Charles Danaher is a partner in the firm's Insurance Practice Group, which is recognized by Chambers USA. Charles primarily represents insurance companies that are sued for bad faith, fraud and unfair competition. His clients include Allstate Insurance Companies, Kemper Insurance Companies, Farmers Insurance Exchange, Infinity Insurance Company, Auto Club of So. Cal, Wawanesa Insurance, CSAA, and Loya Insurance Group. While the focus of his practice is in California, Charles has represented insurance company clients in Wyoming, West Virginia, Mississippi, Nevada, Florida, Montana, Indiana, Missouri, Alaska, Maryland, Arkansas, Oregon, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, Ohio and Alabama.
Charles serves as lead counsel in numerous class actions filed against his insurance company clients. He has successfully defended class actions involving such issues as the payment of overhead and profit, lessor liability coverage, the payment of sales tax, the manner in which actual cash value is determined, whether coverage exists for innocent co-insureds, issues involving med-pay coverage, and allegations of premium overcharging. He recently defeated a class action alleging that insurance companies engage in the unauthorized practice of law by using lay adjusters to contest and pursue inter-insurance arbitration claims. Charles also received two favorable published decisions rejecting the argument that auto liability policies cover third-party claims for inherent diminished value damages. The issue was one of first impression in the country.
Together with the members of his practice group, Charles was one of the first attorneys in California to successfully advocate the "genuine dispute" defense. Today, this defense is considered to be the most important and viable defense available for an insurance company that has been sued for bad faith.
Charles was the first attorney to prevail in a California Covid-19 premium refund class action, successfully arguing for dismissal in Torrez v. Infinity (C.D. Cal) and Shively v. Wawanesa (Los Angeles Superior Court Complex Litigation Department). On September 8, 2025, Charles obtained a landmark published decision from the California Court of Appeal in Davis v. CSAA Ins. Exch, holding that the Covid premium refund cases filed across California are barred under the California Insurance Code.
Charles has been appointed by Kemper Insurance as national coordinating counsel for bad faith claims against the company. Charles is also Infinity Insurance Company's national coordinating counsel for third-party diminished value claims.
He also represents the Unum Group in actions and disputes involving individual disability policies across the country.
Charles served as coordinating counsel by Allstate Insurance Company to direct its defense of lead paint litigation pending against the company's insureds. He authored the brief that persuaded Maryland's highest court to adopt the Joiner analytical gap standard when evaluating expert testimony under Rule 702. Rochkind v. Stevenson, 454 Md. 277, 164 A.3d 254 (2017) (Rochkind I). In August 2020, Charles authored the briefs that convinced Maryland's highest Court to adopt the Daubert test, and reject the Frye test, for admitting and reviewing expert testimony. Rochkind v. Stevenson, 471 Md. 1 (2020) (Rochkind II). Rochkind II is considered to be a landmark decision in Maryland.
Charles was also the primary author of the brief in Allstate Ins. Co. v. Miller, 125 Nev. 300, 212 P.3d 318 (2009), in which he convinced the Nevada Supreme Court to adopt California's "genuine dispute" doctrine in both first- and third-party bad faith cases.
He successfully represented Dole Food, Inc. in several consumer class actions challenging Dole's labeling practices and issues involving Dole's leases with third-parties. Charles also represents Frontier Communications in both class action and consumer litigation across the country.
Charles has obtained numerous published decisions from state and federal courts on significant issues affecting the insurance industry.
