Who Eats the Loss When a Deepfake Authorizes the Wire? Allocation and Coverage

John E. Lande, Shareholder | Dickinson, Bradshaw, Fowler & Hagen, P.C.

John Lande is a shareholder at Dickinson, Bradshaw, Fowler & Hagen, P.C. in Des Moines, Iowa, where he primarily represents financial institutions, privately held businesses, and municipal utilities. His experience spans creditors’ rights in bankruptcy, business torts, agency regulatory actions, municipal law, contract disputes, and business dissolutions, and he has represented clients in numerous hearings and trials in Iowa district court and federal court, as well as appeals to the Iowa Court of Appeals, Iowa Supreme Court, and Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. He advises financial institutions on cybersecurity, internal and criminal investigations, check and wire fraud, insider transactions, collections, examinations, and enforcement actions, with a focus on helping banks implement best practices to avoid future litigation and disputes. He has appeared at hearings before the Iowa Division of Banking, FDIC, and Federal Reserve in Iowa and Washington D.C. He also serves as general counsel to municipal utilities, advising on governance, open record and meetings laws, rates, public bidding, and other legal issues. John chairs the firm’s Cybersecurity, Data Breach, & Privacy practice group and regularly contributes to the firm’s Cybersecurity Law and Banking Law blogs.

• Education & Credentials

John earned his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law, graduating With Distinction and receiving the Willard L. Boyd Public Service Distinction. He holds a B.A. from Drake University, where he graduated Cum Laude. He is admitted to practice in Iowa and before the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, the U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Northern Districts of Iowa, and the U.S. Bankruptcy Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of Iowa.

• Recognition & Leadership

John has been recognized in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business, selected as an “Up and Coming” leader in Litigation: General Commercial Law in Iowa in the 2018 edition and as a “Leading Individual” in that area in the 2019–2026 editions. He has been included in The Best Lawyers in America for Commercial Litigation and Privacy and Data Security Law (2020–2026), Banking and Finance Law (2023–2026), and Construction Law and Litigation – Construction (2026). He received the Iowa Defense Counsel Association 2014 Rising Star Award, was recognized as a Future Leader of the Bar by the Iowa State Bar
Association in 2011 and was named Top Student Advocate for the Class of 2011 by the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He also took Second Place in the 2011 Student Trial Advocacy National Tournament sponsored by the American Association for Justice.

• Professional Involvement

John is a member of the Iowa Defense Counsel Association, the American Bar Association Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section, the Iowa State Bar Association, the Polk County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. He served as President of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Society at the University of Iowa College of Law from 2009 to 2010 and was a Teaching Assistant for We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution at West High School in Iowa City from 2009 to 2011. He is a frequent author and presenter, contributing extensively to the Iowa Banking Law Blog and Iowa Cybersecurity Law Blog and speaking at programs including the Iowa Bankers Association’s Lending Law Seminar, the Community Bankers of Iowa Fall Management Conference, and a Lexology Virtual Masterclass on liability for unauthorized wire transfers under the Uniform Commercial Code.

• Experience

Before joining the firm, John served as a Law Clerk/Clinic Extern with the Federal Public Defender in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 2010, and as a Law Clerk at Riccolo & Semelroth P.C. in Cedar Rapids in 2009. His representative matters include Manatt’s, Inc. v. Tanam Real Est., LLC, in which he represented a corporation against a former officer for breach of fiduciary duty; In re AgriProcessors, Inc. before the Eighth Circuit, representing a financial institution on the treatment of certain loan overdrafts; Board of Water Works Trustees of the City of Des Moines v. Sac County Board of Supervisors, representing the Des Moines water utility in federal litigation under the Clean Water Act; and First Security Bank & Trust Co. v. Vegt, representing a bank in a Chapter 12 bankruptcy appeal concerning a priming lien. He has also represented county assessors and boards of review in property tax assessment and classification disputes before the Iowa Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

Daniel J. Healy, Partner | Brown Rudnick LLP.

Daniel Healy is a partner in Brown Rudnick’s Litigation & Arbitration Practice Group, based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, where he joined the Commercial Litigation practice in January 2023. A seasoned trial attorney with more than 20 years of extensive courtroom experience in courts across the country, Dan represents policyholders seeking insurance coverage. He has successfully obtained coverage under numerous policy types, working with clients from a variety of industries, including technology companies, financial consultants, manufacturers, railroads, banks, financial service providers, retailers, medical service providers, and food and beverage providers. He is the author of Cyber Insurance Claims, Case Law, and Risk Management, a leading treatise on cyber insurance. In addition, Dan regularly represents clients in disputes involving intellectual property rights and in proceedings before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and he has negotiated copyright and trademark resolutions, including licensing agreements, involving state, federal and international intellectual property rights. He also counsels companies that operate with blockchain technology on potential risks.

• Education & Credentials

Healy received a B.A. from Siena College and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. He has been licensed in Washington, D.C. since 2002.

• Recognition & Leadership

Dan has been selected by his peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America for Insurance Litigation since 2018, and in 2023 he was named by The Best Lawyers in America as Lawyer of the Year for Insurance Litigation. He sits on Law360’s editorial board for Insurance Authority Specialty Lines, is a member of the American College of Coverage Counsel, and is listed as a Super Lawyer as well as in Who’s Who in America. He was selected for inclusion in the American College of Coverage Counsel in 2019 and remains a member. He has been recognized by Super Lawyers for Insurance Coverage in 2018 and from 2020 through 2025.

• Professional Involvement

Earlier in his career, Dan served as a Trial Attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, Tax Division, where he received an Outstanding Attorney or Special Commendation award each year he was there and served as the E-Discovery Coordinator for the Tax Division. He previously was a partner at Anderson Kill, where he began his legal career, and he returned there as a partner after his government service, serving as deputy co-chair of its Cyber Insurance Recovery practice. At his prior firm he also was a member of the Blockchain & Virtual Currency group and the Financial Services Industry team. He has appeared before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board and has litigated claims of unfair competition, copyright infringement and patent infringement, and has represented trademark owners in disputes involving domain names, cybersquatting, online infringement and reverse confusion.

• Experience

Dan represented Phaedra Partners, a software development company, in a lawsuit against The Travelers Property Casualty seeking insurance coverage for business income and business interruption losses arising out of property damage, which settled just after Phaedra filed its summary judgment motion. Among his notable matters prior to joining Brown Rudnick, he represented Amtrak in defense of a declaratory judgment action filed by London Market insurers that had denied coverage for employee injury claims and environmental liabilities, winning an eight-figure jury verdict from the trial of an initial test environmental site, with settlements following. He represented a national medical provider seeking Representations and Warranty coverage for breach of representations and warranties in a sale agreement, achieving resolution without litigation or arbitration. In McCauley v. First Unum Life Insurance, he drafted the appellate briefs that resulted in a landmark Second Circuit decision on disability coverage that completely reversed the trial court and remanded for a damages determination, and he appeared as amicus curiae before the Maryland Court of Appeals in a challenge to a state law requiring insurers to demonstrate prejudice when denying coverage. He also represented a streaming music company in an insurance coverage dispute over Representations & Warranties coverage for significant breaches by sellers hidden in accounting errors, resolving the quantum of loss at a multi-day mediation.

SESSION 1 – Allocating Deepfake Wire Losses Between Customer and Bank Article 4A | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

This session examines how UCC Article 4A allocates wire-transfer losses between customers and banks when a deepfake authorizes the payment order, working through the §§4A-202 through 4A-207 framework, the commercially reasonable security procedure safe harbor, and the misdescription-of-beneficiary rule using Studco.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 2 – Crime And Cyber Policy Coverage for Deepfake-Induced Wire Transfers | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

This session examines how crime and cyber policies respond when an AI-generated deepfake induces an employee to authorize a wire transfer, addressing the correct coverage tower, the voluntary parting exclusion, direct-loss causation split, sublimit exposure, and new deepfake-specific endorsements and exclusions.