Overview
Heather Sharp is a coverage attorney whose practice involves primarily third-party liability claims arising under commercial general liability insurance policies, with a special focus on construction defect claims. She also has considerable experience in suits involving toxic torts, such as environmental contamination and latent diseases resulting from long-term exposure to hazardous substances. Heather’s practice includes advising insurers in connection with pre-litigation decisions, issuing coverage opinions, drafting reservation-of-rights and declination letters, and vigorously defending liability insurers when they are brought into suits by parties claiming insured status or by plaintiffs pursuant to Louisiana’s Direct Action Statute.
Heather also defends insurance companies in first-party property cases involving residential and commercial properties damaged by disasters such as hurricanes, hail storms and fire. Additionally, she has extensive experience in both evaluating coverage under inland marine insurance policies and defending insurers in suits involving these policies.
Following law school, Heather gained valuable experience in the commercial litigation section of Louisiana’s largest law firm, after which she joined Lugenbuhl’s Insurance Group In 2010.
Outside the Office
Heather enjoys reading, cooking, bike-riding, and traveling with her husband, Ryan.
- Savoy v. Kelly-Dixon, et al., 2022-318 (La. App. 3 Cir. 11/23/22), 353 So.3d 981 (affirming summary judgment in our client’s favor, finding the insurer was not obligated to defend or indemnify the government as an additional insured because the terms of the blanket additional insured endorsement were not satisfied, and the government’s status as a purported contractual indemnitee of the named insured did not trigger a duty on the part of the insurer to defend or indemnify the government).
- Weyerhaeuser Company v. Burlington Insurance Company, et al., 74 F.4th 275 (7/14/23) (affirming dismissal of plaintiffs’ claims against our client for failure to state a claim, finding the insurer had no duty to defend purported additional insured or reimburse for settlement amount paid, and there was no mutual mistake to warrant policy reformation).
- Daxtreme, Inc. v. Lafayette-City Parish Consolidated Government, et al., 2021-418 (La. App. 3 Cir. 12/15/21), 332 So.3d 1257 (affirming summary judgment dismissal of city’s additional insured claim against our client, finding that peremption statute, La. R.S. 9:2772, applies to additional insured claims).
- Rain II Carbon, LLC v. Turner Industries Group, LLC, 2019-403 (La. App. 3 Cir. 3/18/20), 297 So.3d 797 (affirming summary judgment in favor of our client, finding that plaintiff’s claims did not constitute “property damage” within meaning of policy).
- Maestri v. Entergy Corp, et al., No. 15-C-676 (La. App. 5 Cir. 1/27/16) (granting writ, reversing trial court, and granting summary judgment in our client’s favor, finding employment exclusion unambiguously barred coverage for purported additional insured where injured party was an employee of named insured).
Professional
- Louisiana State Bar Association
- American Bar Association
- Federal Bar Association
- Baton Rouge Association of Women Attorneys
- Defense Research Institute
- Super Lawyers: Rising Stars (2018-2019)
- “New ISO Forms Impact Construction Contracts,” Insurance Coverage Law Bulletin (September 2013)
- Contributing writer, the “Take Five” series (a sequence of articles published by the American Bar Association’s Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee explaining the basics of commercial general liability coverage)
