Associate, Winston & Strawn LLP
Spencer draws on his experience as a former trial and appellate clerk to litigate white collar, commercial, administrative law, and constitutional matters at every stage.
Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University
Gabriel Collins is the Baker Botts Fellow in Energy & Environmental Regulatory Affairs at Rice University's Baker Institute. He was previously an associate attorney at Baker Hostetler, LLP, and is the co-founder of the China SignPost™ (洞察中国) analysis portal. Collins has worked in the Department of Defense as a China analyst and as a private sector global commodity researcher, authoring more than 100 commodity analysis reports, both for private clients and for publication.
Collins’ research portfolio is global. His work currently focuses on legal, environmental and economic issues relating to water — including the food-water-energy nexus — as well as unconventional oil and gas development, and the intersection between global commodity markets and a range of environmental, legal and national security issues. His analysis draws from a broad swath of geospatial and other data streams, and often incorporates insights from sources in Chinese, Russian and Spanish.
Collins received his B.A. from Princeton University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School. He is licensed to practice law in Texas.
Managing Director, SCF Partners
Daniel G. West invests in energy services, equipment, and technology companies at SCF Partners in Houston, Texas. He provides equity capital and strategic growth assistance to entrepreneurs and leaders of both start-up ventures and established, growing businesses.
Prior to joining the private sector, Mr. West served as an infantry officer in the United States Marine Corps. As a platoon commander with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit aboard the USS Mesa Verde, he led the Tactical Recovery of Aircraft and Personnel force in support of the NATO aerial campaign over Libya. He then served as executive officer of India Company, 3rd Battalion, 9th Marines as it mentored Afghan forces to assume lead security responsibility and executed counter-narcotics missions in Marjah, Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He also served as a clerk for Judge Laurence H. Silberman on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Mr. West holds degrees in law, business administration, and economics from Harvard University, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review and taught undergraduate courses in economics and government. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the International & National Security Law Practice Group of the Federalist Society and a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Partner, Simpson Thacher
Based in Washington, D.C. office, David Blass is a Partner in the Firm’s Investment Funds Practice. David is a leading regulatory lawyer in the funds industry and has advised on matters involving innovative registered funds products, Investment Advisers Act compliance, SEC examination and enforcement matters, and broker-dealer regulatory compliance. He is uniquely qualified to provide strategic and regulatory advice on matters involving asset management firms and broker-dealers.
David has extensive knowledge of the regulatory requirements of the asset management industry having served as General Counsel of the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for registered investment funds. He also held senior roles for over a decade at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, most recently as Chief Counsel and Associate Director in the Division of Trading and Markets, where he oversaw broker-dealer regulation and large aspects of FINRA’s regulatory program. David was the Associate General Counsel for the SEC where he was responsible for Dodd-Frank Act implementation, among many other programmatic areas. He also held a senior role in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, leading the office regulating registered investment advisers, including advisers to private funds.
Chambers Global reports that clients say he is an “excellent regulatory lawyer” who is both “very knowledgeable and easy to work with.” David was notably named “Independent Counsel of the Year” by Fund Intelligence’s Mutual Fund Industry & ETF Awards in 2021.
CEO, Institutional Limited Partners Association
As Acting CEO for the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), Jennifer Choi directs the association's engagement with external industry stakeholders to inform and enhance ILPA's education, research, membership and advocacy platforms. Ms. Choi also leads the implementation of ILPA's responses to emerging issues impacting the asset class, including efforts to establish and promote industry best practices.
Prior to joining the ILPA, Ms. Choi served as Vice President of Industry and External Affairs for the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), where she led the association's member and industry engagement activities, including efforts to encourage policy frameworks that support the growth of the asset class. As EMPEA's Research Director, she built the industry's first global database of private equity activity in the emerging markets. A frequent speaker and commentator on the industry, Ms. Choi also oversaw the association's media communications and global institutional partnerships. Previously, Ms. Choi was a consultant with Boston-based Stax Inc., leading due diligence engagements and providing advisory services for the U.S. private equity and venture capital industry.
Jennifer holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from Augustana College.
Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Head of Asset Management Group, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)
Ms. Keljo is Managing Director, Associate General Counsel and Head of Asset Management Group for SIFMA, where she serves as counsel and staff for many of AMG’s workstreams. In particular, Ms. Keljo focuses on systemic risk & prudential regulation for asset managers, fixed income market structure, and ETF regulation. She also focuses on the U.S. impact of many European regulations, including the cross-border implications of Brexit, MiFID II, PRIIPs, and sustainable finance/ESG initiatives.
Ms. Keljo joined SIFMA AMG in October 2014 from Squire Patton Boggs, where she advised financial institutions, corporations, and asset managers on a wide range of financial services legislative and regulatory developments.
Ms. Keljo has extensive experience representing asset managers before Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Treasury Department, and other regulatory agencies that promulgate and implement financial regulation. Ms. Keljo began her career working for a major political party as a campaign manager based primarily in northwest Pennsylvania.
Ms. Keljo is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Mercyhurst College.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA)
Russ Ryan is a nationally recognized attorney and thought leader with particular interest in the regulatory and enforcement apparatus of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other quasi-governmental regulators overseen by the SEC, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the various securities industry self-regulatory organizations (SROs). He has decades of experience defending private citizens and businesses caught in the crosshairs of these and other financial regulators.
Russ joined NCLA from the law firm King & Spalding, where he was a partner for 15 years. He left the firm from 2015 to 2018 to serve as Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief of Enforcement at FINRA. Earlier in his career he served for two years as law clerk to a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York and for 10 years as a staff attorney and Assistant Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. He also taught for several semesters as an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Russ is a prolific speaker and writer on financial regulation and enforcement. He has spoken at dozens of professional conferences and published scores of commentaries and academic articles, including numerous op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Law360, and elsewhere. His regular column on LinkedIn is called “On SECond Thought: Unconventional Perspectives on Securities Enforcement.”
Russ earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was an executive editor of the law review.
Partner, Simpson Thacher
Based in Washington, D.C. office, David Blass is a Partner in the Firm’s Investment Funds Practice. David is a leading regulatory lawyer in the funds industry and has advised on matters involving innovative registered funds products, Investment Advisers Act compliance, SEC examination and enforcement matters, and broker-dealer regulatory compliance. He is uniquely qualified to provide strategic and regulatory advice on matters involving asset management firms and broker-dealers.
David has extensive knowledge of the regulatory requirements of the asset management industry having served as General Counsel of the Investment Company Institute, the trade association for registered investment funds. He also held senior roles for over a decade at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, most recently as Chief Counsel and Associate Director in the Division of Trading and Markets, where he oversaw broker-dealer regulation and large aspects of FINRA’s regulatory program. David was the Associate General Counsel for the SEC where he was responsible for Dodd-Frank Act implementation, among many other programmatic areas. He also held a senior role in the SEC’s Division of Investment Management, leading the office regulating registered investment advisers, including advisers to private funds.
Chambers Global reports that clients say he is an “excellent regulatory lawyer” who is both “very knowledgeable and easy to work with.” David was notably named “Independent Counsel of the Year” by Fund Intelligence’s Mutual Fund Industry & ETF Awards in 2021.
CEO, Institutional Limited Partners Association
As Acting CEO for the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA), Jennifer Choi directs the association's engagement with external industry stakeholders to inform and enhance ILPA's education, research, membership and advocacy platforms. Ms. Choi also leads the implementation of ILPA's responses to emerging issues impacting the asset class, including efforts to establish and promote industry best practices.
Prior to joining the ILPA, Ms. Choi served as Vice President of Industry and External Affairs for the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA), where she led the association's member and industry engagement activities, including efforts to encourage policy frameworks that support the growth of the asset class. As EMPEA's Research Director, she built the industry's first global database of private equity activity in the emerging markets. A frequent speaker and commentator on the industry, Ms. Choi also oversaw the association's media communications and global institutional partnerships. Previously, Ms. Choi was a consultant with Boston-based Stax Inc., leading due diligence engagements and providing advisory services for the U.S. private equity and venture capital industry.
Jennifer holds a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and a B.A. summa cum laude in Economics and Political Science from Augustana College.
Managing Director and Associate General Counsel, Head of Asset Management Group, Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)
Ms. Keljo is Managing Director, Associate General Counsel and Head of Asset Management Group for SIFMA, where she serves as counsel and staff for many of AMG’s workstreams. In particular, Ms. Keljo focuses on systemic risk & prudential regulation for asset managers, fixed income market structure, and ETF regulation. She also focuses on the U.S. impact of many European regulations, including the cross-border implications of Brexit, MiFID II, PRIIPs, and sustainable finance/ESG initiatives.
Ms. Keljo joined SIFMA AMG in October 2014 from Squire Patton Boggs, where she advised financial institutions, corporations, and asset managers on a wide range of financial services legislative and regulatory developments.
Ms. Keljo has extensive experience representing asset managers before Congress, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the U.S. Treasury Department, and other regulatory agencies that promulgate and implement financial regulation. Ms. Keljo began her career working for a major political party as a campaign manager based primarily in northwest Pennsylvania.
Ms. Keljo is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School and Mercyhurst College.
Senior Litigation Counsel, New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA)
Russ Ryan is a nationally recognized attorney and thought leader with particular interest in the regulatory and enforcement apparatus of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and other quasi-governmental regulators overseen by the SEC, including the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), and the various securities industry self-regulatory organizations (SROs). He has decades of experience defending private citizens and businesses caught in the crosshairs of these and other financial regulators.
Russ joined NCLA from the law firm King & Spalding, where he was a partner for 15 years. He left the firm from 2015 to 2018 to serve as Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief of Enforcement at FINRA. Earlier in his career he served for two years as law clerk to a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York and for 10 years as a staff attorney and Assistant Director in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. He also taught for several semesters as an adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University.
Russ is a prolific speaker and writer on financial regulation and enforcement. He has spoken at dozens of professional conferences and published scores of commentaries and academic articles, including numerous op-eds in The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, Law360, and elsewhere. His regular column on LinkedIn is called “On SECond Thought: Unconventional Perspectives on Securities Enforcement.”
Russ earned his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from St. John’s University School of Law, where he was an executive editor of the law review.
Trial Lawyer, Bennett Legal
Charles Bennett is the driving force behind Bennett Legal, a nationally recognized law firm specializing in winning Personal Injury cases. He is one of the nation’s top trial attorneys and consultants. He is invited to speak and teach nationwide, educating lawyers on tactics, tips, and procedures that empower them to take on the insurance companies and get significantly improved results. Charles has secured record-breaking results in a variety of categories, including: commercial/18-wheeler crashes, wrongful deaths with a specialty in negligent landlord cases, traumatic brain damage cases, motor vehicle crashes, and workplace injuries.
Charles is highly regarded among his peers as a top lawyer in his field. Whenever other trial lawyers face complex cases and need guidance, they turn to Charles Bennett for his expert advice. He has gained extensive knowledge and experience as a principal of Trial Structure LLC, an educational corporation that catered specifically to trial lawyers. He worked on thousands of cases with a diverse range of lawyers across the nation. He is known as the “lawyer’s lawyer” because of his reputation for trial skills and collaberation. Lawyers often partner with him on their difficult cases to maximize the results.
Charles is now the captain of the Justice College, an institution whose mission is to empower lawyers to face billion-dollar insurance companies without feeling overwhelmed. Charles and the instructors at the Justice College form a special forces unit of trial excellence capable of defeating any insurance team they face. The Justice College graduates become lifelong members of a tribe that share experiences to help the community stay at the top of their game and increase case value.
Charles is a cum laude graduate of SMU Dedman School of Law. Before pursuing law, he had an outstanding career as a college basketball player at Midwestern State University, where he exhibited excellent leadership skills and athleticism. He played professional basketball in Europe. Playing at the professional level necessitates an incredible work ethic, the ability to cooperate and work as a team, and competitiveness that he now applies in the courtroom with spectacular success.
During law school, Charles’s amazed everyone with his initiative and capability by obtaining international arbitration awards for professional basketball players and agents. Recognized as a member of The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 and nominated as a Rising Star by Thomson Reuters, Charles’s legal acumen and commitment to excellence make him your best choice when you can’t afford to lose.
He and the Bennett Legal team actively engage in charitable events, reflecting their commitment to giving back and building meaningful connections within their local communities.
Partner, The Loree Law Firm
Philip J. Loree Jr. is the principal of The Loree Law Firm. He has 30 years of experience representing clients in complex disputes before federal and state trial and appellate courts, and arbitration panels, particularly in domestic and international arbitration-law, reinsurance, insurance, and other business and commercial disputes.
Before forming Loree & Loree in 2008 he practiced for nearly 17 years with one of the leading reinsurance practice groups in the United States, and was a litigation partner at two prominent New York City law firms, Rosenman & Colin LLP (now Katten-Muchin Rosenman LLP) and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. When Philip J. Loree Sr. retired from the practice of law in 2020, Philip J. Loree Jr. (“Mr. Loree” or “Loree”) continued the practice of Loree & Loree as The Loree Law Firm.
Mr. Loree has extensive experience arbitrating and litigating matters involving nearly every significant, reinsurance-related issue, including statutory and GAAP reinsurance accounting; transfer of insurance risk; independent auditor liability; fraud and rescission; London Market disputes; pool administration; insolvencies; follow-the- fortunes and follow-the-settlements; allocation of environmental liability and asbestos settlements; number of occurrences; trigger of coverage; multi-year policy issues; interpretation of reinsurance contracts and insurance policies; underwriting practices; reserving; set off; late notice; pre-hearing and pre-answer security; utmost good faith; bad faith; allocation and recovery of declaratory judgment expenses; and liability of intermediaries, managing general agents and brokers. He has also handled coverage litigation. He has counseled clients in contentious and non-contentious matters involving insurance coverage; regulatory compliance; Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) sanctions; reinsurance or insurance coverage for hurricane or storm damage; commutations; internal reinsurance reviews; contract and policy interpretation; Bermuda Form polices; property insurance, including insurance of a major oil rig; life reinsurance; life settlements; risk transfer; and other issues.
He has also represented and counseled clients in arbitration and litigation concerning commercial and business contracts, business torts, and fraudulent transfers.
As a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP he played key roles in a number of high-profile matters. He was a member of the four-partner trial team that obtained a $1.1 billion arbitration award in favor of a large, Japanese insurance and reinsurance company against Fortress Re, Inc., the manager of what was once one of the world’s largest aviation reinsurance pools. The arbitration concerned, among other things, Fortress Re’s accounting and reporting practices for financial reinsurance, and the $1.1 billion award is reputed to be the largest in the history of reinsurance arbitration.
He was also a key member of the team that represented the same Japanese insurance and reinsurance company in the related action it brought against Deloitte & Touche, LLP, the independent auditor of the Fortress Re Pool, seeking more than $1 billion in damages. That matter resulted in what was at the time reputed to be the second largest settlement of an independent auditor liability case in history. He and his former partners also represented a large, international reinsurance company in an internal review of finite reinsurance transactions that resulted in a restatement of earnings.
Mr. Loree also has extensive experience and expertise in practice and procedure under the Federal Arbitration Act, including matters arising under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, and is a recognized commentator on U.S. arbitration-law matters. He has represented clients in numerous proceedings involving the enforcement of arbitration agreements and the confirmation and vacatur of arbitration awards arising out of industry, commercial, business contract, employment, and trust arbitrations.
He argued Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Home Ins. Co., 429 F.3d 640 (6th Cir. 2005), which rejected an evident partiality and excess of powers challenge to a favorable award he helped his client obtain. Considering for the first time what legal standard should apply to an evident partiality challenge based on a party-appointed arbitrator’s alleged failure to disclose purported conflicts of interest, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected the challenging party’s argument that the district court applied the wrong standard. Courts, treatises and commentators have cited Nationwide extensively.
As a Loree & Loree partner he obtained on behalf of an English client partial vacatur of a reinsurance arbitration award in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The final award provided that the arbitration panel would remain constituted until the parties agreed that it should disband. When the arbitration panel would not disband after resolving all issues the parties submitted to it, his client petitioned the Court for an order vacating the retention-of-jurisdiction provision and confirming all other aspects of the award. He successfully convinced the Court to grant the petition in its entirety and hold that the retention-of-jurisdiction provision exceeded the arbitrators’ authority under Section 10(a)(4) of the Federal Arbitration Act. See KX Re Co. v. General Reinsurance Corp., 08 Civ. 7807 (SAS), 2008 WL 4904882 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 14, 2008).
Loree argued on behalf of the prevailing party Certain Underwriting Members of Lloyds of London v. State of Florida, Department of Financial Services, 892 F.3d 501, 503-04 (2d Cir. 2018) in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that “a party seeking to vacate an award under Section 10(a)(2) must sustain a higher burden to prove evident partiality on the part of an arbitrator who is appointed by a party and who is expected to espouse the view or perspective of the appointing party.” Id. “An undisclosed relationship between a party and its party- appointed arbitrator constitutes evident partiality, such that vacatur of the award is appropriate if[,]” explained the Court: “(1) the relationship violates the contractual requirement of disinterestedness [or another contractual requirement of the arbitration agreement]; or (2) it prejudicially affects the award.” 892 F.3d at 504 (citations omitted). (Read more about the case here.)
Loree is a prolific and skilled writer. He has written extensively on reinsurance and arbitration-related matters, and is the editor-in-chief of the Arbitration Law Forum (formerly the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum) (http://www.LoreeLawFirm.com/blog), which regularly posts online articles of interest concerning reinsurance and commercial and industry arbitration. In addition to the more than 300 articles he has published in The Arbitration Law Forum (and in its predecessor, the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum), he has written articles published in the New York Law Journal, the National Law Journal, U.S. Insurer, Global Reinsurer, and other publications, as well as several articles for Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation, the newsletter of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (“CPR”).
Mr. Loree’s publications include:
CPR conducted in 2020 several video conference interviews of Loree, and his friend, former trial judge, and fellow arbitration-law practitioner, Richard D. Faulkner, about various controversial arbitration issues pertaining to matters the U.S. Supreme Court either has been asked to hear. Links to those videos can be accessed here.
Mr. Loree’s speaking engagements include:
The Loree Law Firm’s predecessor practice, Loree & Loree, was selected by Expertise.com out of a group of 1,763 persons or firms reviewed as one of Expertise.com’s top 18 “Arbitrators & Mediators” in New York City for 2019, and now for 2020. (See here and here.)
His comments on arbitration matters have been quoted by Global Arbitration Review, a London-based trade publication that covers international arbitration; Business Insurance, and U.S. Law Week.
Loree obtained his B.A. from New York University in 1986 and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1989, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, a Dean’s Merit Scholar, and a member of the Dean’s List.
He is admitted to practice in the State of New York, and in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Sixth, and Eighth Circuits.
Trial Lawyer, Bennett Legal
Charles Bennett is the driving force behind Bennett Legal, a nationally recognized law firm specializing in winning Personal Injury cases. He is one of the nation’s top trial attorneys and consultants. He is invited to speak and teach nationwide, educating lawyers on tactics, tips, and procedures that empower them to take on the insurance companies and get significantly improved results. Charles has secured record-breaking results in a variety of categories, including: commercial/18-wheeler crashes, wrongful deaths with a specialty in negligent landlord cases, traumatic brain damage cases, motor vehicle crashes, and workplace injuries.
Charles is highly regarded among his peers as a top lawyer in his field. Whenever other trial lawyers face complex cases and need guidance, they turn to Charles Bennett for his expert advice. He has gained extensive knowledge and experience as a principal of Trial Structure LLC, an educational corporation that catered specifically to trial lawyers. He worked on thousands of cases with a diverse range of lawyers across the nation. He is known as the “lawyer’s lawyer” because of his reputation for trial skills and collaberation. Lawyers often partner with him on their difficult cases to maximize the results.
Charles is now the captain of the Justice College, an institution whose mission is to empower lawyers to face billion-dollar insurance companies without feeling overwhelmed. Charles and the instructors at the Justice College form a special forces unit of trial excellence capable of defeating any insurance team they face. The Justice College graduates become lifelong members of a tribe that share experiences to help the community stay at the top of their game and increase case value.
Charles is a cum laude graduate of SMU Dedman School of Law. Before pursuing law, he had an outstanding career as a college basketball player at Midwestern State University, where he exhibited excellent leadership skills and athleticism. He played professional basketball in Europe. Playing at the professional level necessitates an incredible work ethic, the ability to cooperate and work as a team, and competitiveness that he now applies in the courtroom with spectacular success.
During law school, Charles’s amazed everyone with his initiative and capability by obtaining international arbitration awards for professional basketball players and agents. Recognized as a member of The National Trial Lawyers Top 40 Under 40 and nominated as a Rising Star by Thomson Reuters, Charles’s legal acumen and commitment to excellence make him your best choice when you can’t afford to lose.
He and the Bennett Legal team actively engage in charitable events, reflecting their commitment to giving back and building meaningful connections within their local communities.
Partner, The Loree Law Firm
Philip J. Loree Jr. is the principal of The Loree Law Firm. He has 30 years of experience representing clients in complex disputes before federal and state trial and appellate courts, and arbitration panels, particularly in domestic and international arbitration-law, reinsurance, insurance, and other business and commercial disputes.
Before forming Loree & Loree in 2008 he practiced for nearly 17 years with one of the leading reinsurance practice groups in the United States, and was a litigation partner at two prominent New York City law firms, Rosenman & Colin LLP (now Katten-Muchin Rosenman LLP) and Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP. When Philip J. Loree Sr. retired from the practice of law in 2020, Philip J. Loree Jr. (“Mr. Loree” or “Loree”) continued the practice of Loree & Loree as The Loree Law Firm.
Mr. Loree has extensive experience arbitrating and litigating matters involving nearly every significant, reinsurance-related issue, including statutory and GAAP reinsurance accounting; transfer of insurance risk; independent auditor liability; fraud and rescission; London Market disputes; pool administration; insolvencies; follow-the- fortunes and follow-the-settlements; allocation of environmental liability and asbestos settlements; number of occurrences; trigger of coverage; multi-year policy issues; interpretation of reinsurance contracts and insurance policies; underwriting practices; reserving; set off; late notice; pre-hearing and pre-answer security; utmost good faith; bad faith; allocation and recovery of declaratory judgment expenses; and liability of intermediaries, managing general agents and brokers. He has also handled coverage litigation. He has counseled clients in contentious and non-contentious matters involving insurance coverage; regulatory compliance; Office of Foreign Asset Control (“OFAC”) sanctions; reinsurance or insurance coverage for hurricane or storm damage; commutations; internal reinsurance reviews; contract and policy interpretation; Bermuda Form polices; property insurance, including insurance of a major oil rig; life reinsurance; life settlements; risk transfer; and other issues.
He has also represented and counseled clients in arbitration and litigation concerning commercial and business contracts, business torts, and fraudulent transfers.
As a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP he played key roles in a number of high-profile matters. He was a member of the four-partner trial team that obtained a $1.1 billion arbitration award in favor of a large, Japanese insurance and reinsurance company against Fortress Re, Inc., the manager of what was once one of the world’s largest aviation reinsurance pools. The arbitration concerned, among other things, Fortress Re’s accounting and reporting practices for financial reinsurance, and the $1.1 billion award is reputed to be the largest in the history of reinsurance arbitration.
He was also a key member of the team that represented the same Japanese insurance and reinsurance company in the related action it brought against Deloitte & Touche, LLP, the independent auditor of the Fortress Re Pool, seeking more than $1 billion in damages. That matter resulted in what was at the time reputed to be the second largest settlement of an independent auditor liability case in history. He and his former partners also represented a large, international reinsurance company in an internal review of finite reinsurance transactions that resulted in a restatement of earnings.
Mr. Loree also has extensive experience and expertise in practice and procedure under the Federal Arbitration Act, including matters arising under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, and is a recognized commentator on U.S. arbitration-law matters. He has represented clients in numerous proceedings involving the enforcement of arbitration agreements and the confirmation and vacatur of arbitration awards arising out of industry, commercial, business contract, employment, and trust arbitrations.
He argued Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Home Ins. Co., 429 F.3d 640 (6th Cir. 2005), which rejected an evident partiality and excess of powers challenge to a favorable award he helped his client obtain. Considering for the first time what legal standard should apply to an evident partiality challenge based on a party-appointed arbitrator’s alleged failure to disclose purported conflicts of interest, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit rejected the challenging party’s argument that the district court applied the wrong standard. Courts, treatises and commentators have cited Nationwide extensively.
As a Loree & Loree partner he obtained on behalf of an English client partial vacatur of a reinsurance arbitration award in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. The final award provided that the arbitration panel would remain constituted until the parties agreed that it should disband. When the arbitration panel would not disband after resolving all issues the parties submitted to it, his client petitioned the Court for an order vacating the retention-of-jurisdiction provision and confirming all other aspects of the award. He successfully convinced the Court to grant the petition in its entirety and hold that the retention-of-jurisdiction provision exceeded the arbitrators’ authority under Section 10(a)(4) of the Federal Arbitration Act. See KX Re Co. v. General Reinsurance Corp., 08 Civ. 7807 (SAS), 2008 WL 4904882 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 14, 2008).
Loree argued on behalf of the prevailing party Certain Underwriting Members of Lloyds of London v. State of Florida, Department of Financial Services, 892 F.3d 501, 503-04 (2d Cir. 2018) in which the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that “a party seeking to vacate an award under Section 10(a)(2) must sustain a higher burden to prove evident partiality on the part of an arbitrator who is appointed by a party and who is expected to espouse the view or perspective of the appointing party.” Id. “An undisclosed relationship between a party and its party- appointed arbitrator constitutes evident partiality, such that vacatur of the award is appropriate if[,]” explained the Court: “(1) the relationship violates the contractual requirement of disinterestedness [or another contractual requirement of the arbitration agreement]; or (2) it prejudicially affects the award.” 892 F.3d at 504 (citations omitted). (Read more about the case here.)
Loree is a prolific and skilled writer. He has written extensively on reinsurance and arbitration-related matters, and is the editor-in-chief of the Arbitration Law Forum (formerly the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum) (http://www.LoreeLawFirm.com/blog), which regularly posts online articles of interest concerning reinsurance and commercial and industry arbitration. In addition to the more than 300 articles he has published in The Arbitration Law Forum (and in its predecessor, the Loree Reinsurance and Arbitration Law Forum), he has written articles published in the New York Law Journal, the National Law Journal, U.S. Insurer, Global Reinsurer, and other publications, as well as several articles for Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation, the newsletter of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (“CPR”).
Mr. Loree’s publications include:
CPR conducted in 2020 several video conference interviews of Loree, and his friend, former trial judge, and fellow arbitration-law practitioner, Richard D. Faulkner, about various controversial arbitration issues pertaining to matters the U.S. Supreme Court either has been asked to hear. Links to those videos can be accessed here.
Mr. Loree’s speaking engagements include:
The Loree Law Firm’s predecessor practice, Loree & Loree, was selected by Expertise.com out of a group of 1,763 persons or firms reviewed as one of Expertise.com’s top 18 “Arbitrators & Mediators” in New York City for 2019, and now for 2020. (See here and here.)
His comments on arbitration matters have been quoted by Global Arbitration Review, a London-based trade publication that covers international arbitration; Business Insurance, and U.S. Law Week.
Loree obtained his B.A. from New York University in 1986 and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1989, where he was the Editor-in-Chief of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law, a Dean’s Merit Scholar, and a member of the Dean’s List.
He is admitted to practice in the State of New York, and in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Sixth, and Eighth Circuits.
Executive Director & Secretary, American Civil Rights Project
Dan Morenoff is the executive director at the American Civil Rights Project and an adjunct fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
His work focuses on protecting and, where necessary, restoring the primacy of all Americans' shared civil rights against the identitarian alternative.
Before practicing law, Morenoff served on the legislative staff of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-TX). Morenoff holds a B.A. from Columbia College of Columbia University in the City of New York and a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School. He has also served as an officer or director of several community organizations in Dallas, Texas.
Professor of Law, Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law
Joshua Kleinfeld teaches and writes about political, legal, and moral philosophy, criminal law, and criminal procedure. He also practices law in Northwestern's Juvenile Criminal Defense Clinic. He is a full professor with tenure at the Northwestern Pritzker School of the Law and (by courtesy) in Northwestern’s philosophy department. In 2017-18, he was a visiting professor at Harvard and Stanford Law Schools. He is the recipient of the Bator Award, given annually to one American law professor under the age of 40 who has demonstrated "excellence in legal scholarship, a commitment to teaching, a concern for students, and who has made a significant public impact."
In philosophy, Kleinfeld's research focuses on the idea of "embodied ethical life," as developed in the socio-theoretic tradition of Hegel, Weber, and Durkheim. This tradition aims to understand and critique social life by bringing to light the normative ideas implicit in social practices and institutions. In law, this means that the most interesting philosophical concepts are often those reflected or actualized in legal practice – in the law as judges and lawyers think of it and wield it.
In criminal law and procedure, Kleinfeld has developed a theory known as "reconstructivism," which holds that the chief office of criminal law is not to dole out retributive justice, nor to optimize crime and cost control, but to reconstruct a violated normative order in the wake of a crime. This work, which draws on the thought of Hegel, Durkheim, Jean Hampton, and Antony Duff, develops an alternative to retributive and utilitarian theories of criminal law by focusing on the distinctive social function and sense of justice at work in the criminal system.
Kleinfeld is also involved in practical criminal justice reform. In this vein, he defends children accused of homicide in the Northwestern Juvenile Criminal Defense clinic and assists in litigation efforts meant to reform American criminal law through the courts. He has also developed a view of criminal justice reform known as "democratization," which holds that the root of the American criminal justice crisis is a set of bureaucratic attitudes, structures, and incentives divorced from the American public’s concerns and sense of justice, and that the primary solution is to make criminal justice more community-focused and responsive to lay influences. Working with others, he has developed a number of policy proposals meant to reform American criminal justice in a democratic direction.
Kleinfeld holds a JD from Yale Law School, a PhD in philosophy from the Goethe University of Frankfurt (supervised by Axel Honneth, Klaus Günther, and Rainer Forst), and a BA in philosophy from Yale College. He clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; Judge Janice Rogers Brown on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; and President (chief justice) Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel. He worked as an Associate at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in Frankfurt, Germany, in the area of corporate criminal law. Before law school, he worked as a Senior Research Analyst at the White House’s Council on Bioethics.
John S. Battle Professor of Law, University of Virginia School of Law
Julia D. Mahoney teaches courses in property, government finance, constitutional law and nonprofit organizations. A graduate of Yale Law School, she joined the University of Virginia faculty as an associate professor in 1999 and is now John S. Battle Professor of Law. She has also taught at the University of Southern California Law School and the University of Chicago Law School, and before entering the legal academy, practiced law at the New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Her scholarly articles include works on land preservation, eminent domain, health care reform and property rights in human biological materials.
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