Douglas M. Palais

Doug is a seasoned trial lawyer and counselor with more than 40 years of experience. His practice focuses on professional liability, including errors & omissions defense of insurance and securities professionals, directors & officers liability defense, and legal malpractice defense. He also concentrates in the areas of securities litigation and arbitration, insurance coverage and defense, and financial institutions, and securities.

For decades, he has concentrated on defending a wide range of claims against professionals, including insurance licensees, attorneys and securities professionals.  His practice includes the representation of insurance agents and agencies; law firms; securities broker-dealers, registered investment advisers and individual securities brokers.  Doug is regularly listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the fields of Insurance, Securities Litigation, and Capital Markets.  He has also been recognized as a Virginia “Super Lawyer” in the field of Insurance and Securities Litigation.

Doug has tried dozens of jury trials, bench trials and arbitrations in Virginia and in other jurisdictions.  In addition to trying cases in courts and before arbitration panels, he has extensive appellate experience in Virginia and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. A longtime member of the Virginia State Bar and the District of Columbia Bar, Doug has also handled cases in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and Colorado.  He has also served as lead counsel to institutional and individual defendants in major multi-district cases involving insurer insolvencies and alleged securities fraud.

Doug’s practice includes handling regulatory issues before federal and state regulators, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Institution Regulatory Authority and a host of state securities and insurance regulators.  He is a 1978 graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, where he was Notes & Comments editor of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology and an instructor in legal writing.

• Successfully defended multi-million dollar errors and omissions claim, asserting negligence, breach of contract and conspiracy, against insurance broker in connection with an enterprise connected to the space shuttle program. The case was dismissed due to discovery abuse by the plaintiff.
• Successfully defended Shearson Lehman Brothers Holdings, Inc., in securities fraud jury trial in the Eastern District of Virginia. Majority of verdict was upheld on appeal to Fourth Circuit.
• Outside General Counsel to the Independent Insurance Agents of Virginia, Inc., the state’s largest and oldest insurance agent organization.
• Virginia defense counsel to customers of one of the world’s largest reinsurers.

Recognition

Education

Northwestern University School of Law, J.D.

Lafayette College, A.B., magna cum laude

Admissions

Virginia

District of Columbia

U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit

U.S. District Court, District of Colorado

U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Virginia

U.S. District Court, Western District of Virginia

• American Bar Association
• District of Columbia Bar
• Independent Insurance Agents of Virginia, Inc., Outside General Counsel
• Northwestern Alumni Admission Council, Member
• Virginia Financial Services Corporation, Outside General Counsel