| Karen Y. Bonvalot | |
Karen Y. Bonvalot Ms. Bonvalot is a Shareholder and Director of the firm and is a member of the firm’s Insurance Coverage Services and Litigation Services Groups. Ms. Bonvalot is actively involved in insurance coverage matters as well as matters relating to advising and litigating issues faced by local universities. The remainder of her practice principally has been devoted to litigation involving family and closely held business disputes. With respect to insurance coverage, Ms. Bonvalot has experience litigating claims relating to business policies, such as director and officer liability, fiduciary responsibility, employment practices liability and professional error and omissions policies. In the past five years, Ms. Bonvalot has been lead litigation counsel in insurance coverage litigation, including declaratory judgment actions, general coverage actions and bad faith claims, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and Maryland. She also actively consults with the firm's Corporate practice to determine how various state and federal courts have interpreted or are likely to interpret specific policy provisions and assists in the development of strategies designed to resolve coverage issues without the need for litigation. In the field of higher education, Ms. Bonvalot has principally focused on defending colleges and universities against claims raised by students seeking redress for various perceived inadequacies in the education process. She has secured four summary judgment verdicts in the last four cases instituted by students alleging some form of educational malpractice, and has defeated a student's demand for an injunction compelling an educational institution to change a student’s grade. In the business litigation arena, Ms. Bonvalot offers assistance to shareholders, members or partners of privately owned businesses that are facing ownership or other types of management disputes. She understands the additional difficulties created by these relationships, often involving companies owned and/or managed by family members, which can be exacerbated when new generations become involved in the business. Ms. Bonvalot also litigates real estate tax assessment appeals, which continues to be an active area of litigation in Allegheny County due to a court-ordered, county-wide reassessment process that was instituted in the early 2000s. A native of Pittsburgh, Ms. Bonvalot worked for a number of years within the hospitals that now comprise the UPMC health care network before returning to school to earn her law degree. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Bonvalot was an attorney at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, PC. Ms. Bonvalot was an attorney with Klett Rooney Lieber & Schorling when it merged with Buchanan in 2006. There, she oversaw the Summer Associate Committee and was a member of the Recruiting Committee. Areas of Law/Focus
Education
Professional & Community Activities
Bar Admissions
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