Katherine Smith Dedrick

Personal Bio

Job Title: Partner

Areas of Expertise:

Katherine is an experienced commercial litigator, arbitrator and the co-founder of a domestic and international disaster and insurance consulting company based in the US and Asia Pacific. She has handled hundreds of complex matters in the US and in other countries including New Zealand, Australia and Chile. Katherine has argued before the Illinois Supreme Court, as well as numerous federal district and appellate courts and arbitration panels. She has significant arbitration experience both as a party representative and neutral. As a party representative, she was lead counsel on complex insurance, reinsurance and environmental contamination matters. As a neutral she has been a panel member in complex commercial financial disputes, and a sole arbitrator in property insurance, commercial business and consumer matters. Katherine is a neutral with the American Arbitration Association, an arbitrator with FINRA, and a Fellow and Chair of the North American Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. In addition to her law degree, Katherine earned an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business studying in the U.S., Spain and Singapore. Katherine’s been named a Super Lawyer for numerous years, received the Business Insurance Women to Watch Award, the Mercedes Mentor Award, and the Women With Vision Award from the Women’s Bar Association.