BatesCarey announced today the addition of Craig M. Leff, who joins as a partner and brings more than 30 years of trial experience to the firm’s insurance coverage practice.

Craig has litigated disputes involving a wide spectrum of matters, taking on the most prominent plaintiff’s attorneys in catastrophic injury cases and in complex commercial litigation cases. Craig serves clients as a go-to trial lawyer in a variety of areas including complex insurance coverage, bad faith claims, railroad defense, products liability, industrial accidents, employment law, and legal malpractice.

Craig has tried multiple cases to verdict in Kansas and Missouri courts and has significant capability trying cases across the country. Craig’s appellate experience enables him to continue representing his clients after judgment, and he has successfully handled appeals before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Seventh, Eighth and Tenth Circuits, the Missouri Supreme Court and Court of Appeals, and the Kansas Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

In his work defending claims against railroad companies, Craig has developed an extensive working knowledge of the railroad industry. Having handled a variety of cases arising from workplace injuries and railroad crossing accidents, Craig has unique experience handling matters often involving the immediate on-site investigation of accidents and the coordination of experts in such disciplines as train handling and dynamics, biomechanics, traffic engineering, accident reconstruction, audiology, and medicine.

“Craig’s track record in the courtroom and reputation as a trusted counselor are well known in the insurance coverage industry,” said founding partner Robert J. Bates, Jr. “We are thrilled to have him expand our bench of litigators to pursue our clients’ interests.”

Craig joins the firm from Scharnhorst Ast Kennard Griffin PC.

For decades, BatesCarey LLP has dedicated its practice to protecting the interests of insurers and reinsurers while shaping the trends of insurance law throughout the United States and abroad.