Sherilyn Pastor

Sherilyn Pastor is Practice Group Leader of McCarter’s Insurance Coverage Group. She is an experienced trial attorney who has secured hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance for corporate policyholders. She litigates complex coverage matters throughout the country and abroad. She provides insurance coverage advice to clients assessing their potential risks, analyzing new insurance products and considering the adequacy of their programs.

By way of example, Sheri obtained summary judgment awarding Wakefern Food Corporation insurance for catastrophic storm losses, establishing New Jersey law that “physical damage” in a property and business interruption policy includes loss of use, value and function. She also recently obtained summary judgment for a manufacturer on convincing a federal court that its employee’s bill padding and kickback scheme was a direct and covered loss under a crime insurance policy. In ruling, the court agreed that having the funds pass through an intermediary did not change the fundamental nature of the theft and unlawful taking of property.

Sheri also defended Transamerica Corporation in a dispute with a former subsidiary (IMO Industries) regarding $1.5 billion in insurance coverage. Transamerica had purchased insurance for itself and its subsidiaries as part of a consolidated risk management approach. After a six-month trial, the court ruled in Transamerica’s favor on all claims against it, entering declaratory judgment that Transamerica’s decades-old divesture agreement left its former subsidiary liable for its own asbestos losses. The court rejected that Transamerica was responsible for deductibles, retentions or gaps in insurance coverage or was effectively transformed into a “de facto” insurer because of its risk management efforts. The Appellate Division upheld all of the trial court’s rulings in September 2014. The N.J. Supreme Court affirmed in July 2015 and ordered costs be paid in Transamerica’s favor. Sheri likewise helped Lucent Technologies Inc. (now Alcatel Lucent) recover its fiduciary liability coverage following various class action settlements with ERISA plaintiffs.

Sheri is a member of the Board of Regents of the American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel (ACCEC).  She received the ACCEC’s Thomas F. Segalla Award in 2015. Sheri also is the Immediate Past Chair (Policyholder Side) of the ABA Litigation Section’s Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee, having served as Vice-Chair from 2009-2012 and as co-chair of various ICLC subcommittees since 2002. She was a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Professional Responsibility Rules Committee for over a decade and a member of the New Jersey Supreme Court’s Working Group on Ethical Issues Involving Metadata in Electronic Documents. She also serves as an Editorial Consultant to Law360: Insurance and was on the Editorial Boards of the Insurance Coverage Law Bulletin and a consultant on the New Appleman Insurance Law Practice Guide.

She publishes and lectures frequently on insurance, trial skills and ethics matters.

Awards & Accolades

• Recognized as a Band 1 leader in her field by Chambers USA

• Listed in The International Who's Who of Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyers, 2010-present

• Included in New Jersey Super Lawyers 2005-present

• Listed in The Best Lawyers in America for Insurance Law and Litigation 2014-2018 and Best Lawyers’ 2018 “Lawyer of the Year” for Litigation – Insurance

• Martindale Hubbell AV Preeminent Rated, 2012-present

• NJBIZ Best 50 Women in Business Award, 2010

• TWINS honoree, 2011

No aspect of these advertisements have been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey. See Awards Methodology.