President: Adam M. Swanson, JD ’08
Adam represents major financial institutions in disputes brought by consumers, including those concerning consumer mortgage lending and servicing and consumer credit, as well as major title companies in real property, land title, and title insurance litigation.
His experience in the consumer mortgage lending and servicing sectors includes handling legal challenges concerning agency and non-agency mortgages, large mortgage portfolios, and residential mortgage-backed securities products. Adam represents all the major players in the consumer mortgage lending and servicing space in the full range of claims arising from origination, servicing, default servicing, foreclosure, bankruptcy, evictions as well as concerning real estate owned properties.
Adam’s extensive experience resolving real property matters includes those concerning deeds, easements, ownership disputes, land titles, and real property acquisitions. Because of his deep understanding of the consumer mortgage sector, Adam is regularly retained by the nation’s largest title insurers to provide them with efficient and cost-effective solutions to their most complex real property disputes.
Passionate about giving back to the community, Adam serves on the Board of Directors of Connecticut Legal Services, Connecticut’s largest legal aid agency. Adam also serves on the Board of Directors for the Fairfield County Bar Association.
Adam has been an active member of the School of Law Alumni Association for many years and is very pleased to be nominated to serve as President.
Vice President: Andrew Knott, JD ’03
Andrew graduated from the School of Law in 2003 and has been practicing since then with his father John Knott. QUSL alumnus Rpbert Robert J. Santoro, (QUSL ’75) is also a partner of the firm. The practice focuses on all aspects of probate, trust, estate, and elder law, including bioethics, special needs, and elder abuse and exploitation.
Andrew is also an experienced neutral, serving as a magistrate for the superior court and claims commissioner hearing small claims and claims against the state, as well as deciding matters for several arbitration panels. He lives locally with his wife and two children.
Andrew has been a QU Law Alumni board member for over a decade and has employed a number of Quinnipiac School of Law graduates.
Secretary/Treasurer: Kelly Petter JD ’11
Kelly is a partner at Gerber Ciano Kelly Brady LLP in Hartford, where she focuses her practice on complex insurance coverage and defense matters ranging from pre-suit investigation, coverage and liability analysis through litigation and trial. Kelly is often selected to represent large institutional clients in high-stakes litigation involving declaratory judgment, breach of contract, bad faith and class action matters. She recently advised a national carrier regarding its nationwide response to a high volume of claims involving emerging medical and scientific data, and the relevant legal standards associated therewith.
Kelly defends pre-suit and litigation matters involving complex liability and damages defenses. The breadth of Kelly’s practice includes, but is not limited to construction losses, and premises liability, contract dispute, liquor liability, product liability and professional liability matters in state and federal courts across Connecticut and New York. Kelly is regularly asked to serve as pro hac vice counsel across the country in complex coverage and defense matters. She also has experience litigating before the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO).
Kelly has been named a Connecticut Super Lawyers Rising Star from 2018 to 2021. She is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Connecticut Defense Lawyers Association and Chair of the Young Lawyers Committee of the Connecticut Defense Lawyers Association. She is a Member of the Federation of Defense & Corporate Counsel (FDCC), Claims and Litigation Management Alliance (CLM) and Defense Research Institute (DRI), and co-hosts a podcast on Clubhouse called the I ❤ Insurance Club. Kelly regularly presents to trade organizations and insurance companies regarding insurance coverage, extracontractual liability, and defense matters.
