Eric D. Freed is a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Insurance Coverage and Claims Litigation Practice Group and vice chair of the Global Insurance Department. He joined the firm in 1989. An experienced litigator and former prosecutor, Eric represents leading insurance companies in complex insurance litigation arising from coverage, bad faith, aviation, and fraud claims.
Eric has nearly 25 years of experience as a trial lawyer and has led more than 40 jury trials in both state and federal courts. While he has a long track record of success conducting settlement negotiations and motions practice, Eric is first and foremost an active trial lawyer. He appears regularly before federal district and state courts, arbitration panels, and bankruptcy courts and communicates directly with state and federal law enforcement agencies on behalf of clients.
In his current practice, Eric primarily litigates disputes involving first- and third-party property and liability insurance coverage. While his experience is wide ranging, Eric has notable aviation insurance defense expertise, having represented aviation underwriters in major coverage disputes and defense litigation. He routinely conducts all manner of fraud claim investigations and, as a member of the firm’s e-Discovery Practice Committee, handles large and complicated e-discovery productions and disputes.
Because Eric is one of the firm’s most veteran trial lawyers, he is often asked to provide strategic guidance on significant insurance disputes being handled by other Cozen O’Connor attorneys. Among his contributions, Eric evaluates the strengths and weakness of claims, analyzes jury dynamics, assists with discovery strategy, and mentors junior lawyers on trial process and presentation.
Before becoming vice chair of the insurance litigation group in 2013, Eric also maintained a thriving bankruptcy practice, pursuing civil fraud actions on behalf of unsecured creditors’ committees, corporate directors and officers, insurers, secured creditors, debtors and trustees in cases involving lender liability, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent transfer, and avoidance actions. On occasion, Eric still assists with bankruptcy cases that have a fraud or an insurance coverage component.
Prior to joining Cozen O’Connor, Eric served for five years as an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia where he worked in the Child Abuse and Career Criminal Units.
Eric is a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Commercial Fraud Task Force and Bankruptcy Litigation Committee. He is also a member of the American Bar Association, Pennsylvania Bar Association, and Philadelphia Bar Association. In addition to his professional affiliations, Eric is a volunteer attorney with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society of Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts.
Eric received his Bachelor of Arts from George Washington University in 1979 and earned his law degree, cum laude, from the Villanova University School of Law in 1983.
