Sam Ellingwood

About Sam Ellingwood

I am an insurance growth attorney and legal leader with two decades of experience helping executives navigate complex legal and compliance challenges to achieve their business goals. My career has spanned corporate litigation, insurance defense, complex first-party coverage disputes, and senior in-house roles at both property & casualty and public life, health, and annuity companies.I\'ve built my reputation as a growth-focused legal leader by spearheading new ventures, integrating strategic acquisitions, and fostering double-digit sales growth through key partnerships. I am adept at creating and implementing smart, calculated risk frameworks that balance aggressive business objectives with robust compliance. I have experience in M&A, corporate governance, and managing high-stakes litigation.My approach is simple: provide actionable advice at the speed of business, focus on progress over perfection, and start every legal conversation with \'yes, and here\'s how.\'Key areas of expertise include:* Strategic Growth & Risk Mitigation: Designing legal strategies that enable business growth while mitigating risk. A key achievement was developing a novel \"one agency approach\" to navigate CCPA regulations, preserving a critical lead generation pipeline for sales.* M&A and Corporate Transformation: Leading the legal integration of multiple acquisitions to form a new, unified brand (Optavise), which was instrumental in the worksite insurance business being named the fastest-growing medium-sized carrier with post-merger.* Operational Turnaround & Cost Reduction: Overhauling a claims operation to address excessive litigation, a project that reduced expenses by more than 20% for multiple consecutive years and achieved the lowest pending litigation volume in over a decade.* Building High-Performing Teams: Recruiting, developing, and leading high-performing legal and compliance teams with limited budgets.My goal is to align legal and compliance functions with enterprise strategy, turning legal challenges into business opportunities and driving significant shareholder value.My primary leadership style is transformational, driven by the core belief that inspiring and empowering individuals leads to collective success and innovation. I am passionate about applying my experience to solve complex challenges and welcome conversations with leaders who are building the future of the insurance industry.

Experience

1. General Counsel

   DOXA

   Jan 2026 — Present

Education

• Indiana University Indianapolis

  BA, Communication Studies

  1997 — 2001

• Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law

  Doctor of Law - JD, Law

  2002 — 2005

Skills

• Data Privacy
• Customer Experience
• Legal Issues
• Python
• Machine Learning
• Liability
• Reinsurance
• Regulatory Compliance
• Legal Compliance
• Legal Research
• Commercial Insurance
• Insurance Law
• Civil Litigation
• Insurance Coverage
• Dispute Resolution
• Ancient Astronaut Theory
• Insurance
• Mediation
• Claims Management
• Management
• Personal Injury Litigation
• Arbitration
• Legal Writing
• Litigation
• Insurance Bad Faith
• Risk Management
• Privacy Law
• Commercial Litigation
• Leadership
• Project Management
• Training
• Fraud
• Property & Casualty Insurance
• Operations Management
• Data Security
• Business Litigation
• U.s. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (Hipaa)
• Strategic Planning
• Class Actions
• Litigation Management