Guyon H. Knight

Guyon Knight represents insurers and reinsurers in complex and high-stakes coverage and bad faith disputes in state courts, federal courts, and arbitrations across the country. Guyon is a strategic and tenacious litigator who represents clients at every stage of proceedings from initial pleading strategy through trials and evidentiary hearings, where clients have praised Guyon for “brilliant” cross-examinations.

Guyon has litigated and advised clients on matters involving legacy reinsurance transactions, captives and program business, fronting, professional liability claims, cyber claims, complex and multi-party personal injury and premises liability claims, large industrial property claims, PFAS, infectious disease, molestation, concussion, and copyright infringement, among many others.

Before joining Mound Cotton, Guyon served as a law clerk for Judge Sidney H. Stein of the Southern District of New York and Judge Eric L. Clay of the Sixth Circuit. He also worked in the New York offices of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, where he was a partner in the litigation group, and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP. Before he decided to become a lawyer, Guyon was a Medieval historian and a New York City taxi driver.

Representative Matters

• Won summary judgment in Texas state court two weeks before trial in a $100 million industrial property claim arising out of an acid spill at a semiconductor manufacturing facility.
  Represented a legacy reinsurer in an expedited bet-the-company reinsurance arbitration arising out of the acquisition of a commercial auto book of business. Guyon’s opponent publicly took a $36.9 million write-off after the final award was issued.
• Won summary judgment in Ohio federal court to defeat enforcement of $36 million consent judgment arising out of a wrongful death claim.
  Obtained dismissal of all claims and reimbursement of policy payments for a global insurance and reinsurance solutions provider in a suit brought under a Professional Liability Insurance Policy by an insurance brokerage company in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. The court found that under California law, the insurance brokerage company failed to state a claim for indemnity and bad faith against the client, arising from their alleged faulty handling of a claim that resulted in a significant jury award against their principal.
• Obtained dismissal on summary judgment of bad faith and breach of contract claims for an independent infrastructure insurance specialist in a case involving a business interruption claim due to a fire at an oil refinery.
• Appointed by a major international insurer to represent policyholders in a novel proceeding concerning COVID-19 claims against nursing homes before the New York Litigation Coordinating Panel, where he helped defeat plaintiffs’ attorneys’ request for state-wide consolidation of potentially thousands of tort claims.
• Advises a major international insurer concerning PFAS multi-district litigation.
• Advised a major international insurer concerning the Flint water crisis.
• Represented a specialty international reinsurer in arbitration seeking coverage under a $1 billion program for claims arising out of Superstorm Sandy. Guyon’s client was the only reinsurer in the quota-share program who obtained a favorable settlement.
• Obtained the pre-discovery dismissal from a large putative class action concerning “collapse” coverage related to faulty concrete building foundations. Also obtained dismissal of a related test case at summary judgment and affirmance by the Second Circuit, creating favorable precedent for the insurer.