Richard Carter

Of Counsel Richard Carter brings more than 40 years of litigation experience to McNicholas & McNicholas, LLP, with a practice spanning high-stakes insurance coverage, bad-faith litigation, mass tort matters and policyholder representation. He draws on nearly four decades of defense-side experience, combined with years of policyholder advocacy, to provide strategic insight into how insurers evaluate risk, negotiate claims and prepare for litigation.

Mr. Carter has represented national property and liability insurers, as well as a major national health insurer, in complex coverage, bad-faith and healthcare provider disputes. He has taken more than 20 cases to trial and has contributed to several landmark decisions, including four published opinions by the California Supreme Court and numerous appellate rulings that helped shape modern insurance-contract and bad-faith law.

He served on the team that developed a national mold litigation defense strategy and drafted policy language addressing emerging mold claims. He also played a key role when a national commercial property insurer retained his firm to manage mass-tort litigation involving hundreds of Northridge Earthquake claims.

At the same time, Mr. Carter represented policyholders, including a global cruise line, in securing policy benefits wrongfully withheld by insurers.

In 2018, Mr. Carter shifted his practice to focus primarily on policyholder advocacy, forming a general practice firm dedicated to representing insureds. Following the Woolsey Fire, he advised and represented wildfire victims seeking insurance benefits and later represented many of those same clients in wildfire litigation against Southern California Edison.

Mr. Carter joined McNicholas & McNicholas to expand the firm’s insurance litigation and mass-tort practice, bringing decades of trial experience and a uniquely dual-sided perspective on insurance disputes.