Matthew Morrison has years of experience focusing on complex claims, litigation management and insurance coverage issues from both the perspective of an insurer as well an attorney in private practice. In his current position with American Faminly Insurance he is responsible for all litigation outcomes across the enterprise including claims and corporate litigation. He is admitted to practice before the state courts of Illinois and Wisconsin, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, the Wisconsin State Bar Association, Claims & Litigation Management Alliance Advisory Board and serves as a professor at CLM’s Litigation Management Institute. In 2013 Matt was named Litigation Management Professional of the Year by CLM.

Richard A. Fuller is Actuarial Associate/Statistical Specialist for Claims, Information Technology, Corporate Actuarial, and Reinsurance at Arrowpoint Capital (formerly Royal & SunAlliance USA). Rich conducts research and data analysis supporting Claims, Reinsurance, Financial Accounting, Regulatory Compliance, Actuarial, and Internal Audit functions. In this role he provides analysis of workers compensation actuarial reserve estimates, monitors costs and disposition of the claims portfolio, provides analysis and data mining of reinsurance collection efforts, and develops the information technology infrastructure for management reporting.

Prior to his current role, Rich was Actuarial Associate/Statistical Specialist in the Company’s Personal Lines Division where he supported the pricing, underwriting, marketing, financial accounting, regulatory compliance and internal audit functions.

Rich has also held positions as MIS Manager in the Personal Lines Division, Senior Actuarial Analyst and Actuarial Programmer. Since beginning his career at Arrowpoint in 1986, he has gained vast knowledge and experience in personal lines, corporate actuarial, product actuarial and pricing.

Rich is an Associate of the Casualty Actuarial Society. He earned his master’s degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and his bachelor’s degree at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Paul is in charge of the Stryker Legal Operations Team that supervises and manages outside counsel, legal audit team and legal vendors. Team develops strategies to proactively manage legal spend for Stryker's 250+ Legal & Compliance Department. Responsible for budgeting, reporting and process improvement. Collaborate with Stryker senior management to implement legal spend management programs for Practice Groups including Intellectual Property, Products Liability, Mergers & Acquisitions, Employment Law, General Litigation, eDiscovery and Compliance. 
 
Paul Roberts previously served as Director of Litigation Management at Zurich North America.  In this role Paul’s team managed Zurich's Panel law firms with $500 million in annual legal spend.  Having joined Zurich in 2001, Paul held a variety of management roles, including leading on-site audits of Zurich's Panel law firms.  Paul also spent 3 years on foreign assignment as the Head of Global Claims Quality Assurance in Zurich, Switzerland.  Prior to joining Zurich, Paul was Assistant Vice President and Director of Litigation Management at The Hartford Insurance Group, led the Western Region of their Staff Legal organization and managed the Panel law firm audit team.  Paul began his career practicing law in Phoenix at Jones, Skeleton & Hochuli, and also practiced in Chicago at Hinshaw & Culbertson.  
 
Education:
Bachelor of Arts, Political Science, The University of Iowa. 
University of Iowa Law School,  with Distinction
Iowa Law Review, Associate Editor
 
Admissions/Licenses: 
Illinois
Northern District of Illinois
United States Supreme Court
Arizona (inactive)
New York (inactive)
 

Dan Costello, Founder and Managing Partner of Costello Ginex & Wideikis,  is currently recognized as a national expert in litigation management, complex case litigation, and trial practice.  In 2014 he was one of four finalists for the Claim and Litigation Management (CLM) Outside Counsel of the Year, selected from nearly 40,000 members. He is a Advisory Board member for CLM, Co-Chair of the Anti-Nuclear Verdict Task Force, Co-Chair of the Litigation Management Symposium (LMS), and a Chancellor of Litigation Management Institute (LMI) held at Loyola Law school in Chicago.

Over the last three years, Dan's litigation practice has continued to grow, as has the firms growing portfolio of litigation based solutions.   Dan has been retained as lead counsel in complex cases including lead trial counsel in two cases of first impression in Illinois  including the loss of opportunity to have a biological child for 66 plaintiffs in a Cryogenic tank malfunction, and a class action lawsuit in litigation of Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) dealing with statutory/punitive damages.  He has also been retained in complex litigation including the collapse of a tent resulting in multiple fatalities and 19 plaintiffs' claims and recently resolved construction litigation brought on behalf of a national retailer that spanned seven states, and involved insurance disputes with twenty-two separate insurers. 

He also acts as a litigation consultant, billing fees expert, and expert in litigation of complex and construction defect disputes.  He has recently been retained as an expert witness in multiple party litigation in California, Texas, Florida, Arizona, among other states.   Dan also maintains an active practice in consulting with carriers on litigation management strategy, implementation, and improvement.  

Specialties: Construction Litigation, Litigation Management, Expert Fees, Complex litigation, Insurance Coverage, products liability, and construction/design defect

Michael Haverson is  Vice President of Litigation Management for Crum & Forster. In his current position he is responsible for Litigation Management, Subrogation, SIU and C&F claims account executives. 

  He has over thirty years experience as an attorney  in claims/ litigation management and dispute resolution. His experience with litigation management includes managing relationships with outside counsel  nationally, drafting and implementing  litigation management best practices, guidelines, reporting standards, budgeting and billing practices and alternative fee structures.  He also has significant experience working with e-billing platforms and  utilizing data metrics and information tools  to analyze legal performance and cost effectiveness.

Mr. Haverson also has a strong background  with respect to complex insurance coverage/bad faith issues and was formerly  a VP of Claims Legal at Zurich  He is experienced with ADR and served in the past as both a mediator and arbitrator.  He has been an instructor at the LMI since 2014.

Twanda Turner-Hawkins is corporate counsel for Allstate Insurance Company, responsible for litigation, process management, and litigation administration in Northbrook, Illinois. She began her career with Allstate as a claim adjuster. She completed her law school degree at Georgia State College of Law. She joined Allstate’s staff counsel operation in Atlanta, Georgia, as a trial attorney, where she managed hundreds of cases as the lead attorney, tried more than 40 jury trials, and argued before the Georgia Supreme Court. Ms. Turner-Hawkins is licensed in Georgia, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.
 
Ms. Turner-Hawkins was lead counsel for Allstate’s Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia, offices. She was subsequently promoted to managing attorney for Allstate Insurance for the state of Pennsylvania. As the managing attorney, she oversaw staffing, business administration, leadership development, and training. Her paperless efforts reduced real estate cost by 25 percent and reduced reliance upon paper supplies and postage by 50 percent for her department.
 
Currently, Ms. Turner-Hawkins is corporate counsel for Allstate Insurance Company, where she is responsible for litigation, litigation administration, processes, and procedures, including records information management, budgets, and creating a paperless law department. Additionally, Ms. Turner-Hawkins represents the company in TCPA, FACTA, trademark, and contract litigation, successfully recovering money damages.

Cliff Dutton is Cliff Dutton is DTI Epiq's chief innovation officer. He drives business model innovation and leads the company’s product strategy, both for proprietary software and third-party software integrations. 
 
Dutton recently served as senior vice president, director of strategies and director of eDiscovery at American International Group, Inc. (AIG), where he led transformational change in the legal operations center, focusing on legal vendor management, electronic discovery process innovation, alternative dispute resolution and alternative fee arrangements. His team was recognized as a Value Champion in 2015 by the Association of Corporate Counsel.
 
He has deep experience in eDiscovery, having been the national technical editor of the first electronic discovery reference model (EDRM) project in 2006, advised Senate Banking Committee members on implications of Sarbanes-Oxley for electronic discovery, and briefed the Department of Homeland Security on the use of electronic discovery technologies in terrorist threat detection.
 
Prior to his work in the legal industry, Dutton led policy, technology and business development in transaction and data processing businesses globally. He has served as a board member in public and private companies, and is named inventor in four U.S. patents in digital image processing, game 

Christopher A. Carucci is Vice President of Client Services for Gallagher Bassett. His responsibilities include oversight of large national accounts, claim management and litigation management.  Previously, Chris was in a claim leadership role at Everest National Insurance Company. Chris was responsible for managing the Casualty, Auto, Property, Excess, and Professional Liability Claim Departments as well as overseeing Litigation Management, SIU and Compliance. Prior to joining Everest National Insurance Company, Chris was a leader within the Specialties Claims Organization of Zurich North America managing the Professional Liability Claim Department.  He also was played a significant role in litigation management.  Chris worked at AIG before joining Zurich North America. At AIG, he managed a nationwide caseload of bad faith, coverage and high exposure Casualty claims. Chris also was involved in litigation management and conducting training for claims personnel.
 
Chris is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York Bar Association, the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (Advisory Board Member), the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, USLAW (Client Advisory Board), Defense Research Institute and NRRDA. He is a professor at the CLM Litigation Management Institute and a frequent speaker at industry events on topics including claim management, litigation management and good faith claim handling.  He earned his B.A. degree from Fairfield University and his J.D. from New York Law School.

Lynn Menschenfreund has (30) years of experience both as a lawyer and as a senior claims executive, handling severity, complex claims and litigation. Ms. Menschenfreund has extensive experience in claims and litigation management, product liability, food contamination, real estate, hospitality and coverage.  Ms. Menschenfreund has resolved thousands of claims through effective claim resolution strategies and skillful negotiations. 

?Ms. Menschenfreund is the founder of Concise Claims Consulting LLC, a consulting company dedicated to providing effective and efficient strategies for claim resolution for insurers, TPAs and companies managing self-insured retentions.  She has extensive experience managing claim units dedicated to excess/umbrella, environmental, multinational claims, construction, marine excess liability, and medical malpractice.  Ms. Menschenfreund has held various leadership positions for global carriers and excess and surplus lines carriers including VP, Excess and Multinational Claims for Everest National Insurance Company; SVP, Excess and Specialty Claims for Chubb (formerly ACE North American Claims); VP, Claims for Markel (Investors Underwriting Managers); AVP, Excess Claims for AIG; and she has served as counsel to the law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae. Ms. Menschenfreund is the past Dean for the School of Casualty Claims from 2013-2016 for CLM.  Ms. Menschenfreund currently volunteers at the the NJ Community Food Bank. 

Michele Newman's Claim handling career began in 1985 with Aetna Life & Casualty and continued with Connecticut Medical Insurance Company in 1988 and has over 30 years’ experience handling bodily injury and medical professional liability claims and lawsuits. She brings a wealth of experience to her position as Litigation Manager at Hamlin & Burton with a significant record of managing and resolving claims of the highest settlements with the greatest savings based upon fair resolution values. 

Ms. Newman graduated from Southern Connecticut State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science.  Ms. Newman also earned her Certification in Mediation from the Program on Negotiation at the Harvard Law School in 2006 and in 2011 she achieved her Certification in Claims Litigation Management from Claims & Litigation Management Alliance hosted by Columbia Law School; November of 2015 completed the Program on Negotiation Master Class at the Harvard Law School; has earned her ACP and CCP designations and currently serves as Co-Dean for the School of Mediation at CLM's Claims College. 
 

Helen is Vice President and Manager of Enterprise Legal Services for the Liberty Mutual Group.  She serves as Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board for the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance.  She is also a member of the ACC Law Department Executive Leadership Group.  Helen has had over 30 years of experience at Liberty Mutual Group including various management positions in the Claims and Legal Departments and the Field Legal Organization.  She assumed her current position in 2005, where her responsibilities include managing the outside legal expenditures for Liberty.  Her group is responsible for analytics on $1 Billion of legal spend.  Her responsibilities also include legal finance, technology, auditing and process improvement initiatives for the litigation management function.  Liberty Mutual is a diversified global insurer which ranks 71 on the Fortune 500.  Helen has a Bachelor of Science of Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Mari Henry Leigh is Founder, CEo and Managing Member of Mari Henry Leigh & Associates, LLC.  Mari has more than three decades of experience as an attorney litigating or managing complex litigation on a wide variety of substantive legal disciplines and more than 23 years experience in legal fees disputes, litigation management and law firm and law department or claims management operations, including co-founding a predecessor practice.  A pioneer in the industry, Mari provides corporate clients with comprehensive litigation management and legal operations services, including the efficient execution and implementation of litigation strategies, the implementation of prospective cost containment and cost recovery/reimbursement initiatives (including ESI-discovery initiatives) and budgeting, predictive modeling and financial reporting on mass-tort, multi-jurisdictional litigation and other complex litigation. Referred to as the ‘‘Granddaddy of legal bill review’’ and ‘‘one of the first attorneys people go to [on billing and litigation management issues]’’ by colleagues and clients, Mari is highly skilled at data analytics and has conducted hundreds of legal audits involving billions of dollars in legal costs over the course of her career.  One client has described her as "utterly brilliant" and an "expert in her niche market" and described the practice she has built as "very impressive." In addition to serving as a testifying expert witness, Mari has also served as a facilitator, hearing officer and arbitrator of attorney fee disputes. She has also served on the Eligibility Committee of a mass-tort settlement.  

As the National Extra-Contractual Consultant for the Progressive Group of Insurance Companies, Ms. Fuller provides strategic analysis and advice on complex claims which do or could present extra-contractual exposure. Her collaborative efforts are aimed at eliminating, mitigating or assessing risk and developing appropriate resolution/litigation strategies.  

Ms. Fuller has authored articles and lectured extensively before local, regional and home offices of insurance carriers, agents and practitioners in the area of insurance, “bad faith” and discovery, as well as application of the Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act. She has also been recognized as an expert witness in the field of insurance “bad faith.”  Ms. Fuller joined Progressive after a distinguished career in private practice where she represented national and international property/casualty insurers at the trial and appellate levels. She is licensed to practice in all state and federal courts in West Virginia and Virginia as well as the Supreme Court of the United States.

Cathleen is a partner and shareholder at Rebar Kelly. She has been advising and counseling clients in complex litigation matters for over two decades. She represents leading insurance companies and their insureds in multi-faceted matters involving violations of professional standards of care. Cathleen’s representation extends to design professionals, architects, engineers, contractors, surveyors, appraisers, environmental consultants, agents, brokers, service providers, medical professionals, business professionals, food manufacturers and distributors and property owners.

Cathleen has represented clients in the following types of claims:

duty to represent dangerous conditions inadequate security failure to advise, failure to implement design specifications failure to supervise, failure to inspect design defects errors in professional judgment and failure to refer failure to meet/inform of deadlines failure to diagnose and misdiagnosis emergency medical care and nursing mistakes mental health issues corporate liability subcontractor responsibility/indemnification indemnity and obtaining coverage under additional insured status failure to warn

Cathleen has defended one of the nation’s largest healthcare providers in claims of medical malpractice. She has also represented design professionals in legal matters stemming from defective design of electrical equipment resulting in multiple claims and lawsuits. Cathleen has been defending one of the region’s largest real estate brokers in errors and omissions matters for over a decade. She has also represented physicians in connection with allegations of failing to properly diagnose, as well as long-term care facilities against allegations of inappropriate preventative measures for the avoidance of pressure sores. Cathleen also defended one of the country’s largest retail suppliers of electronics in claims of product defects and premise liability matters.

Education: Villanova University School of Law, J.D., 1998 & Long Island University, B.A., 1995, magna cum laude
 

 

Michael Leahy was for 35 years the senior partner in the Risk Management and Insurance Law practice group in the California firm of Haight, Brown & Bonesteel. The firm's insurance practice has been ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the first tier of all firms in Southern California based upon its expertise and reputation. His practice of over 40+ years has been primarily devoted to insurance law and risk transfer issues, including analysis of coverage and reinsurance issues, rendering opinions, drafting insurance policies and endorsements and litigating insurance issues both in bad faith litigation as well as declaratory judgment actions. He has been monitoring and supervisory counsel and national coverage counsel for a number of insurers, domestically and internationally, and has defended professionals in the insurance industry, and has served as an expert witness in extra contractual cases and reinsurance arbitrations.

He has lectured extensively in the United States, the United Kingdom and Asia. He is a member of the Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel and the Professional Liability Committee of the CLM. He is a Cum Laude graduate of the Loyola Law School and is a Fellow of the American College of Coverage and Extra Contractual Counsel. He has stepped back from the active practice of aw and is now serving as a consultant to companies and lawyers on insurance related issues and as an expert witness.

While an in-house attorney, John was one of the earliest adopters of electronic invoicing technology, allowing him to aggregate invoice and performance metrics data, generate litigation management reports, evaluate the effectiveness of outside counsel, implement cost reduction strategies and evaluate internal staffing choices.

After completing a clerkship for a Justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court John entered private practice concentrating on the defense of architects and engineers. After leaving private practice he held a variety of legal positions with national insurers in the areas of environmental coverage and litigation management, most recently as Chief Claims Counsel for OneBeacon where he had responsibility for staff counsel, panel counsel, coverage counsel, environmental and extra-contractual litigation. In 2010 John re-entered private practice as a partner with a national defense firm where he concentrated on national program management, insurance coverage and general liability litigation and in 2013 he was appointed General Counsel for the CLM. John was also of counsel to the Wood, Smith, Henning and Berman firm and is now Head of Litigation and Vendor Management for AXA XL.

An attorney for over 30 years, he is "AV" rated by Martindale and is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and  the United States Supreme Court. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College, University of New Hampshire Law School, and has completed management training programs at the Wharton School of Business and the London Business School. He was the 2008 Chair of the ACC Insurance Staff Counsel Committee and a Boston 2012 Top Rated Lawyer (insurance coverage)

 

Mr. Beemer has 46 years in the insurance industry and is retired but continues to do consulting and expert witness work through Suite 200 Solutions.  Previously he was the VP of Claims at Tokio Marine HCC Insurance Group.  Prior to TMHCC, Mr. Beemer worked at IAT, QBE, Aetna, CNA, Home Insurance, Risk Enterprise Management and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.   At QBE Mr. Beemer lead the liability claims department and the Litigation Management department for QBE.  He had direct oversight of Litigation Management, Transportation, GL, CD, TPA Services and Environmental claims.  Prior to QBE Mr. Beemer was the National Claim Director for Construction Defect, Latent Injury and Entertainment Claims at Fireman's Fund Insurance Company. In his career he has been a chief technical officer, consultant to re-insurers, training coordinator, national accounts coordinator, litigation manager, legal auditor, claims and due diligence auditor, PMK, expert witness and has been a panel speaker at CLM and other industry events. He serves on  the Advisory Board for the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, has served as Dean of Litigation Management at Claims College and is a Chancellor and Professor at Litigation Management Institute. Mr. Beemer has authored numerous articles for Claims Management Magazine and Litigation Management Magazine. Mr. Beemer received the CLM Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023 at the Annual Conference in Tampa Florida. 

Vic Marmo is currently the Assistant VP, Global Claims for Marriott Vacations Worldwide Corporation (MVWC). Vic is a graduate of the University of Maryland, School of Business. He holds an Associate in Risk Management designation is a certified mediator and has extensive training in negotiations, mediation and trial strategy from various law schools including Pepperdine University, Harvard University and Southern Methodist University.
 
Vic began his career with Marriott International 25 years ago and has held several positions including Global Claims Director and Regional Claims Director for the Mid-Atlantic region.  He has recently moved to his current role with MVWC.
 
In his current position, Vic has responsibility for claims oversight of all claims in five lines of insurance (guest liability, workers compensation, employee dishonesty, property and employment practices liability). Vic also is responsible for the claims reporting process, nurse care program and claims audits and is an active member of several national organizations addressing litigation management and other relevant topics for self-insureds.
 

Frank Chang is currently Director of Safety and Insurance Analytics at Uber, a group of data scientists and actuaries dedicated to making rare events even more rare. Frank has been at Uber since 2014.
Frank's career as a non-traditional actuary, however, began in 2012, when he joined Google as their first and Lead Actuary, responsible for pricing, reserving, credit and risk modeling.
Before Google, Frank worked in various traditional roles covering personal, commercial, and specialty lines pricing as well as reserving and reinsurance. The bulk of Frank's traditional actuarial career was spent at Fireman's Fund Insurance Company.
Frank graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a B.A. in Music and a Ph.D. in Mathematics. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and will serve a three-year term on the CAS Board of Directors starting in November 2017.

Michael Owen – Vice President & Claims Counsel, RiverStone Claims Management, LLC.  Mike oversees litigation management processes and the development of defense litigation and trial strategies for claims RiverStone manages on behalf of its affiliates. Before joining RiverStone, Mike practiced law in New Hampshire as a member in a small firm specializing in business litigation. Mike also spent several years in government service before entering law practice.

Nelson Tavares is the Senior Vice President of Claims at W. R. Berkley Corporation. In this role since 2011, Nelson is responsible for the overall strategy and technical outcomes of the Claims function across all Berkley companies. W. R. Berkley Corporation is an insurance holding company of 53 subsidiaries operating in North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Nelson has been in the insurance industry for more than 25 years. Prior to his tenure at W. R. Berkley he held a variety of U.S. domestic and international senior leadership roles at Zurich Insurance Company including, Head of Global Large and Complex Claims, Head of Strategic Execution – International Claims, and National Director of Specialty Claims. Nelson started his career at Travelers Property Casualty Company in New Jersey and New York.
 

Dan co-founded and serves as the Executive Chairman of Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman, a full service law firm with over 400 attorneys with offices throughout the United States.  In his role as Chairman, Dan is responsible for the high level management of the firm, execution of the firm's strategic vision and ensuring its overall effective operational management. Representing Fortune 500 companies and mid-market businesses, Dan is a recognized authority on commercial and business law, has received Martindale Hubbell's highest rating of "AV Preeminent," and has been selected a California "Super Lawyer" on numerous occasions. Dan's legal work spans matters involving business issues, professional liability, real estate, intellectual property, entertainment endeavors, and construction-related issues.  Dan has worked for many years closely with the domestic and London insurance markets, has successfully tried numerous complex cases to verdict and has been instrumental in several groundbreaking favorable rulings in the appellate realm.  He has served as a court appointed arbitrator and mediator, and serves as monitoring and coordinating counsel for clients throughout the United States.

Memberships and Accomplishments: Firm Chairman, Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman; 2015 –Present, Managing Partner, Wood, Smith, Henning & Berman; 2007 – 2015, Member, Young Presidents' Organization Santa Monica Bay Chapter (YPOSMB); 2009 – Present, Member, Council on Litigation Management, Professional Liability Committee Member, California Building Industry Association Legal Action Subcommittee Member, Professional Liability Defense Federation Member, Defense Research Institute, Technology Committee Member, National Association of Home Builders Construction Law Attorney Forum Member, Building Industry Association of Southern California Member, Association of Southern California Defense Counsel (ASCDC) Member, Risk and Insurance Management Society, Inc. (RIMS) Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America Quarterly Contributor to Residential Design and Build Magazine, AV Preeminent Lawyer by Martindale-Hubbell, Certified Continuing Legal Education Instructor at the Litigation Management Institute (LMI) at Columbia University Law School.