Robert P. Vacchiano, CIPP/US, AIGP is a Partner in the Firm’s Insurance and Reinsurance Group and Cybersecurity & Data Privacy Group.
Robert has focused his practice on insurance and reinsurance since the outset of his legal career. With nearly fifteen years of experience, he counsels insurers, reinsurers, retrocessionaires, and intermediaries across the full spectrum of insurance and reinsurance matters, providing advice and representation with respect to coverage litigation, policy interpretation, risk transfer, priority of coverage, bad-faith and extra-contractual liability, policy rescission, and claims-handling disputes. He regularly handles coverage disputes involving commercial liability, excess and umbrella, catastrophe exposure, cyber risks, business interruption, professional liability (E&O/D&O), products liability, and environmental liability policies, as well as class-action and long-tail bodily injury claims.
Robert has extensive experience handling reinsurance treaty and facultative disputes in both litigation and arbitration, including matters involving allocation, follow-the-fortunes and follow-the-settlements, late notice, commutations, and aggregation of claims and occurrences.
Over the last several years, Robert has positioned himself to advise clients at the leading edge of developments in the areas of insurance, AI, cyber risks, and data privacy. Reflecting his focus on the intersection of these domains, Robert has attained the Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP) designation and the Certified Information Privacy Professional/U.S. (CIPP/US) designation from the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), whose certifications are considered the global industry standard in the field of data privacy and security.
Robert’s credentials reflect his commitment to maintaining and further deepening his understanding of the risks associated with AI, cybersecurity, and data privacy. This positions him to advise insurers and reinsurers in these spheres of accelerating risk that are reshaping the insurance landscape. Robert’s depth of knowledge in these areas reflects an intentional effort to skate where the puck is going by meeting new and evolving legal challenges with subject-matter expertise.
Robert’s practice with the Firm’s Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Group is a direct outgrowth of his insurance practice and his deep familiarity with the risks underlying cyber insurance claims. In this role, he counsels businesses directly by providing advice and representation on legal issues presented by cyberattacks, ransomware, data breaches, misdirected payments and electronic fund transfers, and other privacy- and security-related matters.
Robert’s litigation experience also extends to a wide variety of commercial disputes and professional liability matters. In addition to his work as a litigator, Robert counsels businesses large and small on a range of transactional and advisory matters, including contracts, technology licensing arrangements, employment issues, data privacy obligations, and intellectual property protection.
Robert currently serves as Co-Chair of the Insurance Law Committee of the Essex County Bar Association. He has spoken on insurance, cyber risks, data privacy, and the use of AI in the legal practice, including for the Essex County Bar Association, the IAPP, and various CLE panels. Robert has authored numerous articles and client alerts on topics that include cyber insurance, cyber liability, data privacy, and business interruption coverage, with publications appearing in the New Jersey Law Journal, Property Casualty 360, and Lexology, among others.
In addition, Robert helps lead the Brennan-Vanderbilt Inn of Court, a litigation and trial practice inn and chapter of the American Inns of Court, serving as the Inn’s treasurer and an executive board member. He is also an active member of the Defense Research Institute.
Robert graduated magna cum laude from Fordham University School of Law, where he was Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham International Law Journal and a member of the Federal Litigation Clinic. Following law school, Robert served as Law Clerk to the Honorable Vincent J. Grasso, Assignment Judge of the Superior Court of New Jersey, Ocean County.
