Leah Nunn Engelhardt

Leah N. Engelhardt is a Partner and the Practice Area Coordinator for Chaffe McCall’s Insurance Practice Group.  She offers a personal commitment to each matter she handles, drawing upon over two decades of diverse experience in national insurance litigation and counseling practice for domestic and London Market insurers.  Leah’s practice also includes handling insurance defense matters involving a variety of claims.

Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Insurance Law and Insurance Litigation, Leah’s practice includes experience on a wide range of first and third-party matters under various forms of primary, umbrella, excess, and OCCIP policies.  She has a demonstrated history of developing innovative approaches to servicing clients in connection with many types of coverage matters, including:

• Agriculture
• Auto and Trucking Liability
• Bad Faith/ Extra-Contractual
• Casualty
• Construction Defect
• Cyber
• Energy
• Environmental/ Latent Injury
• Excess/Umbrella Liability
• Inland Marine
• Marine
• Medical Risks
• Professional Liability
• Property (Commercial, Personal Lines, and Builder’s Risk)
• Subrogation

Prior to joining Chaffe McCall, Leah served as the New Orleans office Managing Partner of a regional law firm where she routinely advised domestic and international insurer clients in connection with insurance coverage, defense, and complex litigation matters.  She previously served for over 10 years with a mid-sized AmLaw 200 law firm as a member of the Insurance and Reinsurance Practice group. She is a Fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel (“ACCC”), an invitation-only organization dedicated to improving the quality of the practice of insurance law.

Leah also maintains a strong commitment to the business and civic communities, including pro bono and charitable activities.   She has worked with various non-profits in board leadership and fundraising positions, including the Children’s Hospital, New Orleans Museum of Art, Louisiana Children’s Museum, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans, and the Audubon Institute.

She is a 2008 graduate of the New Orleans Regional Leadership Institute and previously served as President of the Junior League of New Orleans (2008-2009) and Chairman of the Board of Citizens for 1 Greater New Orleans. The Young Leadership Council of New Orleans recognized Leah as a “2016 Role Model,” where recipients are chosen as an inspiration to YLC’s young professionals and the community at large.  New Orleans City Business magazine more recently named her in the 2021 Leadership in Law class and was named in the 2018 ‘Women of the Year’ class.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Bureau of Governmental Research.

RECENT PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS

• Obtained summary judgment in favor of international insurer in multi-million dollar legal malpractice coverage action in Texas federal court (affirmed by the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal)
• Obtained summary judgment in Louisiana state court on behalf of domestic marine insurer regarding damage to shrimping vessel
• Succeeded on summary judgment and successfully argued on appeal to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal on behalf of insurer under Builder’s Risk policy against claims by first-party property insurers of New Orleans hotel related to Hurricane Katrina damage
• Lead coverage counsel for domestic insurer of a CGL, professional and environmental liability package policy in multiple lawsuits for property damage, bodily injury and subrogation claims for losses arising from an explosion on tank platform
• Defended and successfully resolved first-party property/bad faith lawsuit for domestic insurer in Louisiana state court seeking over $10 million for claimed water loss damages to hotel
• Represented domestic insurer of a school board in first-party property/bad faith litigation for Hurricane Katrina damages and losses
• Represented international OCIP insurer in multi-million dollar coverage litigation in Texas federal court involving wrongful death claims related to the construction of Houston light-rail system
• Represented domestic insurer in first-party property/bad faith lawsuit in Texas federal court for damages to numerous buildings in a Texas school district as a result of Hurricane Ike
• Represented international insurers in declaratory judgment action in California state court by a multinational oil company for environmental damages to over 5,000 sites in the United States and Canada
• Represented international insurers through jury trial and appeal to the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in subrogation recovery in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia for pipeline rupture, fuel oil spill and related damages
• Acted as regional counsel for domestic insurers for various claims under multiple policy forms and insured risks in jurisdictions from Oklahoma to North Carolina to Florida and all states in between