VP of Litigation and Insurance

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Vice President, Litigation & Insurance is the senior legal executive responsible for enterprise leadership of the Health System’s litigation, claims, captive insurance, and commercial insurance programs. The Vice President serves as a principal advisor to the General Counsel, executive leadership, and governing bodies on significant litigation exposure, claims strategy, insurance coverage, risk financing, and emerging liability trends. The role establishes enterprise strategy and governance, ensures appropriate executive oversight of high-impact matters, and aligns legal, clinical, operational, and financial stakeholders around effective risk mitigation and resolution. The Vice President leads all healthcare and commercial litigation matters; oversees medical malpractice, employment, and other significant claims; manages the Health System’s captive insurance company; and partners with Finance on the procurement, placement, administration, and optimization of the Health System’s commercial insurance portfolio.

Position: VP of Litigation and Insurance       

Department: Legal Affairs

Schedule: Full Time

ESSENTIAL RESPONSIBILITIES / DUTIES:

Enterprise Litigation Strategy & Oversight

• Develop and lead the Health System’s enterprise litigation strategy across healthcare, professional liability, employment, regulatory, managed care, medical staff, peer review, credentialing, commercial, contract, antitrust, class action, and other complex disputes.
• Provide executive oversight of significant investigations, subpoenas, discovery, settlement strategy, litigation avoidance, and matters with material financial, operational, reputational, or strategic impact.
• Advise the General Counsel and executive leaders on litigation posture, exposure, settlement authority, escalation, and resolution of high-risk matters; identify trends and opportunities to reduce recurring liability.

Professional Liability & Claims Oversight

• Provide executive leadership and oversight for the professional liability and claims function, including medical malpractice and significant employment-related claims, while ensuring appropriate delegation of day-to-day claims administration to designated claims leadership and staff.
• Oversee strategy for significant and catastrophic claims, including investigation, evaluation, defense, resolution, and escalation; establish expectations for timely, consistent, and well-documented claims management.
• Partner closely with the Chief Quality Officer and quality and patient safety team, clinical leadership, Human Resources, Finance, and other stakeholders to identify systemic issues, strengthen prevention strategies, and incorporate claims learnings into organizational improvement.
• Partner with Finance and actuarial resources on reserve reviews, loss trends, and material exposure, ensuring legal strategy and financial planning remain aligned.

Captive Insurance Company Leadership

• Serve as the lead staff executive for the Health System’s captive insurance company and primary coordinator for captive governance, strategy, and executive decision support.
• Lead preparation for and coordination of captive governance activities, including regular captive meetings, monthly operating discussions, and bi-annual onshore risk education meetings; ensure decisions, accountabilities, and follow-up actions are clearly documented and advanced.
• Partner with Finance, actuarial advisors, brokers, external counsel, and other consultants on reserve adequacy, loss projections, funding requirements, reinsurance strategy, retention levels, and long-term risk financing.
• Lead enterprise evaluation of which insurance lines and exposures should be retained within the captive versus transferred through the commercial insurance market, balancing financial efficiency, risk tolerance, coverage availability, and organizational exposure.
• Oversee captive regulatory and governance requirements and provide executive reporting on financial performance, emerging exposures, and strategic recommendations.

Commercial Insurance Strategy

• Partner with Finance to establish and execute the enterprise commercial insurance strategy, including coverage design, procurement, placement, renewal, administration, and optimization of insurance programs.
• Provide legal and strategic oversight of brokers, carriers, underwriters, actuaries, consultants, and third-party administrators; ensure coverage decisions appropriately reflect enterprise risk profile and business priorities.
• Oversee legal strategy for significant claims submitted under commercial policies and resolve material coverage issues in partnership with Finance and external advisors.
• Advise on insurance implications of acquisitions, affiliations, physician transactions, joint ventures, construction, new service lines, and other strategic initiatives.

Outside Counsel & Legal Resource Management

• Establish and oversee an enterprise approach to selecting, retaining, and managing outside litigation counsel and specialized advisors.
• Set expectations for litigation strategy, matter management, budgets, staffing, fee arrangements, performance, and outcomes; ensure external resources are deployed effectively and consistently with organizational priorities.
• Monitor material legal spend and identify opportunities to improve value, consistency, and efficiency across the litigation portfolio.

Executive Leadership, Governance & Reporting

• Serve as a trusted advisor to the General Counsel, Executive Leadership Team, and other senior leaders on significant litigation, claims, captive, and insurance matters.
• Present to the System Board and relevant Board and management committees, including Audit and Compliance, Finance, and Captive governance bodies, on significant exposure, claims trends, reserve considerations, coverage strategy, renewals, and emerging liability risks.
• Develop clear executive dashboards, trend reporting, and decision materials that translate complex legal and insurance issues into actionable business recommendations.
• Partner with the enterprise risk management function to ensure material litigation and insurance risks are appropriately reflected in broader enterprise risk reporting and mitigation efforts.

Financial & Operational Accountability

• Provide executive oversight of litigation, claims, captive, and insurance-related budgets and financial performance, including defense costs, indemnity expenditures, reserves, premiums, and external advisory spend.
• Partner with Finance on annual planning, forecasting, reserve analysis, captive funding, insurance renewals, and long-range risk financing strategy.
• Establish meaningful performance indicators for the function, monitor outcomes and trends, and use data to drive continuous improvement, resource decisions, and risk-reduction priorities.
• Build and develop a high-performing team and operating model with clear accountability across litigation, claims, captive, and insurance responsibilities.

(The above statements in this job description are intended to depict the general nature and level of work assigned to the employee(s) in this job. The above is not intended to represent an exhaustive list of accountable duties and responsibilities required)

REQUIRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Juris Doctor from an accredited law school and active admission to practice law in at least one U.S. jurisdiction; eligibility for appropriate in-house practice authorization as required.

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible legal experience, including substantial leadership responsibility in complex litigation, professional liability, insurance, claims, or related healthcare legal functions.

• Demonstrated experience leading significant healthcare and commercial litigation and advising senior executives on high-risk, high-impact legal matters.

• Meaningful experience with professional liability claims, captive insurance structures, commercial insurance programs, and risk financing concepts.

• Experience working with governing boards, board committees, executive leadership, and cross-functional senior stakeholders.

• Demonstrated ability to lead through influence across complex, matrixed organizations and translate legal risk into practical business strategy. Or equivalent combination of education and experience.

PREFERRED EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE

• Leadership experience within an integrated health system, academic medical center, health plan, physician enterprise, or similarly complex healthcare organization.

• Experience supporting or serving as lead staff to a captive insurance company and its governing body.

• Experience with healthcare regulatory enforcement, major employment matters, enterprise insurance placement, and complex risk-financing decisions.

• Experience building or evolving litigation, claims, captive, or insurance operating models at enterprise scale.

CERTIFICATIONS, LICENSES, REGISTRATIONS REQUIRED

• Juris Doctor (JD) from an ABA-accredited law school
• Active membership in the Massachusetts Bar in good standing

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Advanced knowledge of complex healthcare, professional liability, employment, commercial, regulatory, and other significant litigation, with the ability to establish litigation strategy, assess exposure, and advise senior executives on high-risk matters.

• Deep knowledge of captive insurance structures, commercial insurance programs, reinsurance, risk retention and transfer strategies, claims financing, and the financial and regulatory considerations associated with enterprise insurance programs.

• Ability to evaluate legal, financial, operational, clinical, and reputational implications of litigation and insurance decisions and translate complex risk information into enterprise-level strategies and recommendations.

• Demonstrated ability to communicate complex litigation, claims, insurance, and financial risk matters clearly and credibly to executive leadership, governing boards, and committees and to influence decisions in high-stakes situations.

• Strong understanding of reserves, actuarial analysis, loss trends, defense and indemnity costs, insurance premiums, captive financial performance, and long-range risk financing, with the ability to partner effectively with Finance and external advisors.

• Exceptional judgment and ability to establish effective governance, decision rights, escalation processes, and accountability across litigation, claims, captive, and insurance activities while appropriately balancing legal risk with organizational priorities.

• Ability to lead and develop teams and effectively influence across a complex health system without relying solely on direct authority; build strong relationships with clinical and operational leaders, Finance, HR, Risk/Patient Safety, insurers, brokers, actuaries, outside counsel, and other external partners.

Compensation Range: $334,000-$400,000

Compensation Range:

This range offers an estimate based on the minimum job qualifications. However, our approach to determining base pay is comprehensive, and a broad range of factors is considered when making an offer. This includes education, experience, skills, and certifications/licensures as they directly relate to position requirements; as well as business/organizational needs, internal equity, and market-competitiveness. In addition, BMCHS offers generous total compensation that includes, but is not limited to, benefits (medical, dental, vision, pharmacy), discretionary annual bonuses and merit increases, Flexible Spending Accounts, 403(b) savings matches, paid time off, career advancement opportunities, and resources to support employee and family well-being. 

NOTE: This range is based on Boston-area data, and is subject to modification based on geographic location.

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