AVP - Panel Management

The AVP – Panel Management provides executive leadership and ownership for the organizations outside counsel litigation portfolio across all Property & Casualty lines of business. This role is responsible for implementing the strategy of our panel counsel partnerships, managing outside counsel, overseeing legal budgets, guiding case resolution, and ensuring compliance with organizational standards and jurisdictional requirements. The position manages outcomes, using data and analytics to improve outcomes. The position partners closely with Claims, UFG Legal Department, and Senior Leadership to deliver efficient, defensible, and cost‑effective litigation outcomes that protect UFG policyholders and the company’s financial and reputational interests.           

Essential Duties & Responsibilities: 

Outside Counsel Management 

• Select, evaluate, and manage relationships with outside defense counsel and legal vendors.
• Negotiate fee agreements, alternative fee arrangements (AFAs), and performance expectations.
• Conduct counsel performance reviews, including trial preparation, litigation strategy, cost management, and results achieved.
• Ensure counsel compliance with litigation guidelines and billing standards.
• Develop a regular cadence of end-to-end quality review of firms on our panel.
• Bring on new firms and remove underperforming firms.
• Create and use KPI’s, metrics, and data and analytics to determine performance of firms.

Operational & Financial Stewardship 

• Develop and manage the litigation guidelines, including legal spend forecasting and cost‑containment initiatives.
• Review cases with litigation budgets over $100K as well as large-loss reserved cases as strategic thought partner to claims department.
• Leverage analytics and reporting to identify cost drivers, cycle time trends, and opportunities for process improvement.
• Utilize and own litigation technology tools (e‑billing, case management, analytics platform).
• Develop a line-by-line aged inventory review, including quarterly cadence, ensuring appropriate rigor.
• Develop and own overall negotiation training as well as anchor offer strategy.

Risk Management & Compliance 

• Ensure litigation handling is compliant with all state and federal regulatory requirements.
• Support enterprise risk management efforts by identifying emerging legal risks and proposing mitigation strategies.
• Maintain strong controls over documentation, reporting, and litigation workflow.

Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement 

• Serve as a key advisor to senior leadership on litigation risk, outcomes, and strategy.
• Partner with Claims leaders to improve litigation avoidance strategies and pre‑litigation negotiation practices.
• Participate in claim reviews, mediations, settlement conferences, and executive case oversight committees.
• Communicate complex legal concepts to non‑legal stakeholders clearly and effectively.
• Serve as conduit to underwriting for any choice of counsel requests.

Leadership & Talent Development 

• Lead, mentor, and develop a team of Litigation Managers, Litigation Specialists, and Claims leaders to understand litigation processes, firm tactics, and places to drive improvement.
• Create training programs to strengthen litigation competency and file-handling quality.
• Support succession planning and build a high‑performance culture.

Strategic Leadership & Oversight 

• Develop and implement the company’s litigation management strategy across all P&C claim segments.
• Provide executive-level oversight of litigated and pre‑litigated claims, ensuring sound legal defenses and resolution strategies.
• Establish litigation philosophy, guidelines, and performance standards for both internal staff and outside counsel in conjunction with casualty claims leadership.
• Guide cross-functional discussions with Claims, Underwriting, Risk Engineering, and Legal regarding emerging legal trends and risk mitigation.

Litigation Portfolio Management 

• May oversee complex, high‑severity, high‑exposure cases, providing direction on defense tactics, settlement strategy, and risk analyses.
• Conduct regular portfolio reviews to assess case quality, litigation exposure, reserving accuracy, and outcome predictability.
• Monitor trends involving attorney behavior, jurisdictional risks, settlement patterns, and legal precedents.

 Job Specifications: 

Education:

• Juris Doctor required
• Professional designations (CPCU, AIC, SCLA, ARM) strongly preferred.
• Active law license (if required by the organization).

Experience: 

• 10+ years of experience in P&C claims or litigation, including extensive exposure to handling or supervising litigated matters.
• 5+ years of leadership experience with responsibility for litigation oversight, outside counsel management, or complex claims.
• Experience managing multi‑jurisdictional litigation portfolios and high-severity losses.
• Prior experience in a national or regional P&C insurer is strongly preferred.

Working Conditions: 

• General office environment.
• Some travel required for counsel reviews, interviews, industry events, court events, mediations, or regional claim office visits.

Pay Transparency Statement: 

UFG Insurance is committed fair and equitable compensation practices. The estimated base salary range for this officer-level position is $123,865 - $163,368 annually. Actual compensation will be determined based on a variety of factors, including the scope and responsibilities of the role, individual qualifications and experience, internal equity, and market data. 

In addition to base salary, UFG Insurance offers a comprehensive total rewards package that includes: 

• Annual incentive compensation
• Medical, dental, vision & life insurance
• Accident, critical illness & short-term disability insurance
• Retirement plans with employer contributions
• Generous time-off program
• Programs designed to support the employee well-being and financial security.

Officer-level employees may also be eligible for additional compensation components, including performance-based incentives, long-term incentive plans, and participation in executive benefit programs. 

This pay range disclosure is provided in accordance with applicable state and local pay transparency laws.