Iowa Decision Underscores the Danger of Sharing Privileged Material with Reinsurers

Last month, a federal court in Iowa handed down a decision holding that neither work product nor attorney-client nor the common interest doctrine shield legal advice and analysis from production in  discovery once it has been shared with a carrier’s reinsurers.  The case – Progressive Cas. Ins. Co. v. F.D.I.C., — F.R.D.— , 2014 WL 4168577, 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116909 (W.D. Iowa, Aug. 22, 2014) – involved a directors & officers (“D&O”) liability policy rather than a first party property insurance policy, but it nonetheless sounds a cautionary note about the potential consequences of such disclosures. The case arose after the Office of Thrift Supervision closed Vantus Bank and appointed the FDIC as its receiver.  The FDIC then filed…