Shari Shelmadine is a Senior Counsel in Freeman Mathis & Gary, LLP's Chicago office. She is a member of the Insurance Coverage & Extra-Contractual Liability Practice Section. She has been practicing law for 36 years, the last 29 of which have been devoted to insurance coverage litigation. Before joining FMG, she managed the in-house coverage firm for Founders Insurance Company for 17 ½ years. She got her start in insurance defense litigation, which she practiced for 7 years. After that, she practiced insurance coverage litigation at Querrey & Harrow, where she drafted coverage opinions for Lloyd’s of London and State Farm and represented them in declaratory judgment actions. From there, she joined Newman & Pelafas, which became Newman, Raiz & Shelmadine. It was from there that she joined Founders, where she managed the firm, re-wrote insurance policies and endorsements, reviewed rescissions, oversaw the non-cooperation impasse, etc.

Illinois

Indiana

United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

• Founders Insurance Company v. Munoz, Illinois Supreme Court, 237 Ill. 2d 424 (2010)
• Founders Insurance Company v. American Country Ins. Co., 366 Ill. App. 3d 64 (1^st Dist. 2006)
• Founders Insurance Company v. Walker, et al., 2015 Ill. App. (1^st) 141301
• Founders Insurance Company v. White, 367 Ill. App. 3d 883 (1^st Dist. 2006)

• Moot Court Champion
• Best Oralist – Moot Court Interschool Competition
• Best Brief – Moot Court Interschool Competition

• Presented seminars to the claims department at Founders on coverage, rescissions, recorded statements, reservation of rights and declaratory judgment actions.