Her team includes Special Counsel Colleen Martindale and two associates
NEW YORK — Mound Cotton, a leading law firm representing insurance companies, announced today that Lorraine Sylvester, a healthcare professional liability attorney, joined the firm as a partner. She is joined by Special Counsel Colleen Martindale, and associates Erika DiMarco and Andrew Cameron, in New York.
“We are excited to welcome Lorraine and the group to the firm and look forward to incorporating their healthcare professional liability practice into our service offerings in order to better support our clients,” said Lloyd Gura, partner and member of the Executive Committee. “Lorraine is a phenomenal addition to the firm and her experience fits in perfectly with our existing capabilities.”
“I am thrilled to be among the ranks of such an amazing group of lawyers,” said Lorraine. “I joined the firm because of the strong reputation Mound Cotton holds in the insurance industry and to develop the firm’s footprint in the healthcare professional liability space. I knew immediately after my initial interactions with the partners that my practice would be fully supported and that the firm was an exceptional fit for my team and clients.”
Lorraine’s practice focuses on Healthcare Professional Liability, where she advises insurers on liabilities faced by healthcare providers and the underwriting considerations relevant to insuring those liabilities. She manages a diverse portfolio of nationwide healthcare programs, including physicians, long term care, allied health, dental, social services, and mental health liabilities. She represents insurers in the U.S. and the U.K. providing complex coverage opinions, managing high-exposure liabilities and providing consultation to reinsurers.
Lorraine handles both direct and reinsurance matters with services ranging from pre-underwriting risk evaluations, portfolio evaluations of various Medical Professional Liability carriers and Risk Retention Groups (RRGs), program management, and dispute resolution. Lorraine has also drafted various policy wordings, including physicians, long-term care, allied health and general liability policies.
In addition to advising insurers on coverage, she monitors and supervises local defense counsel on nationwide programs and participates in mediations, settlement negotiations, and trials.
She is best known for the number of early and successful resolutions she has achieved for her primary insurance clients and her ability to tactfully investigate coverage issues and resolve matters at a reasonable cost to her clients.
After law school, Lorraine clerked for a Civil Court Judge in New Jersey and joined CNA Insurance as a Claims Specialist in the Non-Profit Directors and Officers Liability Group. She then worked as an insurance coverage attorney at Kaufman, Borgeest & Ryan, LLP (“KBR”), where she focused on Employment Practices Liability, working with the London market as monitoring and coverage counsel. She joined the Healthcare Practice at Mendes & Mount LLP in 2009 and became a partner in 2015.
Lorraine graduated from Fordham University School of Law and received her B.A., cum laude, from Rutgers University. She is admitted to the New York Bar.
Colleen Martindale’s practice focuses on insurance coverage and civil litigation defense. Her case portfolio is comprised primarily of medical malpractice and allied health care matters ranging in scope from minor falls to complex neurosurgical procedures. Colleen and her team regularly perform comprehensive on-site and remote claims audits of insurance companies for underwriters and/or reinsurers throughout the country. Most recently she was a Senior Counsel with Mendes & Mount LLP; prior to Mendes she represented major pharmaceutical companies on several multijurisdictional and international product liability cases at a New York-based firm.
She graduated from St. John’s University School of Law and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Vermont. She is admitted to the New York Bar.
Erika DiMarco and Andrew Cameron, both Associates, are admitted to the New York Bar. Erika has experience managing various reinsurance programs for health and hospital systems across the U.S. She graduated from Brooklyn Law School, has a Masters in Public Health, high honors, from The Milken Institute at George Washington University, and received her B.A. in Criminal Justice & Communications from the University of Albany.
Andrew received his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law, where he was an Associate Editor and a Comments Editor on Seton Hall Legislative Journal, and his B.S., cum laude, from Seton Hall University. After law school he served as a judicial clerk in the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, for the Honorable Lisa A. Firko, J.A.D.
About Mound Cotton
Founded in 1933, Mound Cotton Wollan & Greengrass LLP is among the oldest and most respected law firms, offering preeminent legal services in a wide array of practice areas, focusing primarily on insurance, reinsurance, and commercial litigation. Its six offices are located in New York, New Jersey, California, Florida, and Texas, serving clients both nationally and internationally. Our attorneys have broad experience across many areas of the law, and we have lawyers skilled in transactional, regulatory, and litigated matters, enabling us to pool our talents to meet our clients’ needs. To learn more about the firm, please visit us at our website, LinkedIn, and Twitter.