Ryan Smethurst, an Alexandria resident and attorney in the Washington  offices of McDermott Will & Emery LLP, spoke at the annual convention of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners held this week at the Gaylord National Harbor Resort.  
 
Much of this year's conference focused on the recent unsettling developments in the financial and insurance markets, including the federal bailout of insurance and financial services conglomerate AIG.

Smethurst addressed collusive "pre-packaged" asbestos bankruptcies  and implications of those schemes for liability insurers and their regulators.  Through these "pre-packs," asbestos debtors seek to pass, in many cases, hundreds of millions of dollars of asbestos risk to their insurers, while cleansing themselves of all current and future asbestos exposure.

Smethurst is a member of McDermott's Insurance Disputes practice.  This group of nationally-recognized lawyers has enjoyed recent appellate successes in the high-stakes pre-packaged bankruptcy area.  
 
In addition, in 2007 Smethurst served as lead counsel for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles's twelve liability insurers regarding the largest settlement of clergy childhood sexual abuse cases in history.  He now represents an insurer defending the City of New York against nearly 11,000 respiratory injury claims by first responders and others who participated in the historic rescue, recovery and clean-up work at Ground Zero.

Smethurst lives in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Alexandria with his wife, Christi, and their two children.