Jared Kiess

Special Counsel | Seattle, United States
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Profile

Education

  • George Mason University School of Law, JD, cum laude, 2014
  • University of Montana, BA, 2020

Jared Kiess is special counsel in the Seattle office and an experienced commercial litigator. His practice focuses primarily on representing insurers in first-party and third-party coverage disputes. 

Jared represents third-party insurers in high-stakes liability claims and has secured several favorable dispositive rulings on the duties to defend and indemnify claims involving questionable coverage. He also frequently advises clients on resolving complex claims through negotiation. Jared has successfully defended first-party insurance clients in a wide range of commercial property disputes, achieving a favorable settlement or dismissal in multiple litigated cases. He also brings significant appellate experience, representing both insurance and non-insurance clients in appeals before the Washington Court of Appeals and other appellate courts.

Jared served as a trial-level judicial law clerk in Montana for three years. During his clerkship, he worked with two different trial court judges, assisting in the analysis of arguments and evidence and drafting opinions and orders across a wide range of civil and criminal matters. His experience encompassed cases involving homicide, drug possession, family law, contract disputes, environmental law, securities fraud and constitutional law. Following his clerkship, Jared worked at a civil litigation firm in Montana and an insurance coverage firm in Seattle.

Qualifications and admissions

•    Montana
•    Oregon
•    Washington
•    US District Court for the District of Montana
•    US District Court for the District of Oregon
•    US District Court for the Eastern and Western Districts of Washington
•    US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Market recognition

•    Selected for inclusion in Ones to Watch in America: Commercial Litigation (2022-2025)

Work highlights

  • Utilized discovery to reveal potentially fraudulent insurance claim and obtained order requiring Plaintiff to pay insurer’s fees and costs incurred in discovery, ultimately leading to voluntary dismissal of all plaintiff’s contractual and extra-contractual claims without payment by the carrier.  See Drueding v. The Travelers Home & Marine Ins. Co., No. 22-CV-00155-LK, 2022 WL 17092736 (W.D. Wash. Nov. 21, 2022).
  • Obtained pre-discovery dismissal on the pleadings of all contractual and extra-contractual claims asserted by insured under commercial general liability policy with respect to underlying auto accident in the face of $10 million covenant judgment.  See Ohio Security Ins. Co. v. Garage Plus Storage Aviation, LLC, No. 3:21-cv-5579-BHS, 2022 WL 1213319, ___ F. Supp. 3d ___ (W.D. Wash. Apr. 25, 2022) (holding that exclusions barred coverage).  Order dismissing insured’s extra-contractual claims unpublished.
  • Obtained ruling that commercial general liability policy does not afford coverage for underlying false advertising lawsuit involving disclosure of ingredients in products on the ground that mere ingestion of unwanted substance does not constitute “bodily injury.”  Forbidden Fruit Ciderhouse, LLC v. Ohio Security Ins. Co., No. 3:20-cv-00844-AC, 2022 WL 501323 (D. Or. Jan. 5, 2022), report and recommendation adopted, 2022 WL 541496 (D. Or. Feb. 23, 2022).
  • Obtained summary judgment in favor of insurer in lawsuit involving dispute over coverage for $4 million construction project. The Court agreed with Jared’s arguments that Coverage B of his client’s CGL policy did not afford coverage for “abuse of process” under Montana law, despite 9th Circuit authority to the contrary. West American Ins. Co. v. MVP Holdings, LLC, CV 20-59-M-DWM, 2020 WL 6799003 (D. Mont. Nov. 19, 2020).
  • Obtained summary judgment in favor of first-party insurer that Washington’s efficient proximate cause rule did not mandate coverage for non-collapsed portion of large concrete digester tanks that converted animal manure into electricity. (Opinion unpublished as a condition of settlement).
  • Successfully defeated several motions to stay insurers’ declaratory judgment actions, including Liberty Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. SCI Infrastructure, LLC, No. 3:20-cv-06084-RAJ, 2021 WL 3288094 (W.D. Wash. Aug. 2, 2021).
  • Successfully reduced damages sought by UIM claimant for unusual shoulder injury damages in multi-day binding arbitration involving numerous medical experts and lay witnesses.

Presentations and publications

  • “Coverage Declaratory Judgment Actions, Northwest Insurance Law” presented for The Seminar Group (October 2022)

Services

Sectors