Michael F. Aylward

Michael F. Aylward

Michael F. Aylward is a senior partner in the Boston office of Morrison Mahoney LLP where he chairs the firm's complex insurance claims resolution group.

For over twenty-five years, Mr. Aylward has represented insurers and reinsurers in coverage disputes around the country concerning the application of liability insurance policies to commercial claims involving intellectual property disputes, environmental and mass tort claims and construction defect litigation. He has also advised various medical malpractice insurers concerning professional liability claims and consults frequently on bad faith and ethics disputes. He has also served as an arbitrator and testified as an expert in various matters involving coverage and reinsurance issues arising out of such claims.

In addition to his trial practice, Mr. Aylward has argued numerous landmark appeals, including the first cases in the D.C. Circuit (Independent Petrochemical Corp. v. Aetna Cas. & Sur. Co., 995 F.2d 305 (D.C. Cir. 1993) and in Massachusetts (Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. SCA Services, Inc., 412 Mass. 330, 588 N.E.2d 1346 (1992)) defeating the duty to defend on the basis of the pollution exclusion; the first case in Massachusetts upholding the "known loss" doctrine (SCA Services, Inc. v. Transportation Ins. Co., 419 Mass. 527, 646 N.E.2d 384 (1995); the first case in the United States in which a state supreme court found that the historical knowledge of the manufactured gas industry precluded "occurrence" coverage (EnergyNorth Natural Gas, Inc. v. Continental Ins. Co., 781 A.2d 969 (N.H. 2001) and the first Massachusetts case to address whether TCPA “junk fax” claims trigger CGL coverage (Terra Nova Ins. Co. v. Evan Fray-Witzer,869 N.E.2d 565 (Mass. 2007).

Mr. Aylward has taken a leadership role in legal organizations including the American Bar Association (co-chair of Excess and Umbrella subcommittee of Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee); theDefense Research Institute (Board of Directors (2000-2003), member, Law Institute (2004-present) and past Chair, Insurance Law Committee (2000-2003); theFederation of Defense and Corporate Counsel (Chair, Reinsurance Excess Surplus Lines Committee, 2007-2008)) and and the International Association of Defense Counsel (Chair, Reinsurance, Excess and Surplus Lines Committee, Board of Editors, Defense Counsel Journal).

In 2002, he was honored by the Defense Research Institute as its Outstanding Committee Chair for his leadership of DRI’s Insurance Law Committee. In 2006, he received DRI’s G. Duffield Smith Award for Outstanding Publications for his article analyzing post-Campbell trends in punitive damages jurisprudence.

Mr. Aylward has lectured and written frequently on insurance issues and has testified as an expert on insurance and bad faith issues in several suits and arbitrations. He is a contributing author to several leading insurance treaties, including two chapters in the New Appleman Insurance Law Practice Guide (2008). Since 2004, Boston Magazine has included him in its annual list of Massachusetts “Superlawyers.”