Gregory D. Podolak Partner

Gregory D. Podolak has spent his entire career advocating on behalf of corporate policyholders, navigating issues involving all lines of coverage, with a wealth of experience strategizing risk transfer/financing. Greg assists clients in all manner of concerns from coverage placement and drafting contracts to complex litigation.

Greg’s litigation and appellate practice includes successful arguments in multiple jurisdictions, which includes a $40 million builder’s risk claim in a Maryland Federal Court case, involving previously unsettled issues of law related to coverage for construction scheduling impact costs, and a multi-million dollar bridge collapse builders risk lawsuit in Florida bankruptcy court. He has represented clients on countless residential and commercial construction defect claims throughout the country, and successfully advocated multiple seminal state supreme court decision, including a New York Court of Appeals decision resolving critical “additional insured” law, a Florida Supreme Court ruling deciding notice of right to repair is a “suit,” and a New Jersey Supreme Court decision that construction defect damages trigger CGL insurance.

Greg also has extensive experience guiding clients through pre-litigation insurance claim resolution for high-profile, catastrophic losses. Representative engagements include, among many others:
– Counseling a general contractor through a multi-faceted insurance recovery agenda for a bridge collapse disaster involving multiple fatalities, government investigation, and multi-million-dollar property damage claims.

– Successfully negotiating, on behalf of multiple corporate entities, for Directors and Officers coverage for government/criminal investigations.

– Orchestrating corporate insurance recovery for long latency sexual abuse and molestation claims.

– Numerous multi-million dollar first party property and business interruption claims for corporate clients of various profiles (hospitality, gaming, residential, and construction).

Greg routinely reviews insurance program placements for his clients, advising on critical litigation trends that influence contracting strategy. In this capacity, he actively works with the risk management teams and brokers for multiple national companies on a recurring, annual basis as part of their program renewal agenda. Greg also leads his firm’s Cyber Risk team, which focuses on advising clients in all industries on being more knowledgeable about their unique risk and insurance recovery (including “silent cyber” considerations) for the most pressing considerations in this field, including fraudulent wire transfer claims, ransom attacks, and data breaches involving sensitive personal and corporate data.

In addition to an active law practice, Greg frequently collaborates with national insurance brokerage firms and regularly speaks and authors articles on a variety of insurance coverage topics. He is the dedicated commentator on additional insured issues for the International Risk Management Institute’s (IRMI) Expert Commentary. He has been named a Super Lawyers Rising Star for 10 consecutive years (2012 – 2021) and was a recipient of the 2015 Connecticut Law Tribune New Leaders in the Law award.

A member of his firm’s Executive Committee, he is responsible for expanding the firm’s national outreach. Establishing an office location in Naples, Florida in 2016, Greg is the Managing Partner of SDV Southeast. A Connecticut native, he currently resides in Naples with his wife and three children.