Carla Cowles van Dongen is Vice President - Counsel for State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company and currently leads State Farm’s Claim Litigation Section, overseeing 38 staff counsel offices across the United States. She has served in several leadership roles, all involving litigation management. She has been actively engaged in the development and implementation of civil justice policy and initiatives for State Farm and served as operating committee co-chair for the civil justice reform group.
Prior to joining State Farm, Ms. van Dongen was a litigator with the Indianapolis law firm of Bingham Summers Welsh & Spilman (now Bingham Greenebaum Doll). Both before and since joining State Farm, she has written and spoken extensively on insurance and litigation-related topics, and she was awarded the Chartered Property & Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation.
She is active with the Board of Governors for RAND Institute for Civil Justice, is past president of the insurance staff counsel committee for Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC), and was elected to membership in the American Law Institute. She is also active with her local school district, McLean County Unit 5, serving as a member of its Citizen’s Advisory Council, and currently as board president for its Educational Foundation. She also spent several years as chair of the Normal Community Theatre Parents organization.
She is a graduate of Butler University and Indiana University School of Law.
Ms. van Dongen is a former member of the IAALS Board of Advisors.