Doug McIntosh concentrates his practice in the areas of professional liability defense and catastrophic damages defense, as well as in insurance coverage and bad faith litigation. He co-chairs the firm’s Insurance Coverage & Bad Faith practice group.

Doug helps clients with prompt and meaningful case assessments and solutions, especially with timed settlement demands and assisting insurance carriers with meeting their good faith claim-handling obligations under a variety of state laws.

Over the course of his career, Doug has tried more than 100 cases in state and federal courts. He also has argued appeals in each of Florida’s five District Courts of Appeal, the Florida Supreme Court and the Fifth and Eleventh U.S. Circuits Courts of Appeal.

Clients turn to Doug and his insurance coverage team for innovative and effective skills managing difficult liability and damages claims analyses, particularly when coupled with limited time to act. He provides creative solutions to complex legal issues, often in situations with catastrophic casualty events and significant towers of insurance coverage for clients’ insureds, as well as coverage towers provided to other potential defendants.

He has been qualified in and has testified live in state and federal courts in Florida and elsewhere as an authority in bad faith litigation, insurance coverage and attorney fee dispute cases. Doug is fluent with all forms of insurance contracts, including auto, CGL, D&O, professional liability, excess and umbrella insuring agreements. He has represented reinsurers and performed audits of a variety of facultative and other reinsurance treaties.

Doug believes the highest level of the practice of law requires client relationships built on trust and results. His steady and focused approach has saved clients millions of dollars over his career. He has secured countless defense verdicts, reversals and affirmances on appeal and successfully mediated more than 1,000 cases to extremely satisfactory negotiated resolution.

Prior to joining the firm, Doug was the founder of McIntosh, Sawran & Cartaya in Fort Lauderdale, which under his leadership became one of the leading boutique defense trial practices in Florida. 

Doug lives in Plantation, Florida, with his wife and enjoys spending time with his two grandchildren. As a native Floridian, he is always ready for a golf outing or fishing excursion.

Honors

  • Selected to Florida Super Lawyers, 2006 – present
  • Listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Personal injury Litigation – Defendants, 2012 – present
  • South Florida’s Top Lawyers, 2010 – present
  • Florida Trend Preeminent Lawyer, Insurance Law, 2011 – present
  • DRI State Leadership Award, 2001
  • DRI Service Award, 2006
  • Joseph Metzger Outstanding Achievement Award (FDLA), 2000
  • DRI Rudolph A. Janata Outstanding Achievement Award (while president of FDLA), 1994
  • Nova Southeastern University Law Alumni Achievement Award, 1994
  • Florida Supreme Court Guardian Ad Litem Pro Bono Award (Broward County), 1992
  • Lynn Futch Professionalism in Practice Award (Broward County), 2004
  • Nova Southeastern University Law Alumnus of Year, 2004
  • Thomas More Society, Archbishop Edward A. McCarthy Award, 2006
  • American College of Coverage Counsel, Thomas F. Segalla Service Award, 2020
  • AV rating, Martindale Hubbell, 1993 – present

Professional & Civic Involvement

  • Florida Bar Association, 1981 – present
    • Civil Procedure Rules Committee, 1989 – 1993, 1996 – 1999
  • Broward County Bar Association, 1989 – present
    • Chair, Professionalism Committee, 1999 – 2003
    • Chair, Peer Review Council, 2004 – 2005
  • Miami Dade County Bar Association, 1981 – 2010
  • Florida Defense Lawyers Association, 1982 – present
    • President, 1995
  • DRI 1984 – present
    • Florida State Representative, 1997 – 2003
    • National Director, 2003 – 2006
    • Chair, Insurance Roundtable, 2007 – 2008
  • Board of Governors, Nova Southeastern University, Shepard Broad College of Law, 1996 – present
    • Vice Chair, 2015 – 2019
    • Chair, 2019 ­– present
  • HOPE Outreach Center, Inc., 1995 – present
    • Co-Founder, 1995
    • President, 1995 – 1998, 2003 – 2005
    • Board member, 1995 – 2009
    • Advisory Council, 2010 – present
  • Association of Defense Trial Attorneys (ADTA), 2006 – present
  • American College of Coverage Counsel (ACCC), Fellow, 2013 – present
    • Chair, Professionalism & Ethics Committee, 2013 – 2019
    • Co-Chair, Annual Law School Symposium, NSU, 2019
  • Susie and Alan B. Levan NSU Ambassadors Board, 2020 – present
  • Thomas More Society, South Florida Chapter, 2000 – present

Practice Highlights

Representative Matters

  • Serves as legal counsel to multinational insurance companies in first-party, third-party and insurance coverage/bad faith claims.
  • Served as lead counsel in more than 100 trials and more than 1,000 mediations, including product liability, premises liability, professional liability, medical and dental malpractice, and admiralty and maritime issues, including defense of Jones Act cases.
  • Presented oral arguments in all Florida District Courts of Appeal, the Florida Supreme Court and U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Publications

Speaking Engagements

  • Frequent lecturer and expert witness, medical negligence, professional negligence, bad faith and insurance coverage issues.
  • Expert witness in both State and Federal Courts, insurance coverage, bad faith, and other litigation issues.
  • “Experts in Bad Faith Cases: Utility and Value,” Florida Defense Lawyers Association (FDLA), 2023
  • “When the Walls Fall Down: Disaster Litigation and the Surfside Condo Collapse,” panelist, IADC Mid-Year Meeting, 2023
  • “Insurance Responding to Disasters: Surfside Building Collapse, Wildfires, COVID,” panelist, ACCC 8th Annual Insurance Law Symposium, 2022
  • “Insurer Bad Faith: Best Practices and Litigation Trends,” ACCC Annual Law School Symposium, 2019
  • “How Great Minds Can Differ: Policyholder, Primary and Excess Insurer Interests in Multi-State Litigation,” ACCC Annual Meeting, 2019
  • “Use of Experts in Coverage and Bad Faith Litigation,” ACCC Annual Meeting, 2018
  • “Forcing Carriers to Insure,” In-House Defense Quarterly, 2017
  • “You Screwed Up: You Trusted Us! Conflicts Among Insurers, Independent Counsel and Insureds,” ACCEC Annual Meeting, 2017
  • “Insurer Guidelines and Third-Party Bill Reviews: Ethical and Practical Ramifications,” ACCEC Annual Meeting, 2016
  • “Jury Selection and the Art of Conversation,” ADTA Annual Meeting, 2015
  • Adjustors Ethics Course, Florida Department of Insurance, Certified Instructor
  • Insurance Roundtable, Defense Research Institute, 2010