About Robert L.
Robert L. Siems has spent more than four decades working at the intersection of insurance law and defense litigation. He built his practice from early associate roles into in-house counsel positions at major insurers, and later opened his own firm. The arc of his career shows steady movement from courtroom beginnings to corporate counsel and then to private practice.
He completed undergraduate studies at the University of Miami in 1974 and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1979. He added an MBA from Loyola College in 2000. Those degrees bookend a professional life that blends litigation experience and business-side legal work.
Siems began his legal career as an associate at Verderaime and Dubois, P.A., in 1979. Two years later he joined O'Doherty, Gallagher, and Nead as an associate and later became partner. The 1990s brought shifts into insurance-company roles. He was a partner in firms such as Cohan and Francomano and Francomano, Karpook, and Siems through the early 1990s, then moved into corporate counsel positions. He served as Group Counsel and Assistant Vice President at USF&G in 1992. In 1998 he joined St. Paul Fire & Marine Insurance Company as Group Counsel and National Extra-Contractual Claims Counsel. In 1999 he established the Law Offices of Robert L. Siems, P.A., where he serves as principal.
Over the years Siems has combined defense litigation and in-house counsel work. His roles at USF&G and St. Paul involved handling coverage disputes and claims that reached beyond policy limits. That experience informed his later private practice, where he continued to handle insurance defense, coverage matters, and related civil litigation.
He has been active in professional groups throughout his career. Siems is a long-standing member of the Maryland State Bar Association, belonging since 1979. He joined the Maryland Defense Counsel in 1980 and served as its president from 1989 to 1990. He has been affiliated with the CPCU Society since 1997 and holds membership in the Defense Research Institute.
Those memberships reflect a practice grounded in peer engagement and continuing legal education. He maintains an office as principal of his eponymous firm. He handles insurance coverage disputes, extra-contractual claims and defense litigation in Maryland.
