal and state prosecutor, Mr. Hansell frequently assists clients in connection with fraud litigation, investigations, regulatory and enforcement proceedings and administrative hearings. He is seasoned in alternative dispute resolution and serves on the Arbitration Committee of the U.S. Council for International Business. Mr. Hansell frequently serves as national coordinating counsel supervising litigation nationwide or as US counsel in international litigation.

Representative Matters

  • Mr. Hansell's experiences in the environmental field date back to the beginning of modern environmental law. As a civil prosecutor, he filed the first RCRA case in the country. He also has extensive experience litigating cases involving mobile source pollution, NEPA, CEQA, nuclear waste disposal and storage, nuclear power licensing, water, LUST, UST, noise, and drinking water litigation and regulatory matters;
  • As a former Federal Trade Commission prosecutor, Mr. Hansell handles litigation involving administrative proceedings and investigations, allegations of resale price maintenance, attempted monopolization, price discrimination, vertical restraints, tying arrangements, price fixing, deceptive and unfair trade practices, unfair business practice and comparison and performance claim ads. He has litigated antitrust and marketing cases involving the motion picture production, motion picture distribution, healthcare, metals, oil, construction, insurance, California Business & Professions Code Section 17200, Unfair Competition Act, Unfair Trade Practices Act, food, energy, bottled water, motor vehicle and toy industries. He is also experienced in matters involving trade regulatory rules, the FTC Act, the Webb Pomerene Act, the California FTC Act, California Business & Professions Code Section 17200, Unfair Competition Act, Unfair Trade Practices Act, the Sherman Act, and the Clayton Act;
  • Mr. Hansell has handled nearly every type of reinsurance and insurance case, including insurance insolvency, reinsurance, errors and omissions, bad faith, insurance fraud, ostensible authority, agency, coverage, class actions, negligent supervision, marketing practices, asbestos and deceptive trade practices. Among the lines of insurance he has had experience with are facultative and treaty reinsurance, property and casualty, inland and wet marine, accident and health, jewelers block, life and disability, credit, catastrophe, wrap up, disability, surety, construction, auto, home, officers and directors; and
  • Working in conjunction with attorneys and clients with interests abroad, Mr. Hansell has an extensive background in international litigation and arbitration. He handles a full range of international issues, such as matters involving the Hague Convention, forum non conveniens, enforcement of non-US arbitral awards and judgments, lack of minimum contacts, international fraud, and international antitrust. He has worked in matters on behalf of clients from the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Panama, India, Belgium, Canada, Mexico and other nations. He has lead a variety of matters based in the South Pacific including trials in American Samoa and arguing several appeals before the High Court of American Samoa.

Selected Activities

  • President, Fire and Police Pension Board, City of Los Angeles, 2010–present; Vice President 2009-2010;
  • Police Commissioner, City of Los Angeles, 1997–2001
  • Prosecutor, Federal Trade Commission, 1980–1983
  • Assistant Attorney General, Environmental Control, State of Illinois, 1977–1980
  • Chair, Advisory Board, UCLA School of Public Health, 2009–present
  • Board of Directors, California Bar Foundation, 2008–present
  • Trustee, Denison University, 2007–present
  • President, Board of Information Technology Commissioners, City of Los Angeles, 2004–2008
  • Member, Editorial Board, International Reinsurance Dispute Reporter, 1997–2002
  • Member, Editorial Advisory Board, Los Angeles Lawyer, 1995–2004
  • Member, Executive Advisory Board, Asian Pacific American Legal Center, 1995–present
  • Judge Pro Tem, California Superior Court, 1989–2006
  • Chair, Antitrust Section, Los Angeles County Bar Association, 1989–1990
  • Member, Illinois Solar Resources Advisory Panel, 1978–1980
  • Member, Arbitration Committee, U.S. Council for International Business

Selected Decisions

  • Boghos v. Certain Underwriters At Lloyd's Of London (Cal. Supreme Ct.) - Arbitrability.
  • Hill v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Business judgment rule. . .
    • .
  • In re Enron Corp. Bankruptcy (S.D. of N.Y.) - Renewable energy, Construction litigation.
  • Akin v. Certain Underwriters At Lloyd's London (C.D. Ct. of App.) - Statutes of limitation.
  • AIG Retirement Services, Inc. v. Altus Finance S.A. (C.D. of Cal.) - Fraud and contract claims.
  • LG Infocomm U.S.A., Inc. v. Euler American Credit Indemnity Company (S.D. of Cal.) - Bad faith.
  • YHT, Inc. v. Progressive Insurance Co., (High Court of American Samoa) South Pacific Appellate matter.
  • State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co. v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Business judgment rule.
  • Smith v. Best American Hospitality (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Causation.
  • YHT, Inc. v. Progressive Insurance Co., (High Court of American Samoa) South Pacific trial verdict.
  • Underwriters Reinsurance Company v. Ace American Insurance Company (C.D. of CA.) - Arbitrability.
  • CLT Telecommunications Corp. v. Colonial Data Technologies Corp. (C.D. of Conn.) - Fiduciary duty standards.
  • Richards v. Lloyd's of London (9th Cir.) - Federal securities acts anti-waiver provision.
  • CSX Transp., Inc. v. Admiral Ins. Co. (M.D. of Fla.) - Justiciability and prematurity of an action.
  • Wolfe v. State Farm Fire & Cas. Ins. Co. (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Proposition 103.
  • In re M.S., (Cal. Supreme. Ct.) a Minor - Hate crimes statute.
  • Haskel, Inc. v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Rights of discovery when an underlying administrative proceeding is pending.
  • SCEcorp v. Superior Court (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Merger litigation.
  • Greenpeace, U.S.A. v. City of Glendale (Cal. Ct. of App.) - First Amendment.
  • Unibase Systems, Inc. v. Professional Key Punch (Cal. Ct. of App.) - Choice of law, UCC.
  • Environmental Protection Agency v. Pollution Control Bd. (D. of Utah) - Environmental.
  • Illinois Environmental Protection Agency v. Pollution Control Bd. (Ill. Supreme. Ct.) - Environmental.
  • Village of Cary v. Pollution Control Bd. (Ill. App. Ct.) - Constitutional validity of a regulation.
  • Porter County Chapter of Izaak Walton League of America, Inc. v. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (D.C. Cir.) - Administrative law.
  • Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Community Services Center v. IRS (C.D. of Cal.) - FOIA litigation.

Publications and Speeches

  • Author of over 25 continuing legal education book chapters and articles
  • Author and lecturer, American Law Institute/American Bar Association, Practising Law Institute, Mealey's Publications, Andrews Publications, Government Institutes, California Bar Association, Illinois Institute on Continuing Legal Education, Lloyd's Market Association, London Underwriting Association

Awards and Recognitions

  • Who's Who Legal
  • AV Rated
  • Super Lawyer for Southern California (Litigation), 2004–present
  • Top Ten Defense Verdicts for 2008, Daily Journal Corporation
  • International Who's Who of Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyers, 2005–present

Education

  • Northwestern University School of Law, JD
  • Denison University, BA, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa

Bar Admissions

  • California
  • Illinois (inactive)

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 7th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 8th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
  • U.S. District Court, Northern, Central, Southern and Eastern Districts of California