Her career has progressed a long way since her early days in management. Denise began working for The Hartford Financial Services Group while in law school, starting  as a legal assistant. Upon graduation, she became an attorney at The Hartford, rising to assistant counsel in the legal department. But then she had a defining moment. As much as she enjoyed the legal work at the time, Denise explains, “Sometimes in the legal department you can feel removed from the dynamics of the actual business.”

 

With the goal of truly integrating herself into the insurance business, Denise moved to The Hartford’s claims department as a senior consultant handling asbestos claims. “When you’ve been on the front lines of the business, you get a whole new flavor of what the company does. You can see the whole picture of the decisions that need to be made, the negotiations that occur, and gain a strong perspective on why insurance is so cruciial,” she says.

 

It’s a move that proved pivotal to her current role as U.S. General Counsel at Aspen, a position she has held since 2004. “When you move to a new position, you try to stretch a little bit and use your skills to challenge yourself.  That definitely occurred when I moved to Aspen,” she says. As U.S. General Counsel, Denise handles issues related to their U.S. insurance and reinsurance entities, such as regulatory and licensing filings, corporate work, contract and policy reviews, non-claim disputes, compliance and a variety of other matters. 

 

“I like to tell younger people thinking about their careers not to shy away from insurance, since it can get a bad rap. But that’s not true at all. You see everything that happens in the rest of the economy through the insurance industry. Insurance plays a major role in the key social, political, and legal issues of our country, and impacts millions of lives on a daily basis.” she says. 

 

Among the other observations Denise has about the law and the insurance industry:

 

On Women:		Most of the women in the companies I’ve worked for have had significant technical or executive roles. If there remains a glass ceiling in our industry, it is certainly cracked. Opportunities abound for women.
On Skill Sets:		In the insurance industry, you have to be detail-oriented, while at the same time understand that you will have to make decisions without all the facts.  Also, with insurance, the past is some indication of the future, but uncertainty is inherent in this industry. You learn how to deal with knowing that nothing is ever 100% certain.
On Mentors:		One of my first mentors was a former boss at The Hartford. He gave me lots of challenges and responsibility, which was very helpful in exposing me to a wide range of legal issues. He also got me interested in arbitration and negotiation work, and that is something I plan to get more involved in for the future. Now, I find that I try to give folks that I mentor lots of responsibility and make them wholly responsible for projects – just as I learned.
On Industry Involvement:		I met my husband at the STRAIN Reinsurance Contract Wording  course, so there is definitely a side benefit to getting involved in industry conferences and associations! Seriously, our industry associations are very important to one’s growth, and I encourage people to keep growing and learning, and to take risks, because you never know what will come up next with your company.
On Doing Things Differently:		I would have liked to be a litigator for some time. I see now how having a litigation background would have helped in certain circumstances, but you can’t go back. So, I work closely with our outside counsel, and ask questions as well as closely observe, so that I am, in effect, right there with them.

 

 

Law Clerk, Skelley Rottner