Scott P. DeVries, Hunton Andrews Kurth. (Courtesy photo)

Scott DeVries, the former chair of the insurance coverage practice at Winston & Strawn, has joined Hunton Andrews Kurth in San Francisco.

DeVries, who served as the firmwide managing partner of Nossaman for seven years prior to joining Winston in 2007 to head the firm's insurance recovery practice, is joining his new firm as special counsel. He said that his move was motivated by Winston's shift toward working for insurance companies rather than policyholders.

"It was great lawyers, great clients, great work," DeVries said in a Zoom interview Tuesday of his time at Winston. But he said that the shift toward work for insurance companies was "fundamentally inconsistent" with his policyholder practice and the firm leaders had made it clear that they were getting out of the business of representing policyholders. "You have to be on one side or another side," DeVries said.  

DeVries said that the fact that Hunton has a team of 27 lawyers across the country representing policyholders made it a good fit for the sorts of high-stakes insurance coverage cases he tends to handle. "There are not that many groups that are like that in the country that are dedicated to the policyholder side," he said. "I'm just thrilled to be here," he added.

"Scott is a widely respected attorney who has tried some of the largest insurance, mass tort and class action cases in the country in addition to securing landmark insurance decisions in the California Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit," said Walter Andrews, head of Hunton Andrews Kurth's insurance coverage practice, in a press release announcing the arrival of DeVries. "His experience and insight are a perfect complement to the firm's robust insurance coverage practice and his addition enhances our presence on the West Coast and nationally." 

The Washington Post reported last month that one-third of U.S. businesses have some sort of business interruption insurance. DeVries said that business losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic have led to people in his line of work having the phone ring constantly with questions about their policies. "Companies are by definition talking to their risk managers, talking to their brokers, and a large number are talking to their lawyers and making claims to make sure their interests are protected," DeVries said. He said that policyholders need to keep an eye on the notice and proof of loss provisions in their policies "to make sure they're not tripping over themselves and giving their insurers arguments that they really shouldn't be."

He added that insurance companies are currently in no hurry to resolve claims due to the volume and size of claims that are incoming. While some are denying claims without any investigation at all, others are sending out boilerplate letters asking about physical damages. 

"I think the amounts are so significant right now, while you need to make sure you're getting in and making sure you're getting filed what you need to get filed, it's going to take a while before your seeing any payments being made," DeVries said. "It'll take a while for this to play out, but you need to be in the queue."

DeVries' departure to Hunton follows a string of other litigator departures for Winston & Strawn in California. Baker & Hostetler this month brought on David Aronoff as a partner from Winston & Strawn, where he previously served as the Los Angeles chairman of litigation. Aronoff's move came after Winston's former white-collar co-chair, Robb Adkins, left in March to lead Baker & Hostetler's new San Francisco office. Adkins' move, in turn, followed the move of the former managing partner of Winston's Los Angeles office and the co-chair of that office's labor and employment practice, among others who made the jump to Baker & Hostetler since the start of 2019.

Winston representatives didn't immediately respond to request for comment on DeVries' departure.