
One South
Dearborn 2100
Chicago, Illinois 60603
www.krafsurlaw.com
Jay V. Krafsur
Managing
Director
(312 212-4343
Fax
(312) 212-4347
jkrafsur@krafsurlaw.com
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 the
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.