PROVIDENCE, RI, October 26, 2020 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Barbara O'Donnell has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
Ms. O'Donnell is renowned as an attorney with more than 30 years of specialization in insurance coverage and bad-faith liability defense practice. Raised by a family with a strong legal tradition, she was encouraged by her grandfather, father and sister to follow their path into a career in law. Ms. O'Donnell pursued an education at the University of Virginia, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in 1981 before earning a Doctor of Jurisprudence at Boston College Law School in 1984.
In 1984, Ms. O'Donnell began her career as an associate of Sherin and Lodgen LLP in Boston, Massachusetts. After gaining experience in a range of litigation and professional liability matters, she started focusing her practice on insurance coverage disputes through her involvement on environmental contamination lawsuits with complex insurance issues. At a relatively early point in her career, Ms. O'Donnell wrote articles on emerging insurance coverage issues for Massachusetts bar journals. During her years at Sherin and Lodgen, she chaired the Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee of the ABA Tort and Insurance Practice Section, followed by other leadership roles in that organization.
In 1999, Ms. O'Donnell joined the Boston office of Robinson & Cole LLP, where she lead the liability insurance coverage practice and advanced to the position of partner, while raising her son, mentoring other attorneys in her practice group and continuing to publish and speak at insurance industry organizations. In 2009, Ms. O'Donnell joined Zelle, McDonough & Cohen LLP, a firm formed by two of her Robinson & Cole colleagues, to represent insurers in liability coverage and bad faith matters. In 2017, Ms. O'Donnell moved to Sulloway & Hollis PLLC to help launch its regional Coverage, Regulatory and Bad Faith practice group to serve the needs of several leading insurers throughout the Northeast.
As one of the major voices in her specialty, Ms. O'Donnell has presented at numerous industry conferences and written extensively on emerging liability insurance coverage issues and effective ways to lessen exposure to high stakes bad faith claims. Her work includes co-authorship of "Asserting the Genuine Dispute Doctrine as a Defense to Extracontractual Suits" in 2014 and presentations on faulty construction coverage disputes for the Defense Research Institute and the Property and Liability Resource Bureau. Ms. O'Donnell prides herself on her leadership roles for a variety of professional and industry organizations, including the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, in which she chaired the Extracontractual Liability Section from 2012 until 2014 and the Reinsurance, Excess, and Surplus Lines Section from 2014 until 2016 and her role as fellow of the American College of Coverage Counsel. Over the years, she also held several leadership roles for the American Bar Association's Tort and Insurance Practice Section, including her positions as co-chair of the Book Publications Board. Ms. O'Donnell's professional excellence has been honored with a Martindale-Hubbell AV Preeminent Rating. In November 2020, she will be honored as a "Top Women in the Law" by the Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly publication, as well as her inclusion in the roster of leading insurance coverage attorneys in the Massachusetts and Corporate Counsel Super Lawyers list in each of the past ten years. From 2014-2020, Ms. O'Donnell also served as a hearing officer for the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers.
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Since 1899, when A. N. Marquis printed the First Edition of Who's Who in America®, Marquis Who's Who® has chronicled the lives of the most accomplished individuals and innovators from every significant field of endeavor, including politics, business, medicine, law, education, art, religion and entertainment. Today, Who's Who in America® remains an essential biographical source for thousands of researchers, journalists, librarians and executive search firms around the world. Marquis® now publishes many Who's Who titles, including Who's Who in America®, Who's Who in the World®, Who's Who in American Law®, Who's Who in Medicine and Healthcare®, Who's Who in Science and Engineering®, and Who's Who in Asia®. Marquis® publications may be visited at the official Marquis Who's Who® website at www.marquiswhoswho.com.
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