David B Hird

David B. Hird concentrates his practice on litigation in three areas: environmental litigation insurance, and general commercial litigation, including secured transactions and bankruptcy. Mr. Hird has worked over 20 years in the field of environmental litigation. From 1982 to 1989, Mr. Hird was a trial attorney with the Environmental Enforcement Section at the Justice Department, where he was lead counsel on behalf of the US on several of the key early Superfund cases. Since joining Weil, Gotshal & Manges in 1989, He has represented clients in disputes with the federal and state governments, and with other private parties, under Superfund, RCRA, the Clean Water Act and various other federal and state environmental statutes. Mr. Hird has also represented clients in related toxic tort actions. He has achieved substantial victories and advantageous settlements for private clients in numerous environmental cases. In the last 10 years, insurance litigation has become one of the major areas of Mr. Hird’s practice. He began working in this area by representing policyholders suing insurance companies for coverage of environmental liabilities, representing companies such as National Steel Corporation and Alumet. Subsequently, Mr. Hird has represented clients in a wide range of other types of insurance coverage disputes, including product liability coverage and for coverage property damage and business interruption claims. He has also represented clients with respect to coverage issues under directors’ and officers’ liability policies. Mr. Hird has also represented companies in bankruptcy with substantial environmental liabilities, both litigating these issues and negotiating favorable settlements. In particular, he has assisted such corporate debtors as Enron, Armstrong, Sunbeam, and Circle K in resolving environmental liabilities in the course of their bankruptcy cases. He served on the Environmental Claims Working Group of the National Bankruptcy Conference. In addition, Mr. Hird has represented insurance companies in defending against suits brought to challenge their marketing practices and in reinsurance disputes.