IAIR Resolution Workshop Speakers
Managing Member Barnett & Garcia, PLLC
Matt Garcia is the managing member of Barnett & Garcia, PLLC. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin School of Business and School of Law, Matt brings his sense of business to the practice of law. For over 20 years, Matt and his firm have prosecuted hundreds of cases on behalf of solvent and insolvent insurance carriers, creditors and financial institutions in state and federal forums and have collected millions of dollars on their behalf. Matt has also served as counsel to several Special Deputy Receivers appointed by the Texas Department of Insurance since 2003. Matt recently served as President of the Texas Creditors Bar Association. He currently serves as Secretary of the Texas Association of Turnover Receivers, is an Editor of the State Bar of Texas Collections Manual and sits on the Board of Governors for the Commercial Law League of America as Recording Secretary.
Ed is an investment specialist with over 30 years of experience working in the capital markets area. He has been working with state regulators for over 25 years, most recently serving as the Senior Technical Policy Advisor, Capital Markets & Macro Prudential Surveillance for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Ed founded and held the position of Director of the NAIC Capital Markets Bureau. In that capacity, he developed tools and reports to support state regulators in the analysis of individual insurer and industry-wide investment exposures. As lead Investment Specialist at RRC, he provides investment and risk management consulting services to state insurance departments. While at the NAIC, Ed was the chair of the Macro-prudential Policy & Surveillance Working Group of the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, which had primary responsibility for the Global Insurance Markets Report and the Key Insurance Risks & Trends Survey. In addition, he supported the NAIC’s representative to the Financial Stability Oversight Council and was a member of Financial Stability Oversight Council FSOC’s Systemic Risk Committee. Ed is a frequent speaker on economic, capital markets and investment related topics at various trade association events.
Fred Karlinsky is a Shareholder and Global Co-Chair of Greenberg Traurig’s Insurance Regulatory and Transactions Practice Group. Fred has nearly 30 years of experience representing the interests of insurers, reinsurers and a wide variety of other insurance-related entities. He is a recognized authority on national insurance regulatory and compliance issues and has taken a leadership position in many insurance trade organizations. Recognized as the only Band 1 Florida insurance lawyer by Chambers & Partners and one of the most influential leaders in Florida politics by City & State Florida and INFLUENCE Magazine, Fred has in-depth knowledge of insurance compliance matters and has been a primary strategist in virtually all types of Florida insurance-related legislative initiatives. Fred has also been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, Florida Trend 500 and Florida Trend’s “Legal Elite” for his work in insurance law. In addition to his role with Greenberg Traurig, Fred has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at Florida State University College of Law since 2008, where he teaches a course on Insurance Law and Risk Management. Fred currently chairs the Florida Supreme Court Judicial Nominating Commission, which he has served on since 2014. Four of the seven current sitting Justices of the Florida Supreme Court have been appointed during Fred’s tenure on the JNC.
Kevin has 30 years of receivership experience serving in various legal and management roles at OSD throughout his career. During his leadership at OSD, Illinois receivership estates have marshalled and distributed approximately $3 billion dollars in estate assets to policyholders and other creditors. Kevin has represented the Illinois Director of Insurance in numerous receivership proceedings, estate litigation and transactions, including Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Cos., Triad Guaranty Insurance Cos., Land of Lincoln Mutual Health Insurance Company, and Public Service Insurance Company. Kevin also represents the Illinois Department of Insurance before the NAIC’s Receivership and Insolvency Task Force and its related working groups.
Jim Donelon has served as Commissioner of Insurance for the state of Louisiana for more than 15 years. He was first appointed as Insurance Commissioner in February 2006 when the seat was vacated by the incumbent. He was later elected to fill the unexpired term in 2006 and has been re-elected to four consecutive full terms in 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019. His current term will expire in 2023. A native of New Orleans, Jim graduated from Jesuit High School, the University of New Orleans and Loyola School of Law. Prior to becoming Commissioner of Insurance, Jim served in several leadership positions within the Department of Insurance including as Chief Deputy Commissioner and Executive Counsel. Jim was elected as the President of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners' (NAIC) in 2013 and currently serves as Chairman of the Surplus Lines Task Force of the NAIC and on its Executive Committee. Jim has served the state of Louisiana for decades. He was first elected to public office in 1975 as Chairman of the Jefferson Parish Council. He also served in the Louisiana House of Representatives from 1981-2001 where he served as Chairman of the Committee on Insurance. His public service career also includes 33 years in the Louisiana Army National Guard where he retired with the rank of Colonel and received the prestigious Legion of Merit medal. Jim serves on the Board of Directors for the Blood Center for Southeast Louisiana. Jim and his wife Merilynn reside in Jefferson Parish. They are the parents of four daughters and grandparents of eight grandchildren.  James Kennedy
Attorney, Austin Texas James Kennedy is a graduate of the University of Texas and the University of Texas School of Law. Since 1989, he has been involved in insurance receiverships at the Texas Department of Insurance and in private practice. He represented the Texas Commissioner of Insurance on numerous NAIC task forces and working groups from 1999 through 2021. He was chair of the NAIC Receivership and Insolvency Task Force and the Receivership Model Law Working Group and served as an NAIC representative on the International Association of Insurance Supervisors Resolution Working Group. James was President of the International Association of Insurance Receivers in 2018 and 2019 and is a master in the Robert W. Calvert Inn of Court. He has been a speaker at courses sponsored by the American Bar Association, Federation of Regulatory Counsel, National Organization of Life and Health Insurance Guaranty Associations, National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds, State Bar of Texas, University of Connecticut School of Law and University of Texas School of Law.
James Mills is Vice President, Legal Counsel for Enstar, having joined the company in 2019. James is responsible for providing expertise on US state insurance regulatory and rehabilitative systems and advising on legislative and business development initiatives. Prior to joining Enstar, James served as the Chief Deputy Insurance Commissioner for the State of Oklahoma, where he helped set the regulatory landscape for numerous new and innovative areas of regulation, including health insurance, workers’ compensation, captive insurance, insurance business transfers, and receivership law. James is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma College of Law and is admitted to practice in Oklahoma. James also received a Master of Business Administration from the University of Oklahoma Price College of Business. James holds the designation of Certified Insurance Resolutions Director by the International Association of Insurance Receivers and was designated a Professional in Insurance Regulation by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. A native Oklahoman, James resides in Tulsa, Oklahoma with his family. Jenny L. Jeffers Managing Member At the age of 17, I was selected, as one of 10 students in the state of Alabama to be given a grant for summer employment at the University of Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham, Alabama. Due to my interest in and love for mathematics, I was assigned to the new computer center there. They had recently installed the state of the art IBM 7040 system. I was sent to programming school with the permanent employees and as a result of my achievements, was hired to continue my employment while attending college. This was the beginning of a long and wonderful period of experience with computers and the contribution they can make to the accomplishments of people. Beginning with this first exposure, I have found that my joy lies in helping others to realize the potential of the powerful tool - the computer. Of course, my experience began with Mainframe Computers (IBM, Honeywell, Digital Equipment, General Electric) and continued into the Mini Computer Age (IBM, Digital Equipment) and with the advent of Micro Computers, into that client/server realm in which we live and work today. During each of these phases, I have continued to enjoy creating solutions and making work easier with my knowledge and expertise. I founded my computer consulting company with the motto Another Problem Solved... to reflect the attitude of service to those interested in making the tasks easier, the data more reliable and lives more enriched using computers. The goals of Jennan Enterprises are stated as:
Jennan Enterprises has been active in the computer industry for 25 years under my management. During this time, various numbers of employees and contract programmers have been employed by Jennan to participate in projects. It has always been my responsibility to determine the size of a team needed to accomplish a task and to lead the team to the development of a timely, efficient, correct and complete product, placing priorities on those areas of greatest impact to the customer and to Jennan Enterprises along the way. I am continuously amazed at my excitement and enthusiasm for each new step the computer industry takes into further enabling users to broaden their horizons, increase capabilities and productivity and derive enjoyment from the work experience. My goal for the rest of my career is to use my knowledge and ability to optimize and maximize the power and quality of automation in as many environments as possible in as efficient a manner as possible.
Jo Ann Howard is President of Jo Ann Howard & Associates and a former National Flood Insurance Program Administrator at FEMA. She is a frequent presenter at federal and state conferences on topics dealing with risks connected with natural hazards and on disaster topics, including flood insurance. She earned a JD from The University of Texas School of Law, a M.S. from Texas A&M and a B.S. degree from Abilene Christian University. She was an appointee of President Bill Clinton as the Federal Insurance Administrator (FIA) with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in March 1998. Serving as the Administrator of the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), she was responsible for managing more than $523 billion of flood insurance in force in the NFIP. Prior to her federal service Ms. Howard was appointed in 1988 as a head state insurance regulator at the State Board of Insurance (now the Texas Department of Insurance) as an appointee by Governor Bill Clements. As one of the three State Board Members, she served as a member of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC). Following her tenure on the State Board of Insurance, she practiced law in the Insurance Section of Clark Thomas Winters & Newton Law Firm. Jo Ann has served as a Special Deputy Receiver in Texas since 1992 and an early member of IAIR. Her SDR receivership work has included P&C, life, surety, and HMO insolvencies for the State of Texas. She founded H2O Partners, a disaster consulting firm in 2001 which worked recovery programs for numerous disasters including Hurricanes Ike, Harvey and Super Storm Sandy and expanded her experience with natural hazards and climate variability studies and reports with work as a contractor for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency and GOHSEP in Louisiana as well as FEMA Regions IV and VI following Hurricane Katrina. She was on a 2018-19 National Academy of Science select committee that wrote a report on Urban Flooding in the United States. Jo Ann also served on the 2009 Governor’s Commission for Disaster Recovery and Renewal after the devastation of Hurricanes Dolly and Ike in Texas. H2O Partners is currently responsible for the development and delivery nationwide for training for agents, lenders, and adjusters nationwide as a prime contractor at FEMA. H2O has developed hazard mitigation plans for over 500 local communities and the firm has just completed a State of Texas Hazard Mitigation plan for all its 254 counties. The firm is currently a subcontractor for Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grants with the Texas General Land Office which administers billions of dollars of federal funding for low and medium income areas in the state.
Keith Lusby maintains a diverse transactional and litigation practice, representing small businesses, middle-market companies, insurers, business owners, banks and other financial institutions. He counsels his business clients regarding business formation, corporate governance, contract negotiation, and other corporate matters, and has represented numerous clients in connection with asset sales, stock sales and similar transactions. He also represents secured lenders and other creditors in bankruptcy proceedings and has handled a variety of commercial litigation, including breach of contract, lender liability, check fraud, Uniform Commercial Code, and shareholder derivative suits. Keith frequently works with new and growing businesses that require legal assistance for the first time, and his eclectic practice allows him to provide comprehensive, effective, and efficient representation. Prior to joining Gebhardt & Smith, Keith served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Lynne A. Battaglia on the Court of Appeals of Maryland, Maryland’s highest court. Keith earned his J.D. with High Honors from the George Washington University Law School in 2013, where he was inducted as a member of the Order of the Coif honor society. He was the Senior Managing Editor of the Public Contract Law Journal, a Member of the Moot Court Board, and the winner of the McKenna, Long & Aldridge “Gilbert A. Cuneo” Government Contracts Moot Court Competition. Keith graduated from the State University of New York, College at Cortland with a B.A. in History, a B.A. in Political Science, and a minor in Law and Justice, summa cum laude, where he was also honored with the State University of New York Chancellor’s Award for Student Excellence. Keith competed on Cortland’s Division III Track Team and championship Cross-Country Team. Keith also previously worked as a martial arts instructor, teaching both children and adults.
Matt Stewart is the Director of Sales at FHLBank Boston, responsible for member development and relationships. He and his team support members’ financial strategy by providing reliable funding used to manage liquidity and interest rate risk. The Federal Home Loan Bank system, created by Congress 90 years ago in response to the Great Depression, consists of 11 regional banks structured as cooperatives that are under the supervision of the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Matt is a member of the FHLB system regulatory working group and partners with various regulators and trade associations in the insurance and banking industry. Prior to joining the FHLBank, he held several leadership roles at Prudential Insurance in New Jersey and Liberty Mutual in Boston. Matt earned an MBA from Babson College and holds the Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC) designations, Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI), and Associate in Insurance Regulation and Compliance.  Pat Hughes
Strategic Advisor, Public Policy Advocate, Regulatory Attorney Pat Hughes is a strategic advisor, public policy advocate and regulatory attorney for insurance industry clients across all product lines and services. Clients turn to Pat when important regulatory and public policy matters in various arenas — including state and federal agencies, the NAIC, legislatures and international regulatory bodies — create challenges or opportunities for their businesses. Leading the insurance team’s regulatory and government affairs practice, he leverages a dynamic, multijurisdictional Faegre Drinker team that deploys proactive national and local regulatory and public policy strategies. Pat is a former senior insurance regulator and state government attorney. As chief legal counsel to the Office of the Governor in Illinois, he oversaw regulatory affairs and directed legal representation for 45 executive branch agencies and several hundred attorneys and outside counsel. He also served as general counsel to the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which then included the Division of Insurance; and as special deputy receiver and CEO with the Office of the Special Deputy, administering the receiverships of 47 companies. While with the state, Pat chaired NAIC working groups on critical issues, including Dodd-Frank implementation and complex receivership oversight.
Co-founder and Managing Partner of the Austin, Texas, boutique firm CANTILO & BENNETT, L.L.P., Patrick has a B.A. and J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. His law practice is concentrated on insurance complex transactions, regulation, insolvency, and complex litigation. Over the last four decades he has worked on receiverships, complex transactions, and similar matters for about half of the states. Notably, these have included not just dozens of receiverships, but also more than a dozen major demutualizations, acquisitions, restructuring and nonprofit conversions. He has lectured and written extensively in the U.S. and abroad. He is a Principal Charter member and Past President of The International Association of Insurance Receivers, holding its highest designation – CIR-ML, and also very involved in a number of activities of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He is rated AV® Preeminent TM by Martindale Hubbell®, listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for Insurance law, and in Marquis Who’s Who®. He is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and Texas, and admitted to a number of federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Courts of Appeal for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits, and several district courts.
Robert Alan Wake has been the General Counsel of the Maine Bureau of Insurance since 2010. He is active at the NAIC, including membership on the Receivership and Insolvency (E) Task Force and representing the NAIC on the IAIS Resolution Working Group. Bob began working with the Bureau of Insurance in 1989 as an Assistant Attorney general, after completing his clerkship with Maine Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Vincent McKusick. He graduated from Harvard Law School in 1988, serving as book review editor of the Law Review and editor-in-chief of the Harvard Law Revue parody edition. Bob received the NAIC’s Robert Dineen Award in 2006 for outstanding contributions by a career insurance regulator and received the NAIC consumer representatives’ Excellence in Consumer Advocacy award in 2018. In an earlier life, he majored in math at MIT, received a Ph.D. in algebraic geometry from Brown, then taught at the University of Maine and at UC Santa Cruz.
Robert H. Nunnally, Jr. is an attorney with the law firm of Wisener, Nunnally, Roth & Higgins, LLP in Garland, Texas. Over the thirty-eight years of his legal career, he has assisted insurance receivers of several states in insurance company liquidations and rehabilitation in dozens of receiverships. His experience includes successful drafting and trial of rehabilitation plan matters including assumption reinsurance plans companies, experience in the sale of insurance companies and of assets owned by insurance companies, and in litigation of the asset and claims issues arising in insurance company insolvency proceedings. Mr. Nunnally holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Arkansas and a law degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is a member of the Texas Bar and the California Bar, and is also registered to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. In addition to his work with insurance insolvencies, he handles commercial litigation and patent licensing matters.
Rowe has over three decades of experience as a partner at Locke Lord LLP. He is a seasoned counselor, advocate, and creative legal problem solver who is equally at home in the courtroom and the board room. As the former head of the firm-wide Litigation Department, Rowe has focused much of his practice on complex commercial litigation matters, including insurance insolvency and antitrust litigation, class action defense, and other regulatory litigation. In addition to adversarial matters, Rowe does a substantial amount of antitrust, governance, and regulatory compliance counseling, especially in the insurance sector. Rowe’s clients have included a wide variety of organizations in the insurance industry, including insurance companies, guaranty funds, receivers, rating and advisory organizations, residual market mechanisms and trade associations. He has handled a wide variety of cases and controversies for property & casualty guaranty funds and other parties in insurance insolvency matters throughout the country. Rowe has been active with NCIGF since its inception in the early 1990’s, including planning, speaking, and chairing at NCIGF Legal Seminars. He currently serves on various NCIGF Committees and task forces, including serving as Chair of the NCIGF Legal Committee and Chair of the Joint Committee Restructuring Subcommittee. Rowe also served as co-chair of the 2019 IAIR Resolution Workshop in New Orleans. He is active in various professional organizations, including serving on the Board of the Lawyer’s Club of Chicago.
Stephanie Kaiser, a litigator based in Dickinson Wright’s Austin office, provides guidance to her clients on a wide variety of business and legal challenges. Her detail-oriented yet practical approach to identifying and addressing enterprise risk makes her a particularly skilled problem solver, both in and out of the courtroom. Through her representation of clients in bet-the-company or high-profile cases, Stephanie has built a reputation for successfully handling matters ranging from fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duties, wrongful death, workplace disputes and personnel matters to unfair competition, intellectual property infringement cases, Lanham Act allegations, and lease disputes. Though her practice is focused largely on litigation, Stephanie’s experience encompasses transactional, real estate, corporate governance, administrative/regulatory, healthcare, and insurance matters. Her clients, which include businesses, corporate executives, and boards of directors across multiple industries, including financial services, general and tower construction, telecommunications, healthcare, security systems and equipment, real estate, and energy, appreciate her sharp eye and wide-ranging perspective. Stephanie has gained particular experience representing creditors in a variety of troubled commercial loan and consumer finance disputes. She has handled matters related to the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and Equal Credit Opportunity Act, as well as those related to consumer protection laws, the Dodd–Frank Act, and potential regulatory enforcement actions. She routinely works with clients to develop policies and procedures, perform internal reviews and investigations, advise and respond to audits and examinations, and provide training and consulting to all levels within the organization. Her clients seek her guidance in connection with distressed assets, special assets, and restructurings, and she develops custom loans, participation agreements, and loan syndication documentation. Additionally, Stephanie advises on general compliance matters, mergers and acquisitions, and post-merger activity. Outside of her skills in the area of litigation, Stephanie’s clients view her as a trusted business advisor, often asking her to serve as outside general counsel to develop comprehensive legal strategies that address multiple interconnected and complex legal issues. She regularly serves as a consultant and legal advisor to boards of directors and management members on matters concerning corporate governance matters, including bylaws, committee formation, charters, policies, fiduciary duties, and management-board relationships. William Goddard Partner Bill Goddard concentrates on insurance, reinsurance and insurance insolvency matters. His practice includes representing creditors, regulators and insurance companies in solving complex problems of financial distress, statutory interpretation, and coverage. Bill is also experienced in insurance mergers and acquisitions as well as Native American gaming. Prior to attending law school, Goddard was an investment banker at JP Morgan & Co. and at Marsh & McLennan Securities Corporation, focusing on mergers and acquisitions within the insurance industry. He also provided financial advice to companies experiencing financial distress. Goddard also co-founded, developed and sold a broadcasting company consisting of 19 radio stations located in New York and New England. Goddard is the author of several law journal articles on insurance regulation and insolvency. He co-teaches Insurance Litigation each year and will be teaching Insurance Solvency at the University of Connecticut School of Law. Prior to entering practice, Goddard served as a law clerk to the Hon. Jon O. Newman, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. |
Ed Toy
Fred E. Karlinsky
J. Kevin Baldwin
James J. Donelon
James Mills
Jo Ann Howard
Keith M. Lusby
Matt Stewart
Patrick Cantilo
Robert Alan Wake
Robert H. Nunnally, Jr.
Rowe Snider
Stephanie Kaiser