Jennifer Gust concentrates her litigation practice in representing parties in insurance disputes involving commercial property and casualty policies, director and officer policies, errors and omissions policies, professional lines, credit disability and excess coverages. Additionally, she regularly defends insurance carriers in complex bad faith litigation nationwide, and has aided insurers with their reinsurance issues and concerns, including the pursuit of recoveries.

Ms. Gust also provides assistance and guidance to insurance carriers with respect to drafting policy language for school and municipal package policies, professional liability and excess lines.

Ms. Gust also serves as corporate counsel for a national client, which involves drafting various employment, distribution and vendor agreements, and she has represented this client in anti-trust and commercial litigation. Ms. Gust has been involved in significant coverage and bad faith litigation for her clients, including:

• Representation of excess carrier in $8 million coverage dispute at the trial and appellate levels, involving construction defects to a housing development.
• Representing client in professional liability coverage dispute against an excess carrier over a $10 million SIR involving two medical malpractice lawsuits against a hospital for injuries sustained during childbirth.
• Representation of primary carrier in $8 million coverage dispute involving property damage and bodily injuries from mold infiltration of condominium complex.
• Representation of automobile and disability carriers against multi-million dollar bad faith claims throughout the Midwest and Southeast.

In addition, Ms. Gust has an active appellate practice. Her published decisions include:

• American Family Mutual Insurance Company v. Page, 366 Ill.App.3d 1112, 852 N.E.2d 874 (2nd Dist. 2006). In a case of first impression, Ms. Gust successfully argued that coverage was not available under a homeowner’s policy for a serious accident which occurred on farm property, based on the interpretation of the term “vacant land” as contemplated by the policy.
• ISMIE Mutual Insurance Company v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, et al., 413 F.Supp.2d 954 (N.D.Ill. 2006). Ms. Gust successfully reversed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' wrongful decision to deny a physician coverage under the Federally Supported Health Centers Assistance Act and the Federal Tort Claims Act because the physician was practicing under an eponymous professional corporation.
• Pekin Insurance Company v. Fidelity and Guarantee Insurance Company, 357 Ill.App.3d 891, 830 N.E.2d 10 (4th Dist. 2005). Ms. Gust successfully argued that an insured could not deselect its own mandatory insurance coverage to target another carrier in the automotive context. This decision precludes the application of the Illinois targeted tender doctrine outside of construction cases.

Ms. Gust started her career at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in January of 2003. Previously she served a judicial clerkship with the Honorable Thomas P. Quinn in the Cook County Chancery Division where she researched and assisted in the preparation of judicial opinions involving all equitable matters before the Court.

Ms. Gust has served as a sub-specialty group leader within Hinshaw’s Insurance Services Practice Group. She also dedicates a significant amount of time to the training and mentoring of new Hinshaw associates. Ms. Gust has served on the planning committees for Hinshaw University, a comprehensive training program for all new associates, and has contributed to Hinshaw’s Trial Advocacy program. She is also a mentor and supervisor for Hinshaw’s summer associate program. In addition, Ms. Gust has been a member of the firm’s Hiring Committee.

Ms. Gust’s professional memberships include the Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel (IDC), where she is an active member of the Insurance Law Committee, having served as an author and panel speaker. She also assists the IDC in the coordination and planning of insurance and general defense seminars. Ms. Gust is also a member of the Defense Research Institute and Chicago Bar Association.

Since 2009, Illinois Super Lawyers magazine has named Ms. Gust annually to its Rising Stars list. Recipients of this award have practiced law for less than 10 years or are 40 years old or younger. Ms. Gust is a co-author of Chapters 4 and 10, “Choice-of-Law Issues Regarding Coverage,” and “Declaratory Judgment Actions,” respectively, in “Illinois Insurance Law,” published in March 2009 by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education (IICLE).

Her other publications include:

• “Defenses to Bad Faith: The Fairly Debatable Standard and the Genuine Dispute Doctrine,” co-author, Hinshaw & Culbertson Insurance Services Symposium, Fall 2010.
• “Duty to Settle: Time-Sensitive Demands,” co-author, Coverage, a publication of the ABA Section of Litigation Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee, Volume 20, Number 2, March/April 2010.
• “Share and Share Alike: Analysis of a Recent Court Decision Applying the Equitable Contribution Doctrine to Occurrence and Claims-Made Insurers,” Insurance Law column, IDC Quarterly, Second Quarter 2009.
• “Coverage Issues in Intellectual Property Law,” presentation paper, Defense Research Institute (DRI) teleconference, December 2007.
• “A Fork in the Road: The McNaughton Court’s Interpretation of When an Insured Is Entitled to Independent Counsel,” presentation paper, Chicago Bar Association (CBA), Summer 2007.
• “Insurance Coverage for Product Liability," chapter co-author, “Illinois Product Liability Practice,” IICLE, 2006.
• “Insurance Coverage for Product Liability (1999),” chapter supplement co-author, “Illinois Product Liability Practice,” IICLE, 2004.
• "Proximate Cause and the Lost Chance Doctrine in Illinois," Loyola Consumer Law Review, v. 11, n.4 (1999).

Ms. Gust’s presentations include:

• "Plan and Prepare, Part Two: Selecting the Outside Response Team,” Hinshaw’s 2011 Insurance Services Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, October 2011.
• “One Occurrence Becomes Two: Addison Insurance Co. v. Fay,” Hinshaw’s 2009 Insurance Services Symposium, Chicago, Illinois, October 2009.
• “Insurance Update,” Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel seminar, Chicago, Illinois, Fall 2009.
• “Insurance Coverage Issues for the Litigator,” Hinshaw University, Chicago, Illinois, Fall 2007.
• “Contemporary Issues Involving Additional Insureds and the Targeted Tender Doctrine,” Illinois Association of Defense Trial Counsel seminar, Fall 2007.
• “Identifying Trends in Coverage Disputes,” Hinshaw’s “2006 Insurance Services Symposium: Creative Management of Claims and Coverage Disputes in a High-Risk Environment,” Chicago, Illinois, February 2006.