The Boston Beer Company and Samuel Adams Brewery Company were named as defendants in several class action lawsuits nationwide that sought to impose liability and obtain injunctive relief for the alleged marketing of alcoholic beverages to minors. Boston Beer hired us to defend it in connection with declaratory judgment actions brought by its insurers, by which the carriers sought to avoid, among other things, their duties to defend these class actions, which was particularly difficult since most of the underlying cases were pending at that time and the coverage action implicated issues in dispute in the underlying actions. Boston Beer’s instruction to us was to defend the coverage actions without in any way prejudicing its defenses in the underlying actions.  After extensive motion practice seeking to limit the scope of the coverage actions, we successfully defeated motions for summary judgment filed by Boston Beer’s carriers, and in a first-in-the-nation ruling, obtained judgment that the carriers had a duty to defend Boston Beer under Massachusetts law. Mass. Bay Ins. Co. v. The Boston Beer Co., Inc., No. 05-4634 (Mass. Super. Ct. Feb. 12, 2007). See also Royal Ins. Co. v. The Boston Beer Co. Inc., No. 1:04cv2295 (N.D. Ohio Apr. 5, 2007) (attaining similar result in analagous Ohio litigation).