Madeleine Fischer, JD

Ms. Fischer joined the CGL Reporter Editorial Board in 2007 and stayed until 2013, contributing summaries on property coverage, bad faith, and other cases.

Ms. Fischer is a special counsel in the New Orleans office of Jones Walker. Admitted in both Louisiana and Texas, she has represented clients in litigation for 35 years and has extensive trial experience in state and federal courts, focusing her practice for the past decade on insurance coverage and claims handling disputes for both policyholders and insurers. Within the past several years, she has represented a major university, an oil and gas company, a railroad, and a manufacturer of industrial equipment in policyholder litigation and several insurers and claims administrators in major coverage disputes and complex litigation. Besides insurance coverage and bad faith litigation, her practice also extends to appellate practice, toxic tort, and products liability. Ms. Fischer has extensive experience in multidistrict litigation and in state and federal class actions.

Ms. Fischer is the past president of the New Orleans Association of Defense Counsel, a past board member of the Louisiana Association of Defense Counsel, as well as a past member of the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee for the Eastern District of Louisiana. She is currently vice-chair of the Insurance Coverage Law Center (ICLC) and chair of the New Orleans Bar Association's Insurance Law Committee. She served as the newsletter coeditor for the Toxic Tort & Environmental Law Subcommittee (American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS); 2003–2005), authored the products liability chapter of the Biannual Survey of Louisiana Law (Louisiana State Bar Association 2003 and 2005), and authored three chapters in the 2000 TIPS publication A Practitioners Guide to Class Actions. Ms. Fischer contributed several articles to CGL Reporter, including her 2012 article, "Can Insurers Recoup Defense Costs for Noncovered Claims," her 2009 article, "Navigating the Discovery Maze in Insurance Bad Faith Litigation," and her 2011 article, "Development of Insurance Issues in the Chinese Drywall Litigation." Additionally, her article "The Use of Experts in Insurance Bad Faith Litigation" appeared in the summer 2009 ICLC newsletter, and she was coauthor of "Recent Developments in Coverage Litigation," ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Law Journal (44:2), Winter 2009. She continues to speak regularly to various groups on insurance coverage issues.

Ms. Fischer received her undergraduate degree from Harvard University, cum laude, and her juris doctor degree from Tulane University Law School, where she was a member of the Tulane Law Review and served as articles editor.