Expert Witness

Rod Taylor is managing director of Breitstone & Co. Ltd., a risk and insurance management and consulting firm providing assistance to parties engaged in complex transactions involving construction, environmental, and other exotic business risks.

Litigation Support, Expert Witness Testimony, and Reports
Mr. Taylor provides expert witness testimony and reports on insurance coverage issues, including the scope of coverage available under general liability and environmental insurance policies.

Owner-Controlled and Contractor-Controlled Wrap-Up Insurance Programs · Comprehensive Risk Management
Mr. Taylor also works with large-scale construction projects to develop effective risk management and insurance programs for property owners, developers, and contractors. Most of his work in this area involves the use of owner-controlled or contractor-controlled (wrap-up) insurance programs in which all contractors and subcontractors are insured in a single package of policies that are coupled with a comprehensive risk management program.

As an insurance manager and consultant, Mr. Taylor has participated in the design and implementation of numerous wrap-up programs for the construction of bridges, highways, transit system projects, sports arenas and stadiums, and large commercial and industrial buildings.

Environmental Clean-Up · Superfund Site Insurance Programs · Environmental Risk Management
As an environmental consultant, Mr. Taylor has also assisted in the development of wrap-up insurance programs for environmental cleanups at Superfund sites and for the decommissioning of nuclear power generating facilities.

Early Career Experience in Loss Control Insurance Underwriting
As a fire protection engineer, Mr. Taylor began his career in the insurance industry doing loss control work on properties protected by automatic sprinkler and other fixed protection systems.

He reviewed the design and adequacy of fire protection systems in a wide variety of industrial and commercial settings, including the protection of public and private utilities generating power at nuclear and fossil fuel facilities. He also supervised the work of other engineers providing similar services as a part of his increased responsibilities as he moved from the insurance rating and underwriting areas to the insurance brokerage business.

Insurance Broker · Environmental Risk Management
On behalf of his clients, Mr. Taylor has been involved with the negotiation of policy provisions and claims administration. Mr. Taylor’s involvement in environmental risk management began in the early stages of environmental regulation in the United States.

In the early 1980s, he founded the environmental practice of Fred. S. James (now part of Marsh, Inc.), an international insurance broker that was headquartered in Chicago. In that position, Mr. Taylor worked with more than 60 retail offices and their clients to develop insurance and risk management solutions for the emerging problems of Superfund liability, RCRA compliance, and the exclusion of environmental coverage from standard market property and casualty insurance policies. He also assisted in the development of environmental insurance forms and marketed the products of US-domiciled and London insurers active in writing pollution risks.

After working with Fred. S. James and its successor organizations in a variety of account service and management assignments for nearly fourteen years, Mr. Taylor joined Willis Coroon where he also worked as a senior risk management resource and headed the Environmental Risk Practice within the Advanced Risk Management Division for a period of six years.

Construction, Energy and Petrochemical Risk Commercial Insurance
In addition to working as a fire protection engineer, loss control specialist, and environmental resource, Mr. Taylor has also worked as an account executive and commercial insurance producer for national and international insurance brokers in several different assignments.

As an account executive, he worked with large commercial and industrial businesses with a focus on construction, energy, and petrochemical risks. He has also managed retail offices for international insurance brokers and served as a corporate resource in the areas of loss control, energy (electric utility, oil and gas), errors and omissions, claims administration, finite risk, and environmental risk management.

He has been recognized for his account development and client service capabilities through various awards for new business and account retention accomplishments.

Innovator: Wrap-Up Solutions · Superfund · Defense · Sick Building · Landfill · Nuclear Power Sites · Offshore Drilling Construction
Over the more than thirty years he has worked in the insurance industry, Mr. Taylor has been instrumental in the development of several new forms of insurance, including:

(1) Owner-controlled and contractor-controlled coordinated (wrap-up) insurance programs for Superfund, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, and privately undertaken remediation projects;

(2) Integrated insurance and funding products to insure cost overruns, the efficacy of remediation processes, and other environmental risks associated with site cleanups;

(3) Insurance to offset and remove liabilities from corporate balance sheets;

(4) Sick building insurance programs;

(5) Financial responsibility insurance for landfill closure and post-closure care costs;

(6) Continuing expense (business interruption) insurance for nuclear power generation facilities; and

(7) Insurance for the construction and operation of offshore drilling platforms in the North Sea and other locations involving high values and a serious potential for tow-out, assembly, and operational losses.

Risk Management and Insurance Industry Writer, Speaker and Expert Witness
Mr. Taylor has written numerous articles on risk management and insurance and is a frequent speaker at national conferences and educational programs on environmental and other risk management topics. He has also acted as an expert witness in numerous cases involving environmental insurance, risk management, and insurance brokerage operations.

Academic and Professional Credentials
Engineering · Law · Insurance · Risk Management

Mr. Taylor is a graduate of the University of Maryland with a B.S. in engineering, and he is a Registered Professional Engineer in Fire Protection. He also received a Juris Doctorate (cum laude) from Brigham Young University School of Law and is admitted to the Illinois State Bar. He holds the Charter Property and Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), the Charter Life Underwriter (CLU), and the Associate in Risk Management (ARM) professional insurance designations.

Articles Published by Rodney J. Taylor, J.D., P.E., CPCU, CLU, ARM from 1994 to Present
The following is a list of the published work of the author from 1994 through the present:

1. John Liner Review, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer, 1994, Environmental Liability at the Top of the Corporate Ladder.
2. Risk Management, September, 1994, Co-Author of Article titled, The Superfund Reform Sweepstakes.
3. American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, Volume XIV, Number 10, Dec./Jan., 1996, Insurance Coverage for U.S. Trustees in Operating Chapter 11s.
4. American Bar Association, Section on Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, Proceedings from National Brownfield Transaction Conference, June 18, 1996, You Don’t Have to Bet the Company – Managing Risks in Brownfield Transactions.
5. American Institute for CPCU, Commercial Liability and Risk Management, Volume 2, Third Edition, October, 1996 (Textbook for CPCU Candidates) Co-Author of Chapter titled Environmental Insurance.
6. American Bar Association, Section on Natural Resources, Energy and Environmental Law, Proceedings from National Conference – Brownfields Transactions: Making The Deals Work, March 27, 1997, Brownfields Update – Promises, Problems and Predictions for the Future.
7. Environmental Claims Journal, Volume 10, Number 2, Winter, 1998, Risk Management Considerations in Transactions Involving Contaminated or Potentially Contaminated Properties.
8. Environmental Claims Journal, Volume 11, Number 4, Summer, 1999, A Process to Resolve Environmental Legacy Liabilities – Unlocking Assets to Pay the Costs of Historic Pollution.
9. Environmental Claims Journal, Volume 13, Number 3, Spring, 2001, What Makes a Good Brownfield Deal – and How to Make a Not-So-Good Deal Better

Testimony or Depositions Provided by Rodney J. Taylor, J.D., P.E., CPCU, CLU, ARM in the Past Four Years:

1. Tenneco Automotive, et al v. El Paso Corp., Deposition, January 22-23, 2002; Trial, February 14-15, 2002.
2. Continental Holdings Inc v. AIU Insurance Company, et al, Expert’s Report Provided, April 2001; Deposition, August and September 2001.
3. Howmet Corporation v. Travelers Insurance Company, Expert’s Report provided, January 11, 2001.
4. BICC Cables v. Travelers Insurance Company, Expert’s Report provided, August, 2000; Deposition, January, 2001.
5. Mennen Co. v. Federal Insurance Company, Expert’s Report and Deposition provided, September, 1999.
6. Griffith v. Premium Tank Lines, et al v. American National Fire Insurance Company, Circuit Court of Harrison County, Mississippi, First Judicial Circuit, Consultant’s Report provided, August, 1999.
7. Gaylord Container Corporation and Gaylord Chemical Corporation v. CAN Insurance Company, No: 73,381-DIV. “C”, 22^nd Judicial District Court, Parish of Washington, State of Louisiana, Expert’s Report, Deposition and Testimony provided, December, 1998.