Christa Santos Thorpe is a counsel in our Insurance/Reinsurance Group in Washington, D.C. For over a decade, she has represented reinsurers and ceding companies in all aspects of dispute resolution, with particular emphasis on reinsurance arbitration and insurance coverage.
Christa has handled numerous reinsurance arbitrations in the U.S., London, and Bermuda markets in the following areas:
· Life insurance;
· Variable annuity products;
· Surety bonds;
· Products liability; and
· Professional liability.
Her reinsurance expertise includes:
· Rescission/misrepresentation;
· Allocation;
· Aggregation;
· ECO/XPL;
· Recovery of declaratory judgment expenses;
· Late notice;
· Follow the fortunes/follow the settlements; and
· Duty of utmost good faith.
In addition to her arbitration experience, Christa has conducted investigations into captive and finite reinsurance transactions for one of the world's largest insurance companies.
Christa began her career on the direct insurance side, where she acted as coverage counsel to Lloyd's Syndicates, representing insurers' interests in claims made under professional liability insurance policies underwritten by Lloyd's. As an extension of her direct insurance practice, she also acted as monitoring counsel to an insurer of mutual fund companies with respect to directors and officers and errors and omissions coverage. More recently, Christa has represented insurance companies in coverage disputes involving asbestos liabilities where she has extensively litigated a variety of issues, including products vs. non products, number of occurrences, trigger of coverage, and allocation. Christa has also presented to a major European insurer with respect to U.S. asbestos bankruptcies.
Christa also dedicates time to pro bono matters including landlord/tenant disputes, ethical duties surrounding guardians ad litem, and homelessness. At Brooklyn Law School, she was the recipient of the Edward V. Sparer Public Interest Law Fellowship and spent her first summer during law school working in the Domestic Violence Advocacy Project at Northeastern University School of Law.
Prior to joining Crowell & Moring in 2009, Christa worked in the reinsurance/insurance groups of three major New York law firms. She also worked in the President's Office of Government & Community Relations at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she assisted staff attorneys with lobbying and advocacy efforts.
Affiliations
Christa has been active as a faculty member of ARIAS and has contributed to the ARIAS Quarterly newsletter.
Publications
· "Lousiana Saftey Ass'n of Timbermen - Self Insurers Fund v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd's London," (U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Overturn Decision Permitting International Arbitration Where State Law Prohibited Arbitration Provisions in Insurance Contracts) Insurance/Reinsurance Client Alert (October 20, 2010). Co-Author: Christa Santos Thorpe.
· "Regence Group v. TIG Specialty Ins. Co.," (Oregon District Court Rules that Sharing of Privileged Documents with Reinsurers waives Protections Afforded by Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product Doctrine) Insurance/Reinsurance Client Alert (March 4, 2010). Co-Author: Christa Santos Thorpe.
· "The Power of Arbitrators to Grant Attorneys' Fees and Interest," ARIAS U.S. Quarterly, Vol. 11, Number 1 (First Quarter 2004). Co-Authors: John Nonna and Christa Santos Thorpe.
Alerts & Newsletters
· "U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Overturn Decision Permitting International Arbitration Where State Law Prohibited Arbitration Provisions in Insurance Contracts," Reinsurance Alert (October 20, 2010). Contacts: Christa S. Thorpe, William C. O'Neill, Deirdre G. Johnson.
· "Oregon District Court Rules that Sharing of Privileged Documents with Reinsurers waives Protections Afforded by Attorney-Client Privilege and Work Product Doctrine," Reinsurance Alert (March 4, 2010). Contacts: Jennifer R. Devery, Deirdre G. Johnson, Christa S. Thorpe.
Speaking Engagements
· "Access to Records, Privilege, Waiver & the Voluntary Disclosure of Privileged Documents to Reinsurers," Mealey's Reinsurance Litigation & Arbitration Conference (February 2008). Speaker: Christa Santos Thorpe.