Law firm Mintz hires captives experts into re/insurance practice

Law firm  Mintz has hired five new practitioners into its insurance and reinsurance practice who join the firm with extensive experience including in the captive insurance space.

Deirdre Johnson, Paul Kalish, Suman Chakraborty, and Ellen MacDonald Farrell join as members, and Elaine Panagakos joins as special counsel. All five attorneys previously practiced at Squire Patton Boggs, and will practice out of the firm’s Washington DC office, with the exception of Chakraborty, who is based in New York.

Johnson is a litigator who focuses her practice on representing insurers, reinsurers, and captive insurers in a broad spectrum of coverage disputes and handling domestic and international arbitration proceedings and litigation involving insurance and reinsurance matters.

Kalish is a litigator with more than 30 years of experience serving the insurance and financial services industries. He focuses his practice on insurance and reinsurance matters, frequently representing clients in coverage disputes involving tort and environmental claims, class actions related to claims handling practices, international arbitrations, and liquidations.

Chakraborty has decades of experience advocating for major insurers and reinsurers in high value arbitrations, and in state and federal court litigation across the country. His disputes practice confronts a broad range of issues affecting clients in both the life and property and casualty industries.

Farrell has more than 20 years of experience representing domestic and international clients in matters involving asbestos, environmental, financial lines, sexual assault and employment-related claims, and in claims against educational institutions. She advises clients on policy language, counsels clients on coverage issues, and litigates complex insurance disputes.

Finally, with over 30 years of litigation experience, Panagakos works with insurers both to resolve coverage disputes as they arise and to apply the lessons learned from those experiences to reduce the likelihood and frequency of future disputes.

“When highly accomplished lawyers such as Deirdre, Paul, Suman, Ellen, and Elaine decide to come to Mintz, we think it makes an important statement about our firm, both in terms of our growth trajectory and our exceptionally collaborative culture,” said  Bob Bodian, Managing Member of Mintz. “This group has practiced together for years with great success and complement and augment our existing capabilities. We are pleased to welcome them to support our clients’ complex insurance and reinsurance needs.”