Joseph G. Grasso

Joe Grasso is a partner in Wiggin and Dana's Litigation Department and Co-Chair of its Insurance Practice Group. Joe is also a member of the Firm's Art and Museum Law Practice Group. He is located in the firm's Philadelphia and New York offices. His work includes analysis of coverage, defense and monitoring of claims involving various types of insurance and reinsurance coverages, including aviation, marine (including hull, liability, cargo, yacht), fine art and specie, energy, general liability, professional liability and political risks.

Prior to joining Wiggin and Dana in 2008, Joe was a partner at Thacher Proffitt & Wood in New York. From October 2005 to April 2006, Joe worked in the General Counsel's office of one of the premier syndicates at Lloyd's of London. In addition to representing underwriters, Joe 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 a number of Federal Courts including the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Fifth Circuits.

He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Association, and the Associations of Average Adjusters of the United States and Canada and of the United Kingdom. He is a Proctor member of the U.S. Maritime Law Association and was elected as a Director in 2015 (he is also the immediate past Chair of the Committee on Marine Insurance and General Average). Joe serves as the Chair of the International Working Group on Marine Insurance of the Comite Maritime International and he is a member of the International Union of Marine Insurance Salvage Forum. Joe has addressed numerous insurance industry gatherings on a variety of topics, including coverage issues and policy interpretation, investigation and resolution of claims and state and federal legislation and regulation. These presentations have been made through the International Union of Marine Insurance, the American Institute of Marine Underwriters, the Inland Marine Underwriters Association, the Association of Average Adjusters of the U.S., the American Marine Insurance Forum, the International Marine Claims Conference (Dublin), the International Underwriting Association, A.M. Best, Xchanging Claims Service, the American Conference Institute, and the Admiralty Law Institute of Tulane University.

He is a co-editor of the ABA's The Handbook on Additional Insureds and has authored articles in The Tulane Law Review, the University of San Francisco Maritime Law Journal, West's Insurance Litigation Reporter, Aspatore's Inside the Minds- Insurance Dispute Resolution Proceedings and in Aspatore's Thought Leaderships Insurance Law, and he has been recognized in Best's Directory of Recommended Insurance Attorneys, Who's Who Legal, and The Legal 500. Joe sits as outside general counsel to the American Institute of Marine Underwriters and the Inland Marine Underwriters Association and has been involved in legislative and regulatory monitoring, governance issues, drafting policy forms and filing amicus briefs on behalf of those organizations.

Joe 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. Joe is also a member of the firm's Diversity Committee.