The Precipice Episode 3

Peter Biging is an accomplished trial and appellate attorney with more than 30 years of experience as a litigator in the state and federal courts of New York. His practice focuses on litigation involving directors and officers, financial institutions and defense of management and professional liability claims, including the defense of a variety of professionals against errors and omissions claims, labor and employment practices litigation, commercial litigation, municipal liability litigation, and professional liability coverage work. His work as a litigator includes defending a variety of financial service professionals, including insurance agents and brokers, investment advisers, accountants, broker-dealers and their registered representatives. He also regularly represents lawyers, real estate and title agents, and a variety of miscellaneous professionals. Peter regularly handles complex, high-stakes commercial litigations and claims involving allegations of fraud or malfeasance, as well as litigations of non-solicitation/non-compete disputes. A partner in the firm's Manhattan offices, he heads up the Goldberg Segalla metro area Management and Professional Liability practice, and is Co-chair of the M&PL practice group nationally. Peter is widely recognized as an authority on D&O, management and professional liability, E&O, EPL, and professional liability coverage issues. In addition to regularly writing and presenting to national audiences on these topics, he is active in a number of organizations devoted to the education and development of lawyers involved in management & professional liability defense work, including his current role as a member of the Board of the Professional Liability Defense Federation (PLDF) (for which he currently serves as president-elect), various posts within the American Bar Association’s Tort, Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) (including Chair of the Editorial Board of The Brief, the TIPS flagship magazine), and his active participation in the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS), and the Claim and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM), for whom he has written numerous articles, given numerous presentations, and served on several committees. He is regularly recognized as a New York metro area Super Lawyer in Professional Liability Defense, is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell as having the highest levels of skill and integrity, and has been selected a Top 100 Bet the Company Litigator.

Ryan Kelly is a Claims Team Lead for Berkley Select in Chicago, Illinois, where she leads a team of legal and accountant professional liability and management liability specialists. Ryan also continues to handle claims with a focus on legal professional liability claims. Prior to joining Berkeley Select in 2017, Ryan spent nearly a decade as an insurance defense litigator. She spent most of her career at Lipe, Lyons, Murphy, Nahrstadt, and Pontikis. While working in private practice, Ryan defended a wide variety of matters, including legal and medical malpractice cases, construction litigation, and premises liability cases. Ryan's practice focused primarily on litigation and also included numerous trials. Ryan attained her undergraduate degree from Indiana University and her Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law.

Melissa Demmon is Vice President Claims Counsel for Sompo, where she supervises the Lawyers Malpractice and Accountants Malpractice Claims team. Prior to joining SOMPO, Melissa was Claims Counsel for a major insurance company in St. Louis, Missouri, where she managed a large caseload of LPL claims against policies with limits of up to 5 million dollars. Melissa also has a history as a litigator in private practice before she took the plunge into insurance professional liability claims, including a time where we crossed paths briefly at a firm many years ago. Melissa is a member of the New York, New Jersey, and Missouri Bars, and is also admitted to the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the District of New Jersey. She received a J.D. from St. John's University School of Law and a B.A. from Columbia College, Columbia University, and is a member of the American Bar Association, the Professional Liability Underwriting Society, and the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance.

Megan manages an experienced claims team of licensed lawyers who handle a variety of professional liability matters nationwide with a concentration on lawyers professional liability claims. Before becoming a claims professional, Megan was a practicing attorney in Atlanta, [00:02:00] Georgia, where she litigated a wide breadth of commercial litigation with a focus on the representation of policyholders insurance coverage disputes including litigated declaratory judgment actions in state and federal court. In her time as a litigator, she tried numerous cases, both civil and criminal in nature. Megan graduated cum laude from the University of Georgia Law School of Law after earning a B.A. cum laude and with distinction in all subjects from Cornell University.