Andrew C. Coulam

 Andrew C. Coulam has significant experience litigating insurance coverage, breach of contract, professional liability, and nursing home matters in Rhode Island and Massachusetts courts.

Representative Accomplishments

In a case of apparent first impression, Mr. Coulam persuaded a Massachusetts Superior Court judge to enforce a commercial general liability policy’s “independent contractor” exclusion against a restaurant owner seeking coverage for an electrician’s claim he was injured while working at the restaurant during renovations.

Mr. Coulam won an appeal before the Review Board of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training on behalf of a health care employer in an employee termination dispute.

He helped persuade the Rhode Island Supreme Court to recognize the common law doctrine of forum non conveniens in dismissing 36 cases involving Canadian plaintiffs whose asbestos claims had no nexus to Rhode Island.

In defending an emergency room physician in a medical malpractice case in Rhode Island Superior Court, Mr. Coulam successfully opposed the adoption in Rhode Island of the duty-to-warn theory of liability first established in the precedent-setting Tarasoff case in California.

Seminars

Mr. Coulam has participated as a panelist at several seminars on insurance coverage law, insurance bad faith law, and risk management in the nursing home industry.

Clerkships

Mr. Coulam in 2000 served as an intern for the Tennessee Supreme Court.

Professional Affiliations

Mr. Coulam served as the Associate Business Representative on the Rhode Island Health Care Association's Board of Directors from January 2010 through 2011. He is a member of the Rhode Island Bar Association, the Connecticut Bar Association, and the Defense Research Institute. He is also a member of the Insurance Law and Health law sections of the Connecticut Bar Association.