D. Larry Kristinik is a partner of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP who practices in the Columbia office in the areas of business litigation, class action defense, insurance coverage and bad faith claims, and FINRA broker-dealer arbitrations. Mr. Kristinik is listed in The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation (2007 - 2012) and securities litigation (2012) and is AV peer review rated by Martindale Hubbell.

A member of the South Carolina Bar, Mr. Kristinik is admitted to practice before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina. He has been admitted pro hac vice in state and federal courts in Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Utah, and West Virginia. He has appeared in arbitration proceedings in numerous states, and has had arbitration trials in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Massachusetts.

Complex Litigation and Class Action Defense

Mr. Kristinik has served as counsel in two multidistrict litigation proceedings (In re American General Life and Accident Insurance Company Industrial Life Insurance Litigation, MDL No. 1429 and In re Electrical Receptacle Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1595), and has served as counsel defending class actions involving electrical utilities, cable television services, insurance marketing practices, consumer finance, and economic loss ("no injury") products liability claims. He has also defended individual class member opt-out claims. He has served along with other firm attorneys as national coordinating counsel for three different companies.

Life, Health, and Disability Insurance

Mr. Kristinik represents numerous life, health, and disability insurance companies in litigation and regulatory matters. He has defended bad faith claims, asserted rescission claims based on material misrepresentations, litigated beneficiary, policy administration, and dividend election issues, and brought numerous interpleader actions in federal and state court. He has experience defending annuity suitability claims, claims involving variable and whole life products, and has litigated slayer statute issues, claims on conditional receipts, intoxication exclusions, mental disorder limitations, and accidental death and disability claims. He has advised insurers with respect to DOI reporting issues, responded to DOI and Attorney General investigations, and handled agent misconduct matters, including advice regarding E&O and fidelity bond coverage. He often gives advice with respect to claims investigations and decisions to pay claims.

Mr. Kristinik is a member of DRI's Life Health and Disability Committee and was a featured speaker at the Committee's annual conference in Chicago in April 2010. He currently serves as chair of the life programming subcommittee. Mr. Kristinik also serves as the Chair of the Insurance Law Practice Group of the American Law Firm Association, and was chair of the Life, Health, and Disability Program for the 2007 ALFA Insurance Law Practice Group Conference in New York.  He was recently invited to join the Association of Life Insurance Counsel (ALIC).  Mr. Kristinik has been a frequent speaker at insurance industry conferences, including the Eastern Claims Conference and insurance conferences sponsored by DRI, ALFA, and the ABA. He will be speaking in Las Vegas in October 2011 at the annual conference for the International Claims Association.

FINRA Broker-Dealer Representation

Mr. Kristinik has extensive experience defending broker-dealers against customer claims, involving ponzi schemes, supervision, suitability, unauthorized trading, churning, misrepresentation, selling away, and violation of state and federal securities laws. He has experience with a variety of investment products, including UITs, variable annuities, variable life policies, mutual funds, limited partnership interests, oil and gas well interests, as well as individual stocks and bonds. He has represented broker-dealers with respect to investigations by state regulatory agencies and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA, formerly NASD). He has also defended individual financial advisor wrongful termination claims, and claims for unvested deferred compensation, and prosecuted arbitrations to collect on promissory notes and bonus repayment agreements.

Professional Associations

Mr. Kristinik has been appointed to serve as Managing Director (designate) for the 2012-2013 bar year for the ABA Section of Litigation. He also serves as a vice chair of the ABA's Section of Litigation Committee on Corporate Counsel. He previously served as co-editor of In-House Litigator, the quarterly journal for the committee from 2005-2007. He was a co-chair of the 2009 ABA Section of Litigation Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia and also served as a cochair of the Section's Content Management Committee, which oversees over 40 Section committee websites, newsletters, and journals. He served in the House of Delegates of the S.C. Bar during 1999-2001. He is a member of DRI's Life Health and Disability Committee and is the chair of the life programming subcommittee. He is presently serving a two-year term as Chair of the Insurance Law Practice Group of the American Law Firm Association.

Speaking Engagements and CLE Programs

Mr. Kristinik's recent speaking engagements and CLE programs include:

• Featured speaker on the topic of attorney-client privilege during insurance claim investigations at the Eastern Claims Conference in New York in February 2011.
• Moderated the Litigation Management Roundtable at the annual CLE conference of the Committee on Corporate Counsel of the ABA Section of Litigation in February 2011 in Naples, Florida.
• Featured speaker at the DRI Life, Health and Disability Conference in Chicago in April 2010 on the topic of preserving attorney-client privilege during insurance claim investigations and in bad faith litigation.
• Program Chair for the General Counsel Forum for the Annual CLE Conference of the ABA Section of Litigation Committee on Corporate Counsel in February 2010 in Rancho Mirage, California.
• Moderated the program, "Preserving the Attorney-Client Privilege for Insurance Company Legal Departments," presented at the 2009 ALFA Insurance Law Practice Group Conference in New York.
• Program co-chair of the 2009 ABA Section of Litigation Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (over 60 CLE programs and 750 registrants).
• Moderated CLE teleconference entitled: "Ethics for In-House Counsel: Avoiding Traps for Losing the Attorney-Client Privilege," in November 2008 sponsored by the ALFA Insurance Law Practice Group.
• Program co-chair of the 2008 Annual CLE Seminar for the Committee on Corporate Counsel of the ABA Section of Litigation in Scottsdale, Arizona. 
• Chair of Life, Health, and Disability Program for the 2007 ALFA Insurance Law Practice Group Conference in New York.
• Speaker on topic of periodical editorial board management at the Fall 2006 ABA Section of Litigation Leadership Conference in Chicago. 
• Moderated a panel discussion on e-discovery best practices for insurance companies in New York in June of 2005 at the ALFA Insurance Law Practice Group Roundtable.
• Featured speaker on the topics of class action defense and multi-district litigation in Orlando in January of 2004, at the ABA Trial Tort and Insurance Practice Section annual insurance CLE conference.
• Featured speaker on the topics of class action defense and multi-district litigation in New York in June of 2003, at the ALFA Insurance Law Practice Group Roundtable. 
• Speaker on the topic of arbitration procedures and techniques at the mid-year conference of the Academy of Hospitality Industry Attorneys in San Francisco in September of 2002.

Articles

Mr. Kristinik co-authored the article "Arbitration Meets the Class Action Happy Marriage or Dangerous Liaison," published in the Fall 2003 newsletter for the Committee on Corporate Counsel of the ABA's Section of Litigation. He also co-authored the article, "How to Pursue and Maximize Your Corporate Counsel Career," published in the Summer 2005 newsletter for the Committee on Corporate Counsel of the ABA's Section of Litigation.

Education

In 1992, Mr. Kristinik earned a Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of South Carolina School of Law where he was named to the Order of the Coif. He received the American Jurisprudence Award in Federal Practice and was a member of the student editorial board of the ABA Real Property, Probate and Trust Journal. He was a member of the Order of Barristers, the Order of Wig and Robe, and the National Moot Court Team. Mr. Kristinik earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, magna cum laude, from the University of South Carolina Honors College in 1989. He was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the Omicron Delta Kappa and Mortar Board leadership societies.