Joe McCullough is a Partner in the Litigation and Insurance practices of Smith, Gambrell & Russell, LLP. He is a member of the Firm’s Executive Committee and the Head of the Insurance and Reinsurance Practice. Mr. McCullough was previously a Partner with Freeborn & Peters, which combined with SGR in 2023.
For more than 35 years, Mr. McCullough has devoted his practice to representation of insurance and reinsurance companies in both life & health and the property & casualty matters. He has acted as counsel to insurers and reinsurers in more than 150 arbitration, court, and administrative proceedings across the United States as well as in Bermuda, England, Continental Europe, and Australia, including some of the highest-profile cases in the industry.
He regularly advises clients on a wide range of matters, including rescission claims; worker’s compensation reinsurance issues; personal accident long-term care reinsurance issues and disputes, YRT issues and disputes and medical reinsurance issues; common account reinsurance issues; coverage of declaratory judgment, loss adjustment and monitoring counsel expenses; reinsurance pooling arrangements; financial reinsurance; directors and officers policy issues; petitions for pre-answer security; letter of credit disputes; follow the fortunes and follow the settlements doctrines; insurer insolvency issues and disputes; commutations; estimation and acceleration of claims; exit strategies and financial solutions for problem books of business; offset issues, including in the context of an insurer insolvency; aggregation and allocation of losses; contract drafting; broker funding of losses; records inspection rights; and fraud.
While at Freeborn (now SGR), Mr. McCullough served as Chair of the Executive Committee and as the Leader of the Insurance/Reinsurance Industry Team. Before joining Freeborn (now SGR), Mr. McCullough was a Partner at Sidley & Austin, where he started and led the firm’s reinsurance practice. In 1995, he joined Lovells LLP, where he opened the firm’s U.S. law practice, was the U.S. Regional Managing Partner for many years, served as the firm’s U.S. Insurance and Reinsurance Practice Group Head.
Mr. McCullough earned his B.A., magna cum laude, from Georgetown University. He received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, cum laude, where he was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Law Review. He also holds a Postgraduate License in European Law, with high honors, from the University of Ghent in Belgium.
