In the heart-breaking matter of sexual abuse claims against educational, religious, and youth organizations, KCIC sensitively assists defendant organizations by providing the tools and expertise needed to compassionately analyze and manage claims and litigation as well as to recover insurance assets to fund settlements.

It has been reported that in a motion filed October 28, 2025, KCIC’s client, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre, New York asked a New York bankruptcy judge to close its five-year-old Chapter 11 case. The diocese said it has completed payments to the $323 million settlement trust established by its Chapter 11 plan in September 2024 following mediation. The diocese also said the trust has begun making payments to claimants.

KCIC played a critical role in the approval of the plan that was approved for the Southern District of New York in December 2024 by Martin Glenn, chief judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court. According to a blog post from January in Skadden Publication, the plan was “accepted by nearly 99% of the approximately 75% of abuse claimants who voted” and it provided a potential path for future cases in the wake of the 2024 Supreme Court decisions in Purdue and Truck. As Jones Day describes, the Purdue and Truck decisions resulted in “substantial hurdles to the dual objectives of getting parishes releases and maximizing insurance assets.”

KCIC contributed to the innovative solution:

Preparing a valuation of the claims

The diocese had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 2020 in order to settle over 500 clergy sexual abuse claims filed against the organization following the passage of the New York Child Victims Act in 2019. In filing, the diocese sought to maximize its substantial insurance assets to provide equitable compensation for the claimants while also protecting its parishes and schools. The Rockville Centre diocese is the eighth largest diocese in the U.S., comprising 132 parishes plus one campus parish in 115 towns across Nassau and Suffolk counties. According to 2022 Official Catholic Directory, the diocese serves approximately 1.2 million baptized Catholics. It is the largest fully suburban Catholic diocese in the U.S.

I was retained by the firm Jones Day — which served as bankruptcy counsel — to prepare a valuation of the claims. As a reference point, I used the hundreds of pre-bankruptcy cases that were settled through a mediation process overseen by Kenneth Feinberg. In the process, I and a team of KCIC consultants reviewed hundreds of Proof of Claim documents. The resulting valuation enabled the diocese to establish a fair and reasonable settlement range to pay abuse claims.

Preparing an insurance settlement valuation

KCIC also worked with the firm Reed Smith to prepare an insurance settlement valuation that would allow the diocese to maximize its insurance assets through the buyback of certain policies. Nick Sochurek, serving as a non-testifying expert, joined me in reviewing the policies, allocating the estimated value of the abuse claims to the settling insurers, and confirming that the settlement valuation was reasonable.

I later testified at the confirmation hearings, by sworn declaration, that a number of insurance settlements were reasonable based on our projected liability, New York coverage law, and analysis of the insurance policies themselves.

I am proud of our firm’s work on this case. It did require reading many accounts of abuse, which was gut-wrenching. I have written in this space before about my work with survivors of human trafficking. You never become immune to the accounts of abuse victims. Financial compensation can never right the wrong suffered by victims, but helping secure compensation to survivors is an important part of the solution.

Diana Kanter recently served as co-chair of the Perrin Sex Abuse conference, where leaders can have difficult, but necessary, conversations about the many liability management and insurance issues raised by sexual abuse claims.

We will continue facilitating these conversations and helping defendants ultimately fund settlements.