Claims People: NARS, IAT, Brush Country Claims and Cohen Ziffer

IAT Insurance Group, a specialty property and casualty insurer headquartered in Cheshire, Conn., has appointed Trent Haas as chief claims officer.

“Trent has claims experience across a variety of lines, including property (homeowners and commercial), general liability, and auto liability, which correspond to our specialty markets,” stated Chief Executive Officer Bill Cunningham in a press release.

Haas previously was vice president for general liability and auto litigation field claim operations for The Hartford. He led an operation with 250 claim staff adjusting general liability and auto liability claims. Before that, he led a team that adjusted auto and property claims.

Earlier, Haas worked for four years at The Hartford Steam Boiler, first as counsel and later as a vice president overseeing claims and litigation. Early in his career he was a litigation association with Morrison Mahoney in Hartford, Conn.

Haas received his undergraduate degree from Indiana University and his juris doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law.

North American Risk Services has hired Bryan McCully as head of complex claim litigation and associate general counsel.

McCully started his legal career as a defense attorney in 1993 and began working at NARS in 1997, where he served as president until 2004. In 2006, McCully became general counsel for insurance operations and chief claims officer at Praetorian Financial Group.

He later served as vice president of global third-party administrator operations at Allied World Assurance Co. and as chief administrative officer and general counsel for Weston Insurance Group.

McCully received his bachelor’s degree in management and finance from Tulane University in New Orleans and his juris doctorate from the University of Florida.

NARS is a privately held national thrid-party claims administrator with its headquarters in Altamonte Springs, Fla.

Brush Country Claims, a national independent adjusting firm based in Georgetown, Texas, has pointed Branton Cooke as client director.

Cooke will direct customer service for clients, including insurance carriers and self-insured employers. He will also oversee all supervisor training and orientation, spearhead catastrophe deployments and ensure quality standards are met, the company said in a press release.

Cooke previously was training coordinator for Security First Insurance in Daytona Beach. Before that, he was an independent catastrophic claims adjuster for ASI and an insurance agent for YourEadvisor.com.

He will report to President and Chief Operating Officer Troy Stewart and Chief Strategy Officer Joshua Cruce.

Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna, a policyholder law firm in New York City, has named associate Cynthia M. Jordano as a partner.

Jordano is the first attorney to be elevated from associate to partner since Cohen Ziffer was launched early this year, the firm said in a press release. During that time, the firm has grown from 12 to 26 attorneys.

Jordano is a key member of the legal team representing real estate developer Thor Equities, which secured one of the first major wins for policyholders in business interruption cases for losses caused by COVID-19, the law firm said. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that a contamination exclusion in its commercial property policy did not bar coverage for its pandemic-related losses.

Before joining Cohen Ziffer, Jordano clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Judith C. McCarthy in the the Southern District of New York and served as an associate attorney at McKool Smith. She received her juris doctorate from New York University School of Law, where she served as a member of the Federal Defender Clinic and associate editor of the Journal of Intellectual Property and Entertainment Law, and her bachelor’s degree from New York University.