WALTER ANDREWS

Hunton Andrews Kurth

 

When Hurricane Irma blew through South Florida, the storm was much weaker than the Category 5 that was forecast days before its arrival.

But even the weaker system fouled and befuddled many in the region. Walter Andrews' response was to quickly advise employees at his law firm, the newly renamed Hunton Andrews Kurth, and its clients and their employees on how to deal with storm damage and insurance claims.

Luckily for Andrews, he was marooned in Washington, D.C., for medical reasons. He watched televised scenes with his Brickell Key neighborhood sitting under more water than anyone expected.

“We have dozens of cases where we advised employees and clients' employees about their own insurance claims and how to get more of their claims paid,” said Andrews, who heads the law firm's insurance recovery practice.

“Unfortunately, the insurance companies don't always pay, and part of their business model is they're not going to pay all of their claims,” Andrews said. “Just because the insurance companies say no doesn't mean to insurance companies are right.”

That corporate indisposition feeds much of Andrews' business.

After Irma, he reached out to clients and client associations to provide free legal advice about how to get their claims paid. He made several presentations to the Greater Miami and the Beaches Hotel Association and met with some members individually to give them pro bono legal advice on hotel insurance claims.

“Then we moved up to smaller clients, members, single hotels — not the Ritz-Carlton, but local hotels who don't have massive amounts of legal resources and don't have hotel chains around the world,” he said, noting the Ritz-Carltons and Four Seasons of the world are able to fend for themselves.

He also worked with the Florida Association of Certified Public Accountants to get their clients' claims paid.

Andrews has worked with the American Bar Association's hurricane disaster relief committee and given presentations at ABA events on how to improve their clients' chances of getting coverage on their claims. One result was a checklist for preparing property damage and business interruption claims.

He's reached out to ABA members in the U.S. Virgin Islands to get insurance claim information to attorneys, their families and businesses in the storm-battered U.S. territory.

He said he has consulted with a few clients in Puerto Rico on a pro bono basis.

“Unfortunately, Puerto Rico is such a mess that their focus is still on survival and not so much compensation,” Andrews said. “Frankly, they need it more.”

He's written articles for the Houston Chronicle and the Daily Business Review to reach a wider audience as well.

“I'm not a johnny come lately. I've been trying to do these things for years,” Andrews said. “It's going to be going on for years if you look at Katrina as an example or 9/11. I was handling 9/11 insurance claims for easily six to eight years.”

He described the slow process of determining the insured loss, getting an insurance company decision and starting litigation if necessary.

“The court system is anything but quick,” he noted. For paying clients, Andrews works on a contingency basis and is paid out of the recovery.

But he takes special pride in the pro bono side. Attorneys at his firm, formerly Hunton & Williams, have been credited with 100 percent pro bono participation for years.

“We're lucky, we're privileged, and we need to help our neighbors who aren't,” Andrews said. “I think with privilege comes responsibility, and I think we do a tremendous job of demonstrating that.”

His work extends to forest fires and other disasters. More recently, data breach insurance has come into its own. A typical data breach for an online business can cost millions of dollars.

Since cyberinsurance is such a new product, he said he spends a lot of time filling the gaps by making sure a wide range of losses are covered by the policies, including forensic investigations, notification requirements, credit monitoring, call centers and regulatory responses.