Barrie Beer

A well-respected insurance claims, coverage, and litigation strategist, with almost 33 years of practice, Barrie Beer is known for her strong and reasoned analysis, creative solutions, and innovative means of realizing her clients’ priority goals. Through tenacious but collaborative settlement negotiation, expert objective coverage and risk assessment, or focused trial preparation, her client’s interests remain paramount.

Ms. Beer’s legal expertise spans the spectrum of first- and third-party insurance coverage, duties of insurance carriers, policyholders, and agents, and compliance with good faith claim handling standards. Barrie maintains a trial and consulting practice specializing in defense of contractual, extra-contractual and bad faith claims and litigation, complex damage and coverage matters, and serves as coverage and monitoring counsel for several excess carrier clients. She has specialized in first-party contractual and extra-contractual litigation, and coverage for auto, property, CGL, marine/inland marine and many other lines of business for most of her legal career. In this time Barrie has extensive experience assisting expert and company representative/personnel witnesses to prepare for their testimony with a methodology individualized to each witness.

She also has extensive experience in the evaluation and consultation of good faith claim investigation and defense of insurance fraud, arson, foundation, mold, windstorm, and residential and commercial property damage claims as well as managing complex and document intensive institutional litigation.

Claims Training and Management Courses

Barrie is a frequent speaker on topics related to her areas of practice including:

• Appraisal
• Ethical Claims Handling & Catastrophic Events; Litigation and a Post Cat Environment
• Claim File Documentation
• Consumer Protection
• Good Faith Compliance with the Prompt Payment of Claims Act
• Survival, Wrongful Death, & Bystander Claims
• Extra-Contractual Litigation Management
• Investigating Arson Claims and ALE Fraud
• Investigating Arson Claims
• Extra-Contractual Liability and Duties to Insureds/Claimants
• Analysis of Attorney Fee Bills

Employment

Martin, Disiere, Jefferson & Wisdom L.L.P., May 2009 - present

Irelan Hargis PLLC 2007 - 2009 

Nistico & Crouch P.C. 2002 - 2007

State Farm Insurance Companies 1993 – 2002:

Claim Attorney I, II, and III serving as: Division Claim Attorney; Texas Special Litigation Teams’ Claim Attorney; Managing Attorney South Texas Claim Attorney Team; Texas First Party Claims Teams Claim Attorney

Brock & Mathis P.C. San Antonio 1989-1992

Professional Affiliations

State Bar of Texas

U.S. Virgin Islands Bar Association

Houston Bar Association

Women In Claims, Board of Advisors

Bad Faith Committee of the Claims & Litigation Management Alliance

Loss Executives Association

The Claims And Litigation Management Association (CLM)

Practice areas