Vice President, Insurance Defense Counsel

Overview

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The Vice President, Insurance Defense Counsel will lead and oversee a nationwide portfolio of complex insurance defense and commercial liability matters arising from the Company’s transportation operations. This legal role serves as a strategic partner to senior leadership, Risk, Operations, and Finance, driving litigation strategy, insurer coordination, and enterprise risk mitigation across a highly regulated, operationally complex environment.

This role requires a seasoned litigation strategist with deep insurance defense experience, demonstrated success managing high-exposure matters, and the executive presence to influence business decision-making at the enterprise level.

Responsibilities

Litigation Management

• Manage a national docket of insurance defense matters, including bodily injury, property damage, catastrophic loss, and related commercial liability claims.
• Develop and execute case strategy from pre-suit investigation through trial and appeal.
• Evaluate liability exposure, damages modeling, settlement posture, and trial risk; provide clear, business-oriented recommendations to executive leadership and insurers.
• Lead participation in mediations, high-stakes settlement negotiations, and trial oversight as appropriate.
• Drive consistency, accountability, and performance standards across a national litigation portfolio.

Insurance & Risk Coordination

• Serve as the senior legal liaison to insurance carriers, brokers, and third-party administrators.
• Analyze and advise on coverage issues, reservations of rights, indemnity obligations, and allocation disputes.
• Partner with Risk Management and Finance on self-insured retention strategy, deductible management, and claims trend analysis.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to reduce claims frequency and severity through operational risk mitigation initiatives.

Business & Executive Advisory

• Provide practical, business-focused legal guidance to Operations, Safety, and executive leadership regarding litigation exposure and claims prevention.
• Support significant incident response and internal investigations.
• Develop and deliver litigation and claims training to field and corporate leadership.
• Identify systemic risk trends and recommend proactive policy or operational adjustments.

Talent Requirements

Required

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an accredited law school.
• Active license and good standing in at least one U.S. jurisdiction.
• 10+ years of insurance defense and complex commercial litigation experience.
• Experience in both law firm practice and in-house counsel roles.
• Demonstrated success managing high-exposure or catastrophic liability matters.
• Significant experience directing outside counsel and coordinating with insurance carriers.
• Strong command of civil procedure, discovery strategy, trial practice, and ADR.

Preferred

• Experience in transportation, transit, trucking, logistics, or similar operational industries.
• Experience with self-insured retention programs or large deductible insurance structures.
• Catastrophic injury or wrongful death litigation experience.
• Trial or first-chair experience.

Key Competencies

• Executive-level judgment and strategic risk assessment.
• Sophisticated negotiation and settlement leadership.
• Ability to balance litigation posture with commercial objectives.
• Strong financial acumen and litigation budget management.
• Clear, persuasive written and verbal communication.
• Executive presence with the ability to advise C-suite stakeholders.
• Highly organized with the ability to manage a large, complex docket.

MV Transportation is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, physical or mental disability, veteran or military status, genetic information or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances. The information collected by this application is solely to determine suitability for employment, verify identity and maintain employment statistics on applicants.

Where permissible under applicable state and local law, applicants may be subject to a pre-employment drug test and background check after receiving a conditional offer of employment.