JON E. FREDRICKSON

Jon is a specialist in managing high-exposure business, insurance coverage, products liability, and professional liability litigation for individuals, small businesses, and top-tier Fortune 500 companies. Jon serves as a legal advisor and panel counsel to some of the nation’s top corporations and insurers.  He has taught Wisconsin insurance law, claims handling, and risk mitigation both locally, and to the complex claims handlers for one of the nation’s largest insurers. Jon’s professional liability defense practice focuses on the defense of lawyers, insurance agents, and real estate professionals.  In the area of products liability, Jon has managed and successfully resolved cases involving the following disparate products: helicopters, airplanes, water distillers, grinding wheels, water heaters, boilers, trailers, trucks, cranes, hospital beds, exercise equipment, and computers.  His experience also includes litigating racketeering claims, merger and acquisition disputes, premises liability claims, personal injury claims, worker’s compensation claims, and real estate disputes.

•  Successfully represented a small appliance manufacturer in a complex product liability house fire case involving intertwined successor corporate liability issues.  Plaintiff claimed personal injury damages of more than $2.5 million dollars for neurological damages allegedly caused by smoke inhalation.  Developed and implemented a litigation strategy that minimized potential damages, overcame unfavorable indemnification language in a stock purchase agreement, forced the predecessor corporation to share in the defense and settlement, and obtained a favorable agreement on future liabilities.

•  Obtained summary judgment in an MDL875 asbestos litigation.

•  Advised national insurer on coverage options, policy exposure, and target settlement numbers in a $1 million dollar plus product liability case involving an allegedly defective component motor part.

•  Successful summary judgment and appellate defense of a national franchisor sued for negligent supervision of a local franchisee.

•  Defended national insurer in a legal billing dispute case arising from insurer’s refusal to pay certain litigation bills in underlying case.  Successfully resolved the case after a thorough analysis of the underlying billing records uncovered improprieties in the insured’s methodology for calculating legal fees.

•  Successful defense of helicopter maintenance corporation against allegations that its maintenance work contributed to a helicopter fatality.

•  Successful defense of Fortune 50 computer manufacturer whose laptop was alleged to have caused a house fire.

•  Successfully argued a declaratory judgment motion on behalf of a commercial liability insurer whose policy was triggered by a catastrophic semi-truck/automobile accident.  The judgment forced a co-primary insurer into a primary coverage position and limited policy exposure from the claimed multiple occurrences to one occurrence.

•  Terms, Conditions, Exclusions, and Frustration?  A Beginner’s Guide to Reading and Understanding Insurance Policies – We’ve Got You Covered – Insurance Coverage in Wisconsin CLE, State Bar of Wisconsin (May 24, 2018)

•  Leveraging Your Next Surplus Lines Insurance Coverage Case – Potpourri of Aggravated Litigation Topics CLE (December 16, 2016)

•  “Your Policy is Illegal, Your Answer is in Default, and I’m Entitled to Punitive Damages!”  A Surplus Lines Defense Toolkit for Wisconsin – Wisconsin Defense Counsel Winter Conference CLE (December 9, 2016)

•  Litigating Insurance Coverage Claims: From Start to Finish - National Business Institute Seminar CLE (June 7, 2013)

•  Practical Evidence Issues Before and at Trial - Milwaukee Bar Association CLE (December 12, 2008)

•  Avoiding Bad Faith Claims in Wisconsin (And Elsewhere) - AIG, New York, NY (May 20, 2004)

•  Ratajczak v. Beazley Solutions Limited, et al., 870 F.3d 650 (7th Cir. 2017)

•  Land O’Lakes, Inc. v. Ratajczak, et al., 870 F.3d 650 (7th Cir. 2017)

•  Marks v. Houston Cas. Co., 2016 WI 53, 369 Wis. 2d 547; 2015 WI App 44, 363 Wis. 2d 505

•  Flying J, Inc. v. Van Hollen, 621 F.3d 658 (7th Cir. 2010); 578 F.3d 569 (7th Cir. 2009)

•  Milwaukee Area Technical College v. Frontier Adjusters of Milwaukee, 2008 WI App 76, 312 Wis. 2d 360

•  Time Warner v. St. Paul Fire and Marine Ins. Co., 2001 WI App 174, 247 Wis. 2d 367, 633 N.W.2d 640

•  Wisconsin

•  U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit

•  U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin

•  U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin

Jon was born and raised in the Milwaukee metropolitan area, and currently resides in Racine with his wife Sarah, son Alexander, and daughter Ashlyn.  When not spending time chasing around his toddlers, he clings to his own youth by plugging in his vintage Gibson guitars, turning his Marshall stack to "11," and chasing his family out of the house with deafening renditions of not-so-popular 1980's music.

•  Marquette University Law School / J.D., cum laude, 1999

•  University of Southern California / B.S. in Business Administration, 1991

•  American Bar Association

•  State Bar of Wisconsin

•  Milwaukee Bar Association

•  Board of Directors, Riveredge Nature Center (2006-2007)