On Wednesday, November 16 at 12pm Central, the IADC’s Insurance Executives committee will hold its latest Executive Forum call. The  call will also be open to the Insurance and Reinsurance, Environmental and Energy Law, and the Toxic and Hazardous Substances Litigation committees. The topic for this month’s call will be: “Emerging Exposures from PFAS “Forever” Chemicals.”

John Gardella of CMBG3 Law and Kathryn Christ of Swiss Re were invited guests to address the IADC Executive Committee, as both regularly speak on the risks and emerging issues associated with the large and diverse range of chemicals commonly referred to as PFAS. PFAS chemicals are a component of numerous products, consumer and industrial, and are prevalent in humans and the environment. The long-term health and environmental risks associated with these chemicals are being evaluated by the US EPA and other organizations. Kathryn and John will provide a primer on PFAS chemicals, recent developments, and the emerging insurance and regulatory risks and litigation trends.

Speaker Bios:

Kathryn Christ is a Vice President and Claims Expert at Swiss Reinsurance America Holding Corporation in Armonk, New York, where she manages the resolution of reinsurance claims involving asbestos, pollution, and health hazard (“APH”) exposures. Kathryn received her J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Kathryn is a coordinator of the Swiss Re Global Claims Resources Network and member of Swiss Re’s 4Thought Expert Network, where she focuses on emerging risks such as PFAS and other product liability issues. She has significant experience in managing complex asbestos and environmental litigations and arbitrations and has written extensively on asbestos claim issues and the developments and PFAS risk exposures. Kathryn is also an active member of ARIAS.

John Gardella is a Shareholder at CMBG3 Law, a majority women owned law firm headquartered in Boston, but with offices coast to coast. John is the Chair of the firm’s PFAS, Environmental and ESG practice groups. He has over 17 years of experience litigating environmental and toxic torts matters, with over 75 successful trials to verdict. In his environmental and toxic torts practice, John represents companies ranging in size from small mom-and-pop businesses to Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies. He is currently defending several companies in ongoing PFAS enforcement and class action litigation cases.

In addition, corporations, insurance companies, private equity firms, and the financial world regularly seek John’s expertise to navigate compliance, due diligence and risk management issues, specifically with respect to PFAS. His thought leadership and predictive risk abilities with respect to PFAS earned him the honor of being the only person in the country that was recognized as a thought leader on PFAS in 2020 and 2021 by the National Law Review. John is regularly interviewed by media on the subject of PFAS and other emerging chemicals of concern, and he consistently publishes his own thought leadership in several nationally syndicated resources, including Bloomberg Law, AM Best, and National Law Review.