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 Lawa and Criminology and an instructor in legal writing.