Englemann, Richard A.

Mr. Olsan is a partner in the Commercial Litigation Department and Chair of the Reinsurance Practice Group. He focuses his practice on reinsurance and insurance coverage disputes.

Mr. Olsan has been representing insurance and reinsurance companies in complex matters for over 20 years.  He has significant reinsurance arbitration experience with matters involving follow-the-fortunes, accumulation of claims, recovery of declaratory judgment expenses, offset, insolvencies, billing of asbestos claims under clash treaties, breach of warranties, misrepresentation in the procurement of reinsurance, priest molestation claims and recovery for extracontractual obligations and payments in excess of policy limits on behalf of ceding companies and reinsurers.  Mr. Olsan has taken many of his cases to final arbitration award with a substantial success rate.  In addition to cases in the property and casualty area, Mr. Olsan has arbitrated reinsurance disputes involving surety bonds and first party marine business.  Mr. Olsan also counsels clients with respect to contract wording issues, including treaties covering business in Japan and South America.

In addition to his reinsurance practice, Mr. Olsan represents major property and casualty companies in coverage disputes in environmental, asbestos and mass tort liability cases, many of which involve tens of millions of dollars in coverage potentially recoverable from his clients.  He was lead counsel in a major asbestos bankruptcy case that resulted in denial of plan confirmation in favor of the insurance carriers.  Additionally, he has substantial experience successfully mediating complex coverage disputes.  He also counsels his clients on coverage issues arising out of a variety of insurance policies in an effort to avoid expensive and contentious litigation.

Mr. Olsan received his B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College in 1986 and his J.D., summa cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law in 1989. At Syracuse, Mr. Olsan was the Technical Editor of the Syracuse Law Review and was elected to the Order of the Coif. Mr. Olsan is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is admitted to appear before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the District of New Jersey. Mr. Olsan is a member of the American, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Philadelphia Bar Associations and of ARIAS-US. He is also a fellow of the Academy of Advocacy of Temple University. In 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, Mr. Olsan was selected in a survey of his peers as a Pennsylvania "Super Lawyer" by Law & Politics magazine. Mr. Olsan is a frequent speaker at reinsurance seminars including the Robert W. Strain Reinsurance and Contract Wording Textbook Training Course, where he has been an instructor from 2006 to 2010, and ARIAS.  Mr. Olsan was also among the faculty members at the 2007 and 2008 West LegalWorks Conference on Insurance and Reinsurance Allocation.