From 1979 to 1980, Paul served as law clerk to the Honorable Samuel J. Roberts, Associate Justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Early in his career, Paul practiced with the large Philadelphia commercial litigation firm of Pepper, Hamilton & Scheetz and then with the Los Angeles litigation firm Buchalter, Nemer, Fields & Younger.
As a founding member of Woolls Peer Dollinger & Scher, Paul specializes in insurance coverage litigation, as well as the defense of insurance bad faith actions. He also handles reinsurance disputes and regulatory matters relating to the acquisition of insurance companies.
Over the last three decades Paul has served as coverage counsel to insurance carriers on a variety of issues, with an emphasis on environmental coverage and construction defect coverage matters. For almost seven years, Paul coordinated the coverage position of carriers involved in the McMartin Preschool litigation.
Paul frequently lectures for insurance industry organizations, including the Insurance Educational Association, CPCU chapters, broker and agent organizations, and risk managers for both private and public entities. He speaks on topics including the duty to defend, environmental coverage, avoidance of bad faith, the Cumis doctrine, additional insured endorsements, construction defect coverage and litigation, as well as employment litigation issues.
Paul remains a member of the California, Los Angeles County, and Philadelphia Bar Associations, as well as the Conference of Insurance Counsel, Defense Research Institute, and the Tort and Insurance Practice Sections of several of those bar associations. A number of organizations use Paul as an arbitrator or mediator of disputes involving professional liability, fee allocations, employment and coverage issues.
Over the last two decades, Paul has litigated dozens of major coverage actions, including: Jensen-Kelly Corp.; Varian; Texaco; Douglas Oil; Shell Oil; BKK; Foster-Gardner; Lockheed; RSR Quemetco, as well as representing the Farmers Insurance Exchanges in the anti-takeover efforts against Sir James Goldsmith and the AXA Insurance Group.
Born in Bloomington, Indiana in 1954 Paul Woolls attended Wabash College where he received an A.B. degree in 1975. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1979, where he served as Articles Editor for the Law Review. Paul was admitted to the Pennsylvania Bar in 1979 and the California Bar in 1983.
