Lecturer Bios
Gregory D. Podolak, Esq.
Greg Podolak has practiced his entire career as a policyholder coverage lawyer with SDV, beginning as a law clerk, transitioning to an associate position out of law school, and finally being named Partner - the first SDV attorney to have the distinction of all three titles.
Greg litigates on behalf corporate policyholders and counsels clients on corporate insurance recovery and policy renewal strategy for matters involving Commercial General Liability ("CGL"), Builders Risk and first part property, Professional Liability, Directors and Officers, and Additional Insured claims. He serves a diverse client-base, ranging from major general contractors to national real estate investment firms, and has successfully negotiated, mediated, tried and handled appeals of disputes in state and federal courts throughout the United States. He frequently collaborates with national insurance brokerage firms, and regularly lectures and authors articles on a variety of insurance coverage topics. Greg also leads SDV's Cyber Risk concentration, advising policyholder clients in all industries facing this expanding exposure.
Greg is also active outside the office. He is the Secretary and CLE Co-Chair for the Connecticut Bar Association's Insurance Law Section, a member of the American Bar Association's Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee ("ICLC") and the ICLC Computer and Technology Subcommittee, and has served as an Executive Board Member for the New Haven County Bar Association Young Lawyers Section. He participates in various local charities and pro-bono services like New Haven's Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen ("DESK"), Toys for Tots, and Lawyers for Children America.
Mr. Podolak resides in Hamden, Connecticut with his wife and children.
Mike Zusman
Mike Zusman is the founder and principal consultant of Carve Systems where he is primarily responsible for implementing customized security solutions for a variety of industry leading Fortune 500, mid-market, and small business clients. Prior to founding Carve, Mike helped Fortune 500 companies from various verticals secure their networks and applications as the Director of Consulting at Intrepidus Group, where he joined as a senior security consultant in 2008. Prior to his work at Intrepidus Group, he held the position of Escalation Engineer at Whale Communications (a Microsoft subsidiary), Security Program Manager at Automatic Data Processing, and lead architect and developer at a number of smaller firms. In addition to his corporate experience, Mike has performed independent research on various information security topics. He has been covered by various media outlets, and has spoken at a number of top industry events including CanSecWest, Black Hat, DEFCON, and regional OWASP events. Mike also taught portions of the penetration testing class at NYU/Polytechnic University. Mike has obtained the CISSP certification, and is co-leader of the OWASP Mobile Security Project.
Shawn Flanagan
Shawn Flanagan is the Assistant Vice President of the Professional Liability division at HUB International Northeast, a leading global insurance brokerage. With a background in underwriting, Shawn has been with HUB for nearly 10 years and serves as the go-to-source for Professional Liability products.