On Friday, Erie Indemnity Co. announced that the company has named the Honorable Sean J. McLaughlin as executive vice president, secretary and general counsel for the company and the affiliated companies of the Erie Insurance Group effective Aug. 26, 2013.
McLaughlin most recently served as chief district judge for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania. He was first appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and was the only district judge assigned on a full-time basis to the Erie Division.
In his new role at Erie Indemnity, McLaughlin will be responsible for the in-house Law Division.
Erie Indemnity Company is the attorney-in-fact for the subscribers at Erie Insurance Exchange and manages Erie Insurance Group’s other companies.
The company disclosed that McLaughlin will receive a stock-based award as an inducement material to his acceptance of employment with the company, including up to 9,280 performance shares. They are designed to mirror the award he would have received under the company’s Long Term Incentive Plan had he been eligible to participate in the 2013-2015 performance period under the LTIP, prorated for the number of days during the performance period that he was employed with the company.
The company notes that this employment inducement award will be made outside of the company’s stockholder approved equity plans, adding that the company’s independent compensation committee approved the equity award in reliance on an employment inducement exception to shareholder approval provided by Section 5635(c)(4) of the NASDAQ Marketplace Rules.
McLaughlin succeeds James T. Tanous who retired from the company on June 30, 2013.
McLaughlin earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Georgetown University in 1977 and a Juris Doctor degree from Georgetown Law Center in 1980.
Prior to joining the bench, he specialized in civil litigation at Knox McLaughlin Gornall & Sennett, P.C., in Erie.
He is a member of the American Bar Association, the Pennsylvania Bar Association, and the Erie County Bar Association where he formerly served on the Executive Committee.
SOURCE: Erie Indemnity