Miles is an honors graduate of the University of Washington School of Law. He joined GTTC as an associate upon graduation and focuses his practice on insurance recovery, with an emphasis on professional liability, cyber losses and liabilities, and environmental and asbestos long-tail claims. Miles has continually been recognized by Super Lawyers as a “Rising Star” for his work representing policyholders in first- and third-party coverage disputes.

Miles helped create the firm’s Law School Leg-Up Grant Program, which provides undergraduate students with mentorship and financial assistance for LSAT prep and law school applications.

REPRESENTATIVE MATTERS

  • Favorable Ruling for Washington Winemakers Against Excess Liability Insurer.  Miles and Kasey Huebner represented a prominent Pacific Northwest winemaker in coverage litigation against its excess liability insurer, the Ohio Casualty Insurance Company, seeking indemnification for the settlement of claims asserted by another winery involving over 320,000 damaged cases of wine.  After the policyholder filed suit against Ohio Casualty in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, the insurer filed a motion for partial summary judgment, asking the court to rule that exclusions in its $10 million excess liability policy precluded coverage as a matter of law for the underlying settlement.  Based upon the arguments that Miles and Kasey presented, the court denied Ohio Casualty’s motion, finding that there were genuine issues of material fact regarding whether the exclusions applied.  After subsequent rulings by the court in favor of our client, the parties reached a confidential settlement on the eve of trial.
  • Favorable Outcome in Broker Liability Matter.  Miles and Frank Cordell represented a public agency in King County after a verdict in excess of $24 million was entered against it in an underlying lawsuit for wrongful termination and retaliation.  Our client’s excess liability carrier had denied coverage for the verdict, asserting that the policy excluded coverage for employment practices liability claims, and that the insured failed to provide timely notice under the claims-made and reported policy.  Miles and Frank then pursued our client’s insurance broker for failing to procure the necessary coverage and provide timely notice to the insurer.  Miles and Frank’s representation led to a favorable resolution for our client with its insurance broker, allowing it to settle the claims asserted against it in the underlying lawsuit while the verdict was pending appeal.
  • Representation in Contractual Indemnity and Additional Insurance Matters.  Miles has frequently represented clients who are entitled to defense and indemnification from third-parties pursuant to contractual indemnity and additional insurance requirements in their contracts.  Miles’s representation has accordingly helped numerous clients obtain the substantial defense and indemnity benefits they are entitled to from third-parties and their insurers.
  • Notable Ruling Under Claims-Made-And-Reported Policy. Miles served on the GTTC team representing a major Northwest-based hospital system in coverage litigation against Underwriters at Lloyd’s. The case arose out of an $18 million arbitration award against the client, in favor of a surgeon who alleged wrongful termination of his employment. Underwriters had issued the client’s an employment-practices policy, written on a claims-made-and-reported basis. The policyholder inadvertently failed to notify Underwriters of the claim until after the arbitration award. The policyholder’s notice came during the same policy period in which the employment claim was asserted but after the 60-day deadline for notice established by a policy condition. Underwriters denied coverage, contending that Washington’s prejudice rule did not apply where notice is late under claims-made-and-reported policies. The policyholder sued. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington rejected Underwriters’ position, holding that because notice came during the policy period, the prejudice rule applied and Underwriters could avoid their coverage obligation only to the extent they could prove that they were prejudiced by the late notice. The parties later reached a confidential settlement.
  • GTTC Obtains Coverage for Class Action Against Major e-Retailer.  Miles, along with Frank Cordell and Susannah Carr, represented a major publicly traded e-commerce company that was the defendant in a class action brought by certain hotels in California. The hotels alleged that our client engaged in a bait-and-switch marketing scheme that constituted an anti-competitive practice and disparaged the plaintiffs’ businesses. AIG, our client’s professional liability and media liability insurer, denied coverage on a variety of grounds. AIG sued our client, seeing a declaration of no coverage. In October 2020, the federal district court in Seattle ruled for our client on the key issues of policy interpretation.
  • Win Against Fireman’s Fund.  Miles and Frank Cordell represented the owner of a waterfront restaurant in Tacoma, Washington, in a coverage dispute arising out of a property loss suffered when a large barge-mounted industrial crane broke loose from its mooring and crashed into the client’s property. The client’s insurer, Fireman’s Fund, denied coverage, relying on a policy exclusion. GTTC sued Fireman’s Fund and promptly prevailed on a motion for summary judgment based upon the arguments Miles presented, defeating all coverage defenses.
  • Favorable Arbitration Ruling on Municipality’s Claim for Defense Coverage.  Miles prevailed at arbitration and established that the policyholder municipality was entitled to reimbursement from its governmental risk pool for defense costs that were incurred in a parallel state court proceeding. The ruling ensured that the municipality was reimbursed for all of the defense costs it incurred while the covered claims against it were pending in federal court.

PROFESSIONAL & CIVIC INVOLVEMENT

  • Juvenile Parole Project, volunteer attorney, 2022-2023.
  • GTTC Law School Leg-Up Grant Program

PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS

Presentations

  • Lightning Round:  Significant developments in Washington insurance law over the last year and the implications for Washington policyholders, 2021 Insurance Webinar
  • The Wild West of Insurance: Insuring the Cannabis Industry, 2020 GTTC Insurance Webinar
  • #MeToo But Not You: Insurance Coverage for #MeToo Claims, 2019 GTTC Insurance Seminar, Seattle, WA

PERSONAL

Outside of the office, I am an avid traveler and diehard sports fan. Although I love exploring new places all over the world, nothing beats the annual trips to my family’s cabin on Flathead Lake, Montana and Glacier National Park.