Michael B. Adreani, Appellate Attorney in Woodland Hills, California

Michael B. Adreani specializes in the areas of bad faith litigation, class actions, wage and hour laws, civil appeals, insurance regulation, administrative actions and appeals, employer liability and legislative action. He has been a Chairperson of the Southern California Employment Law and Human Resources Forum the past several years.

Mr. Adreani represents employers, brokers, public entities, school districts, trade organizations, reinsurers, sureties and individuals in a wide variety of insurance related matters with an emphasis on risk management, coverage and workers' compensation cost containment. Mr. Adreani also represents both employers and employees in prosecuting and defending against various wage and hour matters.

Prior to joining RPNA in 1997, Mr. Adreani gained valuable experience in insurance related issues while working at the California Department of Insurance, legal division, in San Francisco, and with the in-house legal team at Hannover Re, one of the world's largest reinsurers located in Hannover, Germany.

Mr. Adreani also served as a legal extern in the Eastern District of California, and worked in the international division of The Coop Bank in Basel, Switzerland.

Honors and Affiliations:

Designated a "California Super Lawyers 'Rising Star'" in the Southern California legal community for three consecutive years.

Co-Chair, "Southern California Employment LawForum" presented by the Council on Education, 2008-2010. Chairs and presents on multiple topics at a prominent employment law forums attended by many of California’s top employers.

Featured speaker, California Employer Advisory Counsel Annual Meeting, 2009. Spoke on various employment and insurance related matters to non-profit organizations that work with the Employment Development Department (EDD) to improve the quality of employment services in California.

Featured speaker at the 2006 and 2007 national RIMS conference, as well as at local chapter meetings.

Authored articles for trade publications including the most recent entitled “Covering Your Tail: LPTs Transfer Risk When Moving To Fully Insured Plans” for PEO Insider.

Member of the Risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS).

Transactions or Matters:

Landmark wage and hour class action resulting in a $90 million verdict against a major national security company.

Eliminated claims of one-third of a putative class of employees suing their employer for wage and hour violations based upon a successful motion to adjudicate the affirmative defense of the existence of an arbitration agreement.

Represented a large staffing and labor leasing company in bad faith litigation to recover compensatory and punitive damages from Liberty Mutual for deficient claims handling and improper reserving under a policy of workers' compensation insurance.

Represented a large California insurance broker in various actions to obtain insurance coverage for public entity clients through the California Insurance Guarantee Association.

Represented an international reinsurance company in an action brought by the California Insurance Commissioner to recover proceeds to a surety bond.

Represented a national contracting company in an action brought by an employee to recover for serious injuries which occurred after hours at an apartment rented by the employer.

Represented a class of computer software engineers in an action to recover overtime compensation from several CitiGroup entities.