Photo of René Siemens

René Siemens

René Siemens is a nationally recognized insurance coverage practitioner who represents policyholders in negotiations and disputes with their insurers. He also handles complex product liability, mass tort, environmental, and consumer cases.

René has helped clients recover over $2 billion from their insurers. Chambers USA has described him as “an encyclopedia of insurance law,” and Legal 500 has described him as “the smartest guy in the room.” He has also been ranked in the top tier of policyholder attorneys by Best Lawyers in America, Euromoney’s Guide to the World’s Leading Insurance and Reinsurance Lawyers and the PLC Cross-Border Insurance and Reinsurance Handbook, among others.

With nearly 30 years’ experience representing policyholders, René’s practice encompasses a wide range of insurance issues including environmental, product liability, natural disaster, asbestos, nuclear, and sexual abuse coverage claims; pandemic, privacy, cyber, event cancellation, marine insurance, property and business interruption losses; as well as disputes under D&O, professional liability, and specialty coverages.

Clients also frequently retain René to handle complex contractual indemnity disputes and consult him on underwriting and risk management issues, including drafting and negotiating insurance policy contracts, risk transfer provisions in corporate transactions, structuring captive insurance and reinsurance programs, and claims presentation to insurers, captives, and their reinsurers. 

René's insurance coverage work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Guardian, BBC, Jerusalem Report, Variety, Billboard, TMZ, California Lawyer, Los Angeles Lawyer, Examiner, Recorder, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Insurance Insider, Business Insurance, Insurance Litigation, Risk & Insurance, Law360, LexisNexis Insurance Law E-Newsletter, National Journal, Bloomberg Law Reports, Computer Fraud and Security, Reuters Accelus, and Risk Management.  He publishes and speaks frequently on insurance issues and co-authored chapters on product liability insurance and alternative dispute resolution in the New Appleman Insurance Law Practice Guide, on property insurance exclusions in the New Appleman on Insurance Law, and on cyber insurance in New Appleman on Insurance: Current Critical Issues in Insurance Law.

 

René also represents corporate clients in product liability, mass tort, environmental, and consumer cases.

Digital Health

In this bonus edition of our checkup series, Covington’s global cross-practice Digital Health team considers some additional key questions about product liability and insurance coverage that companies across the life sciences and technology sectors should be asking as they seek to fit together the regulatory and commercial pieces of the complex digital health puzzle.

1. What are the key questions when crafting warnings and disclosures?

If your product is regulated, your warnings and disclosures will need to comply with any relevant regulations. In the case of a product not regulated by the FDA or equivalent regulatory body, first consider how your warnings and disclosures will be incorporated into the use of the product.

Some disclosures, like an explanation of the data source used by software, may fit best in terms and conditions that a user sees before using the product. Key warnings, however, may be more appropriately placed as part of the user experience.

Example: A warning that patients should consult their doctors if necessary may need to be placed in proximity to specific medical content.

Best Practice: Consider your intended audience: are you writing warnings for doctors, patients, or institutions? The appropriate types of disclosures will vary across populations. Patient-directed warnings may also need to be written in simplified language.

Best Practice: Consider whether it is appropriate for your product to have users to accept or otherwise be required to agree to the warnings and disclosures.

Continue Reading Digital Health Checkup (Bonus): Product Liability and Insurance Coverage