Notable Engagements

• Alan served as co-counsel to the Independent Fiduciary of a Multiple Employer Welfare Arrangement (MEWA) being liquidated in Illinois that provided health coverage to hundreds of employers. Cases have been filed in federal court against the MEWA’s sponsors, brokers, and legal counsel.
• Alan defended a Fortune 100 company in hundreds of AAA consumer arbitrations.
• Alan defended the directors of a company that owned the rights to thousands of artifacts from the R.M.S. Titanic against negligence claims that were settled within the limits of the applicable liability insurance coverage.
• Alan and co-lead counsel Philip Curley conducted an investigation and negotiation of claims for the Liquidator of an insolvent non-standard automobile insurer against its directors and officers relating to reserve and reinsurance practices. The matter also involved claims by the parent company’s bankruptcy trustee and a third party who contended it had been defrauded in connection with an asset purchase. Following an extensive exchange of information including a draft complaint and multiple expert reports, a global, pre-filing settlement was reached during a two-day meditation, resulting in a payment of $4.75 million to the Liquidator.
• For over ten years, Alan was co-lead counsel to the Receiver of three insolvent Mississippi life insurance companies looted by the notorious felon Martin Frankel. Through the efforts of Alan and his co-counsel, over $168 million of cash was recovered for the estates of the Mississippi insurers and their affiliates. Litigation was filed in Mississippi, Tennessee, New York, Illinois, Connecticut, Missouri, and the District of Columbia against Frankel, his co-conspirators, several domestic banks and brokerage firms, a Swiss bank, a diamond dealer, a gold dealer, and others. Confidential, pre-filing settlements were reached on several professional liability claims. Alan also served as lead or co-lead counsel in connection with numerous other asset-related actions, including dozens of federal forfeiture cases. Alan also represented the Receiver in connection with the conspirators' criminal sentencings and restitution proceedings.
• Alan was lead counsel to a bank Receiver in professional liability investigations and litigation involving officers, directors, brokerage firms, and auditors arising out of a multi-million-dollar fraud perpetrated by an insider who looted the entity and faked his own suicide. Over $8 million of settlements were obtained, some pre-filing and others during litigation.
• Alan acted as local counsel in an Illinois case representing an insurance company subsidiary of a Fortune 100 company in a highly publicized coverage action. Alan assisted with a successful forum non conveniens motion, resulting in dismissal of the Illinois case. Alan has represented the client as lead counsel in several other matters since that time.
• Alan represented an Ohio title insurance company in connection with separate multi-million-dollar escrow theft schemes perpetrated by two of its agents. Alan prosecuted claims against one of the agents, assisted with bankruptcy proceedings the agent filed, represented the title company in connection with criminal sentencing and restitution proceedings, obtained recoveries under fidelity bonds held by the agent in several states, coordinated the defense of actions filed against the title company in Nevada, and obtained substantial recoveries under a professional liability policy held by the title company. Alan also represented the title company in a complex settlement negotiation involving the second defalcating agent, certain solvent affiliated entities, other affected title insurers, and numerous insureds including several of the country's largest national banks. As a result of the settlement, the title company obtained releases from the banks and paid nothing. Alan has represented the title company in several other matters since that time.
• Alan represented the Independent Fiduciaries of two MEWAs and the Receivers of two Risk Retention Groups (RRGs) in professional liability litigation and numerous facets of estate administration, including federal and state court liquidation proceedings, claims adjudication and objection proceedings, reinsurance recoverables, asset recovery and distribution, and estate closure.
• Alan was lead counsel to the Liquidator of three insolvent Illinois property and casualty insurers in RICO, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty claims against the insurers' dominant officer, director and shareholder, who was accused of looting the insurers through a complex web of affiliated companies. After defeating motions to dismiss and extensive pre-trial discovery, the case was settled favorably for the Liquidator. Alan and his co-counsel at the firm also sued the insurers' auditor for accounting malpractice, again obtaining a favorable settlement for the Receiver. An appellate decision in the case provides a significant precedent for receivers of insolvent entities by imposing limits on the equitable defenses of imputation and in pari delicto. The decision also established precedent in Illinois upholding the validity and applicability of tolling agreements as applied to statutes of repose. McRaith v. BDO Seidman LLP, 909 N.E.2d 310 (Ill. App. 2009).
• Alan has co-authored amicus briefs in the Illinois Appellate Court (concerning reinsurance recoverables) and the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (concerning in pari delicto) for the International Association of Insurance Receivers, an organization of which he has been a member since the 1990s.
• Alan was lead counsel to the Receiver of an insolvent life and health insurer in West Virginia against the company's former officers, directors, accountants, and attorneys, claiming that millions of premium dollars were looted from the company through sham subsidiaries and illegal dividends. Over $6 million of pre-trial settlements were obtained from accountants and law firms involved with the company. Alan also served as first chair in a jury trial in West Virginia resulting in a $13.6 million verdict against three officers, directors, and attorneys for breach of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice. Alan successfully defended the verdict in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He also served as co-lead counsel in bankruptcy proceedings initiated by the judgment-debtors in Florida, and assisted the Receiver with wind-up of the estate.

Bar Admissions

• State Bar of Illinois
• United States Supreme Court
• United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh Circuits
• United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
• United States District Court for the District of Colorado

Education

Alan earned his B.A. in Anthropology from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1981. He earned his J.D. with Highest Distinction from The John Marshall Law School in Chicago, Illinois in 1985. He served as Lead Articles Editor for The John Marshall Law Review and volunteered as a mentor with the school's Legal Educational Access Program.

Clerkships

After law school, from 1985 to 1986, Alan clerked for the Honorable W. Eugene Davis of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in Lafayette, Louisiana.