Joe co-chairs Wiggin and Dana’s Insurance Practice Group. He has advised and defended clients in a wide range of insurance, maritime, and litigation matters for nearly 40 years, helping underwriters and other clients avoid litigation when possible and prevail when it is unavoidable. Joe’s clients describe him as responsive, effective and efficient. He understands the nature of his clients’ businesses and industry and seeks to add value whenever possible.

Joe has been the principal outside counsel for the American Institute of Marine Underwriters and the Inland Marine Underwriters Association for over 25 years and for the Water Sports Industry Association since 2020. In those roles, he has monitored legislative and regulatory developments and governance issues, drafted policy forms, and filed amicus briefs with various courts. He is adept at handling issues involving casualties, and he is a thought leader on the future of marine insurance. Joe’s extensive experience includes a stint in the office of the general counsel of one of the premier syndicates at Lloyd’s of London.

Joe has worked on matters involving numerous lines of insurance and reinsurance coverages, including aviation, marine (hull, liability, cargo, and yacht), energy, fine art and specie, general liability, professional liability, and property.

In addition to representing underwriters, Joe represents brokers, multinational manufacturers and others involved in the supply chain as well as art owners and exhibitors. He has represented clients in cases throughout the U.S. and has personally served as an arbitrator, a mediator and an expert witness.

Joe is admitted to practice in New York and Pennsylvania and in a number of Federal Courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He is an active member of the U.S. Maritime Law Association (past Director and past Chair of the Committee on Marine Insurance and General Average), the British Insurance Law Association and the Salvage Forum of the International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI). Joe has also been the Chair of the Standing Committee on Marine Insurance of the Comité Maritime International since 2014 and in 2024 was appointed as the CMI liaison to IUMI. In 2023, Joe was elected as a member of the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). He served as Chair of the Association of Average Adjusters of the United States and Canada from 2021 to 2023 and currently serves on the board of the Association. He is also a member of the Association of Average Adjusters of the United Kingdom. In November, 2019, he gave a briefing on war risks insurance to the NATO Logistics Committee at NATO Headquarters in Brussels and is now a civilian expert advisor to NATO. He also participated in a briefing to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2024 and in the Polar Conference at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in August 2025.

Joe has been recognized in Best’s Directory of Recommended Insurance Attorneys, Lexology Index, and The Legal 500. He has written and spoken extensively on topics of interest to the insurance industry.

Before joining Wiggin and Dana in 2008, Joe was a partner at Thacher Proffitt & Wood in New York.

Joe received his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law and his B.A. cum laude from Yale University. In addition to being active in the insurance industry, Joe has served on the Board of Trustees of Tuskegee University since 1995.