Ranked as one of the "Top 250 Women in Litigation in the United States" by Benchmark Litigation (2012, 2013), and one of the "Top 100 Lawyers in Florida" by Super Lawyers Magazine (2011, 2013-14), Katherine ("Kathi") Eastmoore Giddings is a Board Certified appellate lawyer and member of her firm's board of directors.  Kathi specializes in appellate practice with an emphasis on insurance issues and general civil and administrative appeals and has litigated high-stakes civil and administrative appeals and bar ethics issues in state and federal courts nationwide.  In conjunction with her appellate practice, she monitors and counsels her insurance clients on litigation management issues nationally, with special emphasis in the area of staff counsel operations and related issues involving the tripartite relationship among insurers, insureds, and defense attorneys.  She chaired the Florida Bar’s CLE Committee on the then new insurance staff counsel rules of professional conduct and served as a member of the drafting subcommittee for Florida's Statement of Insured Client's Rights. She has filed amicus briefs for insurers throughout the country regarding the propriety of insurance defense staff counsel and other insurance issues of national importance, including alleged bad faith, conflicts of interest, and the unauthorized practice of law.  Before entering private practice, Kathi served as a career staff attorney to former Florida Supreme Court Justice Ben F. Overton for seven years. During her tenure at the Court, she participated in hundreds of appeals and reviewed thousands of briefs, many dealing with complex insurance and attorney disciplinary issues.

AE Claim Director, CNA Professional Services
Bachelor of Business Administration  Iona College 1984Experience:  Allstate Insurance: Auto/Property Claim Representative 1984 to 1987CNA Insurance: Professional Services Claim Representative 1987 to 2003,Professional Services Claim Manager 2003 to 2013;Currently Architects and Engineers Claim Director for CNA Professional Services

Formerly Vice-President, CNA Staff Counsel, Juris Doctor: Seton Hall University School of Law, 1982Master of Arts: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, 1978Bachelor of Arts: New Mexico State UniversityExperience: Hearing office, New Jersey State Parole Board; New Jersey Deputy Attorney General, Division of Criminal Justice; Trial Attorney, Continental Insurance Company; Trial Attorney, CNA Staff Counsel; Managing Trial Attorney and Assistant Vice-President. Currently Vice-President CNA Staff Counsel. 

Staff Counsel for CNA Insurance Companies Managing Trial Attorney for a Staff Counsel Office that includes 9 attorneys,  paralegal and clerical staff of 8.  Responsible for ensuring high quality legal work on behalf of the clients and for the claims service centers.  Responsible for maintaining a high level of customer satisfaction.  Promoted to Managing Trial Attorney in December 1997.  Since January 1998, conducted another 8 trials to verdict including 2 NJ LAD cases involving allegations of race and national origin discrimination and 1 EPL case involving allegations of breach of an employment separation agreement. Admitted to New Jersey Bar, December 1986.Seton Hall University School of Law- Newark, New Jersey/ Juris Doctor, 1986University College – Rutgers University- New Brunswick, New Jersey/ Bachelor of Arts, 1981

Judge John L. Braxton is a Senior Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia, County. He has been a member of the Pennsylvania Bar for over 40 years, and he has an accomplished career of public service in law, business, and financial administration.

Braxton has developed expertise in commercial and economic development within heavily-regulated industries including banking and insurance. He also has built a record of success in directing long-term strategic business planning and managing executive-level responsibilities in both the private and public sectors.

Braxton served as Chair of the Board of Berean Federal Savings Bank from 1999 to 2003. He also served as Chair of the Bank’s Investment Committee. In addition, Braxton served as Chair of the Audit Committee of Intellisource Group, Inc. which was a publicly held corporation.

From 1991-1996, Braxton served as Chair of the Board of the Philadelphia Commercial Development Corporation. From 1975-1978, he served as a member of the Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Authority.

Braxton was born and raised in West Philadelphia, and he graduated from Overbrook High School. He went on to earn a degree from Penn State University as well as a commission as a Second Lieutenant in the U. S. Army. His service in Viet Nam earned him the Bronze Star with an Oak Leaf Custer for Meritorious Service. Upon the completion of his military service, Braxton earned a law degree from Howard University School of Law.

Although he retired in 1995, Judge Braxton has been recalled to serve on the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware, Bucks and Montgomery Counties. And he has been appointed to serve as a member of the Personnel Appeals Board of the Government Accountability Office in Washington, DC.

Judge Braxton is a member of the board of a number of community organizations such as the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts, Juvenile Law Center and the Northern Liberties Neighbors Association. He is also the Treasurer of the National Bar Association.

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.

Catherine Pomiecko is the Vice President & Director of Litigation Metrics and Information Strategies at Liberty Mutual Insurance.  Her department is responsible for delivering reporting and analytical insights on legal spending for both Field Legal and Outside Counsel, and providing operational and strategic metrics to internal departments and customers.  
 
Her group leverages an array of Business Intelligence and statistical tools, text mining applications, and data visualization techniques. It has developed and delivered Dashboards for both executive and frontline management.
 
Catherine joined the Liberty Mutual Legal Department as the Assistant Law Librarian and Archivist in 1980, and has held a number of positions with responsibility for managing the department's online applications for Field Legal and Outside Counsel, and collaborating on business process re-engineering efforts.
 
Catherine received her BA from Colby College (Waterville, ME), her MS in Library and Information Science from Simmons College (Boston), and a Certified Litigation Management Profession (CLMP) designation from the Litigation Management Institute.
 
She is currently enrolled in the MBA program at the F. W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College.

Mr. Drayer manages the Massachusetts Staff Counsel operation for MAPFRE | USA, which is the largest writer of personal lines insurance in Massachusetts.  He previously managed a staff counsel operation for National Grange Mutual Insurance Company, which handled claims in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York. 

Mr. Drayer has also worked for law firms in Boston which served as panel counsel for various insurers and self-insureds, as well as business litigation clients.

Mr. Drayer is a Fellow and Massachusetts State Chair for the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, a member of the Bad Faith Section of the Massachusetts Defense Lawyers Association and a member of the Professionalism & Ethics Committee for the Defense Research Institute.

Vice President, Claims  MAPFRE USA
 
Responsibilities include home office oversight of large losses and complex litigation, Insurance Operations Compliance, Training, Data Analytics and Staff Counsel in MA, CT, RI, NY and NJ.
 
Has been with MAPFRE since 1985 and became an officer of MAPFRE USA in 2007. Key responsibilities include country wide management of high exposure claims, legal bill review and panel counsel.
 
Sue holds a Masters in Business Administration from Nichols College, a Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters (CPCU) professional designation and completed an international management development program in Madrid Spain in 2011.  She is past President of the Central MA CPCU Chapter and a fellow with Council on Litigation Management.  Sue has been a guest speaker for several organizations including the Boston Association of Claims Executives and Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys. 
 
MAPFRE is the largest Spanish insurance group, the largest non-life insurer in Latin American and has a presence in 47 countries supporting over 34 million clients worldwide.  MAPFRE employs over 38,000 people throughout its network of companies and in 2015 revenues exceeded 26,700 million euros. MAPFRE USA writes in 19 states with more than 2 billion in direct written premium.

Marillyn Damelio, Associate Vice President of Trial Division at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, is a trial attorney with more than 37 years of experience in the practice of law. With over 100 jury trial verdicts, she has extensive appellate, felony jury and death penalty defense experience.Marillyn has been with Nationwide since 1988. During her time she has served in many roles within Trial Division including Managing Attorney, Regional Attorney, Leader for the Audits, Ethics and Training team, Associate Vice President of the Midwest Region and currently Associate Vice President for the Northeast Region. She currently oversees 14 staff counsel offices across four states that represent Nationwide policyholders when they are sued as a result of an occurrence that is covered by their insurance policy.Before joining Nationwide, Marillyn worked as a public defender in Cleveland, Ohio, for 10 years.Marillyn is admitted to the Ohio Bar, The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United State Supreme Court. She is active in DRI and the Ohio State Bar Association and has memberships in the ABA and ACC.Marillyn is certified by the National Institute of Trial Advocacy (NITA) and serves as faculty on Trial Division’s Trial Advocacy program for attorneys. In 2014, Marillyn successfully completed the Litigation Management Institute (CLI) and earned her Certified Litigation Management (CLMP) designation.Marillyn earned her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her JD from Ohio Northern University College of Law where she served on the Law Review Editorial Board.

Thomas M. Clark is former Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Claims for USAA & Selective Insurance Company.  He was responsible for oversight and management of all claims legal and insurance regulatory functions through his leadership of claims litigation management, staff counsel, subrogation counsel and coverage counsel divisions.

Tom is a member of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC), Defense Research Institute (DRI), American Corporate Counsel Association, and the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM), where he served on the Advisory Board. Tom has authored numerous industry and legal articles and has been a frequent participant in panels on the topics of ADR, litigation management, and legal expense control. He obtained his JD from the College of William & Mary in Virginia and is a certified mediator.

Denise Mandi is a trial attorney with the law firm of Snyder, Barrett & Wilkinson -  in house counsel for Nationwide Insurance Company  in Philadelphia.  She received her B.A. in Intellectual History from University of Pennsylvania and her J.D. from Widener University.
Born and raised in South Philadelphia, child of hard working parents and first in family to obtain a higher education.  She represents parties in litigation involving slip and fall, motor vehicle, and construction litigation. She has a prior and colorful background as a Special Investigation litigator for over 7 years.  As a strong advocate and aggressive litigator, throughout her career, Denise has tried over 100 jury trials with a string of Defense verdicts that lasted over 2 years.

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)

 

Toni Forge is a Principal with Total Litigation Solutions, a litigation management consulting firm based in Los Angeles, California.  Toni is a graduate of Hastings College of the Law and holds a bachelor’s degree in both Business and Humanities from the University of San Francisco.

For over 18 years, Toni Forge has worked in-house as legal counsel.  Toni began her career as in-house counsel for State Farm Insurance Company.  She left civil litigation and entered the financial services arena where she became Vice-President and Associate General Counsel for both Transamerica Asset Management and Trust Company of the West.  Toni returned to the insurance industry where she served as Regional Managing Attorney for Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company and a Claims Executive for Arrowpoint Capital, formerly Royal and SunAlliance Insurance Company.

Toni has been and still is a key player in developing case management platforms, implementing fixed fee and alternative fee solutions, file resolution strategies and instituting strong internal controls relating to billing and bill analysis.