Jay V. Krafsur

THE KRAFSUR LAW GROUP LLC

 

Jay V. Krafsur founded The Krafsur Law Group LLC on January 1, 2000, following sixteen years in the Chicago office of a New York based law firm that concentrated on representing the insurance industry.  Mr. Krafsur’s practice today includes the development of member-owned, homogeneous captive insurance programs, advising the emergency services industry, and the handling of insurance coverage alternative dispute resolution matters as attorney, arbitrator or mediator.  Mr. Krafsur’s insurance ADR practice follows twenty years of handling insurance and reinsurance coverage disputes and litigation for insurers and policyholders.

In approximately 2001, Mr. Krafsur began developing a member-owned captive insurance company ― a reinsurance company ― for the nationwide ambulance and medical transportation industry.  That company went live on June 1, 2005, and was designed to afford its members control of their insurance destinies, and stability of insurance costs over the long term.  A significant portion of Mr. Krafsur’s time today is spent developing other member-owned captive insurance programs.

Mr. Krafsur has delivered countless speeches to insurers and reinsurers on a broad range of insurance topics.  In 1996, Mr. Krafsur began relationships with several Southeast Asian insurers and has lectured overseas on a variety of topics including directors and officers liability claims, electromagnetic fields, environmental claims, toxic tort and other latent injury claims.  More recently, Mr. Krafsur has acted as outside counsel and advisor to corporate risk managers, assisting them in their insurance purchasing, claims handling, and insurance coverage disputes.

In emergency services matters, Mr. Krafsur represents emergency medical services providers nationwide in professional liability cases.  These cases are often handled by local lawyers with little or no experience in emergency services cases.  The result can be settlements or judgments far higher than necessary, missed opportunities for outright dismissal or summary judgment, and overall handling without a strategy tailored to this type of case.   Mr. Krafsur also appears before government bodies such as city councils and county commissioners on behalf of EMS clients.  Mr. Krafsur has held Colorado and national paramedic certificates, and he worked as a Boulder County, Colorado, paramedic for five years, from 1977 to 1982, with field, management, and educational responsibilities.  He lectures to paramedic organizations on legal issues in pre‑hospital care.  He served on the Mobile Intensive Care Committee of the Emergency Medical Services Commission of Metropolitan Chicago, and he was appointed by former Mayor Washington to the Chicago Fire Department Emergency Medical Services Oversight Committee.  He was the primary author of the Committee’s 1987 report.  Mr. Krafsur is a founding member and served on the Board of Boulder County Paramedics, a not‑for-profit paramedic organization that operates in two Colorado cities.

Before starting The Krafsur Law Group LLC, Mr. Krafsur was the general partner in charge of the Chicago office of New York based Rivkin, Radler & Kremer where he headed the office’s insurance and emergency services practice groups.  Mr. Krafsur received his Bachelor’s degree in environmental studies from the University of Colorado in 1978. In 1984, he received his law degree, with honors, from the Illinois Institute of Technology ― Chicago Kent College of Law, where he also served as an instructor for several years.  Mr. Krafsur is licensed to practice in Illinois and Colorado and is a member of the bar of the United States District Court for the Northern and Central Districts of Illinois, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Seventh Circuits, and the United States Supreme Court.  He is rated AV by Martindale-Hubbell.