Women in Litigation Seminar

	Robin Cohen Partner Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP Recognized as one of the 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America by The National Law Journal and a 2014 and 2013 Insurance MVP by Law360, Robin Cohen, head of the firm’s insurance recovery group, is one of the nation’s preeminent insurance litigators, focusing her practice on representing insureds in complex insurance coverage matters. With more than 25 years of experience, Ms. Cohen is a seasoned trial attorney who has tried and litigated many of the most significant and cutting-edge insurance coverage cases, including asbestos, product liability, toxic tort, environmental, directors and officers, first-party, employee dishonesty, and employment coverage matters. She has negotiated large insurance settlement recoveries for her policyholder clients, including recoveries of more than several hundred million dollars. Before joining Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP in January 2010, she was managing partner of the NY office at Dickstein Shapiro LLP.

	Justice Barbara Kapnick New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division Born in New York City, Justice Barbara R. Kapnick received her bachelor’s degree cum laude from Barnard College and her juris doctor from Boston University School of Law. Between 1980 and 1991, Justice Kapnick worked as a Law Clerk to both the Hon. Ethel B. Danzig and the Hon. Michael J. Dontzin in Supreme Court, New York County. Justice Kapnick was elected to the Civil Court in 1991, appointed an Acting Supreme Court Justice in April 1994, and was elected to the Supreme Court, New York County in 2001. She was assigned to the Commercial Division in 2008, where she handled many high profile cases, and was appointed to the Appellate Division, First Department by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo in January 2014. She has been a member of the Advisory Committee on Judicial Ethics since 2008 and also served as Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the New York County Public Access Law Library from 2008 to 2014. She is an active member of the New York State Bar Association: Judicial, and Commercial and Federal Litigation Sections, and the New York City Bar Association, where she has served on numerous committees. Justice Kapnick is a Master of the New York American Inn of Court and past president of the Jewish Lawyers Guild, where she remains active as a member of the Board of Governors. She is also a longstanding member of the New York Women’s Bar Association, where she served as Co-Chair of the Litigation Committee. She sat on the Board of Directors of the Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert for over a decade, and continues to sit on the Board of the New York State Association of Women Judges. She is also active in the Supreme Court Justices Associations in New York, having served as President of the Citywide Association from 2013- 2014, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the Statewide Association. A frequent lecturer for many Bar Associations, Justice Kapnick has also received numerous awards, including the Benjamin N. Cardozo Award from the Jewish Lawyers Guild, the Harlan Fiske Stone Memorial Award from the New York City Trial Lawyers Association, the Women’s History Month Flor de Maga Award from the Puerto Rican Bar Association and the Distinguished Jurist Award from the Defense Association of New York.

	Linda Kornfeld Partner Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP From representing clients in headline-grabbing cases to defining new law benefitting the financial bottom line of corporate policyholders, Linda D. Kornfeld, the Managing Partner of the firm’s Los Angeles office, has dedicated her trial and appellate practice to representing companies in high stakes insurance coverage litigation for over 20 years. She assists her clients in the recovery of hundreds of millions of dollars in insurance assets in a variety of complex insurance matters through settlements and trial. Her clients range from telecommunications companies, universities, and real estate developers to manufacturers and nonprofit organizations. She also provides strategic counseling to senior executives and in-house counsel on how to mitigate risk and maximize their insurance recoveries. Her experience includes claims involving data breach and privacy issues; directors' and officers' liability; business interruption and extra expense; employee fidelity; professional errors and omissions; employment; entertainment industry liabilities; intellectual property infringements; construction defects; and asbestos, environmental, and product liabilities. Focused throughout her career on women’s leadership and advancement in the legal and other professions, Linda also frequently speaks and writes on women’s issues and serves as a West Coast leader of the Women’s Leadership and Mentoring Alliance.

	Elaine Mandelbaum Managing Director and General Counsel, Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement Citi Institutional Clients Group Elaine Mandelbaum is General Counsel of Litigation and Regulatory Enforcement of the Citi Institutional Clients Group. Her group is responsible for all litigation, internal investigations and regulatory inquiries and related investigations, sweeps and enforcement proceedings for Citi’s institutional businesses, including investment banking, sales and trading, capital markets origination and private banking. Prior to starting at Citigroup in 1997, Ms. Mandelbaum was a litigation attorney at the New York office of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, and previously at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison. She is a member of the SIFMA Compliance & Legal Society Executive Committee, and is on the Board of Directors of the Legal Action Center and the American Friends of Hebrew University. She is a frequent speaker on topics relating to complex securities litigation, as well as internal and regulatory investigations. Ms. Mandelbaum is a graduate of Yale College and of Harvard Law School.

	Honorable Saliann Scarpulla New York State Supreme Court Judge Commercial Division Justice Saliann Scarpulla is a graduate of Boston University and Brooklyn Law School, cum laude. After law school, Justice Scarpulla became Principal Court Attorney to the Hon.Alvin F. Klein. Justice Scarpulla then worked at Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn as a litigation associate from 1988 to 1993. At Proskauer, she gained extensive experience in commercial litigation, accountants’ liability, securities regulations, real estate, contracts and commercial torts. In 1993, Justice Scarpulla joined the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation as Senior Counsel in the New York Legal Services Office. While there, she represented the FDIC as receiver for numerous failed banks and litigated cases on banking and commercial issues, including ERISA and FIRREA. Justice Scarpulla then became Senior Vice Present and Bank Counsel to Hudson United Bank, where she was responsible for all litigation involving the bank, and also oversaw the banks’ compliance with state and federal banking regulations. Justice Scarpulla returned to the New York State court system in 1999, as Principal Court Attorney to the Hon. Eileen Bransten. She was elected to the Civil Court in 2001. While in Civil Court Justice Scarpulla presided over civil, commercial landlord tenant, no-fault, pro seand small claims actions. In 2009, Justice Scarpulla was appointed an Acting Justice of the Supreme Court, and initially presided over a City Part, handling civil litigation involving the City of New York as a party. Justice Scarpulla was then assigned to an IAS Part, in which she handled a wide variety of civil cases. Justice Scarpulla was elected to the Supreme Court in 2012, and was assigned to an IAS part with an emphasis on complex asbestos litigation. In addition to her asbestos caseload, Justice Scarpulla handled construction injury/property damage cases, insurance coverage cases and general commercial litigation. Justice Scarpulla also presided over actions commenced pursuant to Mental Hygiene Law Article 9. Justice Scarpulla was assigned to the Commercial Division in February 2014. Justice Scarpulla is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Catholic Lawyers Guild, Columbian Lawyers Association, Jewish Lawyers Guild, Judges and Lawyers Breast Cancer Alert, the National Association of Italian American Women, the National Association of Women Judges, the New York County Lawyer Association, the New York State Bar Association and the New York Women’s Bar Association. Justice Scarpulla is also a frequent lecturer at the Judicial Institute.

	Dee Sekar Editor: Global Diversity Chambers and Partners Dee Sekar is a UK qualified solictor and Global Diversity Editor at Chambers & Partners. For the last 3 years, Dee has worked extensively on the Chambers Women in Law programme. She created the Chambers Women in Law blog which has established a global online discussion and community of female lawyers. In September 2013, she devised the Chambers Women in Law seminars. To date, Dee has moderated nine Women in Law seminars in the USA and Latin America. In just under a year, Dee has created a strong working relationship with hundreds of in-house lawyers in the USA and Latin America and works closely with the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession, DirectWomen, Juridico de Saias (Brazil) and Association of Corporate Counsel (Brazil). In January 2015, Dee launched the Chambers Diversity program which encompasses gender, minority lawyers, LGBT, physical and social mobility and corporate social responsibility in the legal profession. Through research, seminars and awards, Chambers Diversity will be bringing a unique perspective to global diversity in the legal profession. Covering UK, Europe, Asia, USA and Latin America, the programme will give a platform to the most outstanding lawyers who have shown a real commitment to advancing diversity in the law. Chambers Diversity will also investigate the recruitment, retention and promotion of diverse lawyers in companies, law firms and barristers' chambers and will monitor this progress over time.