Biography

Mr. Pellis is a partner in the Environmental, Safety & Toxic Torts Practice Group of Seyfarth Shaw LLP. For the past few years, he has focused his practice on mitigating corporate legacy liabilities (especially environmental) by developing and pursuing the ideal transaction for the client, resulting in maximizing the financial and accounting benefits while minimizing the residual long-tail risk. This is an emerging area where his experience captures additional value for the corporation from areas that would otherwise remain an ongoing liability and cost. The convergence of new Brownfield's legislation, competitive insurance marketplace, interested developers, and capable remediation firms have created risk assuming partnerships, which offer a growing opportunity for companies looking to cede or limit liability. Mr. Pellis looks at corporate real estate and its associated liability to develop a plan to help his clients avoid the continued volatility to reserves and cash flow. He has represented primarily corporations with the impaired asset, and negotiates transactions that protect the corporation from future negative impacts from the ceded asset.

Mr. Pellis’ insurance knowledge has also led to a unique perspective in counseling clients regarding risk transfer. He evaluates policies for weak language and gaps in coverage, and identifies areas missed in the existing risk transfer program. Mr. Pellis also brings an outsider's view to his analysis of an entity's risk transfer program to ensure that the products and programs in place are adequately matched to the business risks assumed by the client, before the need arises to pursue coverage. This global approach has proved to maximize the value of the client's dollars spent on a risk transfer program and greatly enhances the chances that when a loss occurs, the program will minimize the negative financial impact of losses and more effectively transfer the risk. Where necessary or appropriate, Mr. Pellis has experience with the development of alternative risk transfer mechanisms and utilizing the non-traditional insurance marketplace that can offer an economical substitute to traditional insurance products.

Mr. Pellis has litigated or arbitrated insurance recovery claims for corporate policyholders throughout the United States, the Virgin Islands and England. He has successfully found coverage for policyholders offsetting exposures arising from asbestos, environmental pollution, defective products, directors and officers errors and omissions, and professional malpractice claims. On the business side of his experience, Mr. Pellis has pursued a number of different ventures and raised capital among private equity groups in the venture capital community. He has experience creating corporations, partnerships and other entities, and handling the internal corporate governance documentation.

Education

J.D., The Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America (1992)

B.S., The Pennsylvania State University (1989)

Admissions

• Illinois (admission pending)
• District of Columbia
• Pennsylvania