Oral Waiver was Lawful, Illinois Union Maintains

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Illinois Union Insurance Co. asserts in a recent appellate brief that a federal magistrate judge improperly barred the law firm of Crowell & Moring from representing the reinsurer in a $3.1 million reinsurance dispute. Seaton Insurance Co. v. Illinois Union Insurance Co., No. CA 07-332 (D. R.I.).

In its Sept. 5 reply brief in support of its appeal, Illinois Union asserts that Magistrate Judge David L. Martin of the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island should have recognized that Seaton Insurance Co. orally waived the conflict of interest in 2001. At that time, state …