Life Insurance Employee Benefits

LINDA B. OLIVER

** ****** ******, ********, ** **708 • 510-***-**** • ****@*******.***

EXPERIENCE

Extensive experience in complex civil litigation and class actions in federal and state courts and in arbitration. Complex litigation experience includes the representation of clients in disputes in the following substantive areas: insurance, bad faith, securities, health and managed care, construction defect, mortgage servicing, enforcement of arbitration clauses, consumer class actions, violations of various federal statutes and state unfair and deceptive practices statutes, agency termination, employment and employee benefits.

Substantial experience as lead or primary counsel. Set strategy and developed facts and legal arguments that achieved successful results on motions, through settlement negotiations and mediations and at trial and arbitration. Deposition experience includes deposing party adversaries and defending client depositions in a variety of substantive areas, as well as preparing and deposing experts. Skilled at collaborating with colleagues, and at mentoring and training junior attorneys. Experienced with electronic discovery in large cases.

Represented clients in the following representative actions: Insurance and Employee Benefits

• Defended automobile, homeowner, D&O and commercial insurers against bad faith claims and class actions and prepared coverage opinions.

• Defended life insurers in disability and life insurance bad faith claims, including one trial to verdict after summary judgment on the extra-contractual claims.

• Defended claims against life insurers selling universal life insurance policies in FINRA arbitrations.

• Defended life insurers in numerous consumer class actions involving claims that the fixed annuities were unsuitable for seniors and that their true costs were not disclosed during the sales process, resulting in settlements on a class-wide basis significantly below clients’ total pre-trial exposure, and defense of those settlements on appeal.

• Defended life insurer in disputes regarding agency termination through summary judgment and appeal. Also investigated claims of employment discrimination and sexual harassment at captive agency resulting in a settlement without litigation.

• Defended life insurers in class actions involving claims that modal premium charges violate the terms of the insurance contract and state unfair and deceptive business practices statutes.

• Defended life insurers in class actions involving claims that defendants violated California law and regulations.

• Defended life insurers in cases involving employee benefit claims under ERISA, including trials to verdict and appeals.

• Prosecuted cases for life insurers to rescind life insurance policies obtained with the intent to sell to third parties, resulting in settlements.

• Defended health insurers in class and individual actions in court and in arbitration alleging claims for violations of state unfair and deceptive business practices statutes and regulatory violations, including post-claim underwriting and premium billing practices, physician contracting and coverage for experimental treatment.

Banking and Mortgage Servicing

• Defended class actions and individual claims in court and in arbitration against banks, including many cases against reverse mortgage lenders alleging violation of unfair business practices statutes relating to shared appreciation loans.

LINDA B. OLIVER

71 Poplar Street, Berkeley, CA 94708 • 510-***-**** • ****@*******.***

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Other

• Defended two class actions involving construction defect claims against manufacturers and an engineering companies resulting in settlements.

• Successfully defended a telecommunications company in unfair business practices class action alleging that it had rescinded arbitration provision in consumer contracts by winning summary judgment and upheld on appeal.

• Obtained dismissal of consumer class action against food manufacturer alleging that “all natural” claims on packaging violated state unfair and deceptive business practices statutes. Labor and Employment

• Defended employers in wage and hour class actions.

• Counseled employers investigating claims of sexual harassment.

• Counseled employers regarding California law and regulations. Pro Bono

• Successfully represented two Yemeni women who affirmatively petitioned for asylum based upon claims of forced marriage and fear of forced marriage.

• Represented veterans in Veteran’s Administration appeals of disability ratings based upon post- traumatic stress syndrome caused by service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Represented tenants at settlement conferences in eviction proceedings. LEGAL EXPERIENCE

Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, LLP, San Francisco, CA Of Counsel (June 20, 2022 to June 2024)

Bullivant Houser Bailey PC, San Francisco, CA

Of Counsel (March 23, 2020 to June 10, 2022)

Maynard, Cooper & Gale, LLP, San Francisco, CA

Of Counsel (August 3, 2015 to March 12, 2020)

Reed Smith LLP, San Francisco, CA

Partner (January 3, 2005 t0 July 24, 2015)

Fleming & Phillips LLP, Walnut Creek, CA

Senior Counsel (April 14, 1997 to December 30, 2004) Bailey & Kornblum, LLP, San Francisco, CA

Associate Attorney (June 6, 1994 to April 4, 1997) James Larson, Attorney at Law, San Francisco, CA

Associate Attorney (January 10, 1994 to May 27, 1994) California Women’s Law Center, Santa Monica, CA

Law Clerk (Summer 1991)

EDUCATION

UCLA School of Law, Los Angeles, CA

J.D., 1993

UCLA Law Review, Editor

Public Interest Law Foundation

LINDA B. OLIVER

71 Poplar Street, Berkeley, CA 94708 • 510-***-**** • ****@*******.***

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Cornell University, College of Arts and Sciences, Ithaca, NY B.A. in history with distinction in all subjects, 1986 University Unions Programming Board, Treasurer

Cornell Tradition Fellow

ADMISSIONS

California, 1993 (State Bar No. 166720)

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

United States District Courts of California

United States District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS

Co-speaker, ABA Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section Annual Midwinter Symposium on Insurance and Employee Benefits, January 18, 2009, Post-Claim Underwriting: Recent Developments in California. Co-speaker, Lorman Teleconference, May 9, 2009, Recent Developments in Life and Health Insurance: A Litigator’s Perspective.

Lorman Teleconference, December 20, 2010, Ethical Issues in Effective Settlement Discussions. Co-author of California chapter in the ABA’s Practitioner’s Guide to Class Actions. PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS AND COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES Commissioner on the City of Berkeley Commission of the Status of Women, June 2023 to present. YWCA Berkeley/Oakland, Board Member, June 2012 to present. American Bar Association, Tort, Trial and Insurance Practice Section, member. Association of Life Insurance Counsel, member.

West’s Insurance Litigation Reporter, Editorial Board member.

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