Rock, Bryan A.

Joe Grasso is a partner in Wiggin and Dana's Litigation Department and Co-Chair of its Insurance Practice Group. He is located in the firm's Philadelphia and New York offices. Joe is also a member of the firm's Diversity Committee.

Prior to joining Wiggin and Dana in 2008, Joe was a partner at Thacher Proffitt & Wood in New York where he advised on and defended claims under insurance and reinsurance contracts for clients in Great Britain, Europe, Latin America and Japan, as well as the United States. His work includes analysis of coverage and defense and monitoring of claims involving aviation risks (including liability and physical damage), marine and energy risks (including hull, cargo, yacht, liability and fine art and specie), professional liability, comprehensive general liability, and political risks. From October 2005 to April 2006, Joe worked in the General Counsel's office of Amlin Underwriting Ltd., one of the premier syndicates at Lloyd's of London.

He also represents multinational manufacturers, financial advisers, art dealers, ship owners and other parties in a wide variety of commercial disputes. He has tried cases in several jurisdictions including New York, Puerto Rico, Iowa and New Jersey. He has conducted numerous arbitration proceedings and mediations. He has also acted as an arbitrator and a mediator.

Joe is admitted to practice in New York and Pennsylvania and in United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State and Pennsylvania Bar Associations, the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States and the United Kingdom and the U.S. Maritime Law Association (in which he serves as Vice Chair of the Committee on Marine Insurance and General Average).

Joe has addressed numerous insurance industry gatherings on a variety of topics, including coverage issues and policy interpretation, investigation and resolution of claims, state and federal regulation, terrorism and TRIA and OFAC. These presentations have been made to London market insurers through Xchanging Claims Services, to the International Union of Marine Insurance, to the American Institute of Marine Underwriters, to the Inland Marine Underwriters Association, to the Association of Average Adjusters of the U.S. and to the American Marine Insurance Forum. He has also authored articles in Aspatore's Inside the Minds -- Insurance Dispute Resolution Proceedings (2007) and in Aspatore Thought Leaderships -- Insurance Law 2008, and he has been recognized in the 2008 and 2009 Edition of Best's Directory of Recommended Insurance Attorneys, the 2008 Edition of Who's Who Legal, in the section of Shipping and Maritime, and the 2007 Edition of The Legal 500, in the section of Insurance and Reinsurance, Shipping.

Joe sits as counsel to the American Institute of Marine Underwriters and the Inland Marine Underwriters Association and has been involved in governance issues, drafting policy forms and filing amicus briefs on behalf of those organizations. He received his JD from the University of Virginia School of Law and his BA, cum laude, from Yale University. In addition to being active in Alumni Affairs at Yale, Joe has served on the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University since 1995.