Recently appointed as an Advisor for the American Law Institute Restatement of Law for Liability Insurance

Anastasia (“Natasha”) Markakis Nye is a founding partner of Peters & Nye LLP. Ms. Nye spent the early part of her career at a large national law firm based in Chicago. For over 34 years, she has dedicated her career to representing and counseling international and domestic clients in the insurance industry. She specializes in all lines of professional liability insurance, including directors and officers, financial institutions, investment advisors, lawyers, actuaries, and employment practices, as well as commercial general liability, mass torts and products liability insurance.

Ms. Nye provides counseling, policy drafting, claims management and claims resolution services to her clients. She has represented clients in the mediation of hundreds of cases during her career, as well as litigated and arbitrated cases in the United States, the United Kingdom and Bermuda. Her practice also includes advising reinsurers in claims evaluation and representing them in reinsurance disputes. She has engendered the respect of mediators and other industry professionals for her tireless efforts in obtaining creative resolutions to disputes through insightful and well-informed dialogue.  Ms. Nye was recently elected to the prestigious American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel.

Industry professionals routinely seek Ms. Nye’s advice on policy drafting, case law developments, claim exposure analysis, and current litigation and industry trends.

Representative Experience

Professional Liability

Served as coverage and monitoring counsel in hundreds of D&O securities class action and derivative cases arising out of, inter alia, the S&L crisis, the dot-com industry collapse, the mutual fund market timing scandal, the insurance company and broker contingent commission practices, stock options backdating and subprime lending and credit crisis.

Counseled clients on numerous duty to defend policies issued to public, private and non-profit companies.

Issued coverage opinions and served as monitoring counsel in hundreds of employment practice claims, including high profile sexual harassment suits against investment banks, wage and hour class action suits, and race discrimination cases involving Fortune 500 companies, as well as age discrimination and disability discrimination actions.

Handled dozens of errors and omissions claims brought against financial institutions, insurance companies, investment advisors, insurance agents and actuaries.

Investigated claims under insurance company errors and omissions policies, including claims of bad faith in numerous jurisdictions such as California, Texas, Florida, and West Virginia.

Handled numerous claims under lawyers’ professional liability policies, including malpractice claims involving personal and corporate tax shelters, intellectual property and estate planning.

Successfully rescinded policy and negotiated significant rescission discounts on numerous cases involving false financial statements and misrepresentations in application forms.

Investigated hundreds of claims submitted under multi-year broad form communications liability and errors and omissions liability policy issued to a high tech company involving damages exceeding $1 billion and negotiated a complex global resolution.

Arbitrated complex professional liability claims in confidential arbitration proceedings in Hamilton, Bermuda; London, England; and Zurich, Switzerland.

Obtained summary judgment for insurer based on Insured’s breach of cooperation clause.

Represented insurance client in several direct action suits pending in Louisiana involving a financial institution.

General Liability / Products Liability / Mass Torts

Served as national coverage counsel in Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

Represented insurers in widely publicized pharmaceutical product liability matters involving Phen-Fen, diabetes drugs, anti-depressant drugs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, phenylpropanolamine and thimerosal, among others.

Served as national coordinating counsel and monitoring counsel on numerous mass tort products liability cases, including breast, hip and knee implants, automobile component defects (including SUV rollovers), hexavalent chromium, asbestos and silica, and latex.

Negotiated a favorable resolution under a general liability policy involving a multi-million dollar pollution claim arising from an oil spill off the United States northeast coastline.

Participated in confidential London-based arbitrations involving general liability coverage disputes.

Successfully secured anti-suit injunction from the commercial Court in London, England.

Successfully obtained dismissal of insurer client in coverage litigation based on a judgment reduction and arbitration clause.

Other Distinctions / Memberships

American Law Institute (ALI), Advisor, Restatement of Law for Liability Insurance

American College of Coverage and Extracontractual Counsel

Professional Liability Underwriting Society

Leading Lawyers in Illinois

Leading Women Lawyers of Illinois

Editor-in Chief, The Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution

Fluent in written and spoken Greek

Education

The Ohio State University School of Law (J.D. 1987)
The University of Michigan (B.A. 1984, with Distinction)