People on the Move: Law

U.S. Risk Insurance Group Inc., a managing general agency and surplus lines wholesaler, named Richard T. Schwartz as general counsel. Schwartz joined U.S. Risk in 1997 and has been serving in a dual capacity as general counsel and as president of Professional Claims Managers Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Risk and the company's specialty third-party claims administrator. He will now focus his attentions solely on the duties and responsibilities as general counsel. Schwartz received his B.A. in 1984 from the University of Maryland, and his J.D. in 1988 from the University of Baltimore School of Law.

JAMS, founded in 1979 as Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services, hired Michael J. Timpane. Timpane will be based in Northern California and will resolve disputes in a variety of practice areas, including construction claims, construction defect, insurance coverage, surety, business/commercial and real property. As part of the JAMS Global Engineering and Construction Group, he will also provide arbitration services for large public and private construction projects. A full-time neutral since 2003, Timpane has had a substantial alternative dispute resolution practice focusing on claims involving complex construction projects. Prior to becoming a full-time neutral, he served as managing partner at Wolkin and Timpane, LLP, a firm he co-founded in 1995 in San Francisco.

Avoid a Legal Black Hole (04/12/13)
Legal Spotlight: February 2013 (02/19/13)
A Working State (09/15/12)
Legal Spotlight: May 2013 (05/01/13)
Legal Spotlight: April 2013 (04/12/13)

Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court President Judge James Gardner Colins will become a partner at Philadelphia law firm Cozen O'Connor in July. His litigation practice will focus in the areas of public utility and insurance regulation. Colins had stepped down from the bench in January after serving on the Commonwealth Court since 1984. He was the longest-serving judge on the court and the only one to have served two five-year terms as president judge.

Offshore law firm Appleby appointed Michael Burns a senior corporate partner in Bermuda and member of the Appleby Global Executive Board, as managing partner of the British Virgin Islands office, effective Oct. 1, 2008. Burns has had a corporate insurance-based practice in Bermuda and has been involved in significant company law reform and associated developments, including in relation to the creation of segregated accounts legislation in Bermuda. Michael has been involved with the British Virgin Islands office in various capacities since its opening in 2004. He also serves as Appleby's group general counsel and will continue in that role.

AndrEE Chamberland joined the Québec City office of the Langlois Kronström Desjardins law firm. She specializes in civil and commercial litigation as well as insurance law. Chamberland has been practicing with a Montréal-based law firm since her admission to the Quebec Bar in 1996. Although she takes on major class action and injunction cases, her practice focuses mainly on general civil liability cases and property insurance.

(Read the rest of the People on the Move newsletter from June 25.)

June 25, 2008

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