American College of Coverage Counsel 12th Annual Meeting

Registration Closes 5/1/2024.

Agenda (Subject to change based on final speaker availability - CLEs pending)

Wednesday, May 8, 2024

6:00 pm – 8:00 pm      Welcome Reception – Sponsored by KCIC
Camelot Room
Floor # 3

Thursday, May 9, 2024

7:00 am - 8:00 am       Registration
Streeterville Foyer
Lobby Level

8:00 am – 9:00 am      Breakfast Buffet
Streeterville
Ground Floor

9:00 am –9:15 am       Welcome Remarks
Avenue Ballroom                   Debra Varner, Varner & Van Volkenburg, PLLC; ACCC President
Lobby Level                            Barbara O’Donnell, McAngus Goudelock & Courie; Annual Meeting Co-Chair

9:15 am – 10:00 am    The Use (and Mis-Use ) of Experts in Insurance Litigation
Avenue Ballroom                   John Harding, McAngus Goudelock & Courie
Lobby Level                            Stephen Johnson, Consultant & Expert Witness 
                                           Lara Cassidy, Hunton Andrews Kurth

When do you need an expert in insurance litigation? What can an insurance expert say without running afoul of the court’s duty to decide legal issues? This panel of experienced insurance attorneys and a seasoned expert will answer these questions and more, while also providing a few stories of what has worked and what has not in a broad variety of cases. For anyone who works with insurance experts, this program is not to be missed. Learning Objectives: 1. Tips and traps for the unwary in preparing expert reports under Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(b)(2). 2. How to hone your skills in taking depositions of opposing experts. 3. Obtain insights of a seasoned expert on the practical issues associated with using experts in complex cases.

10:00 am – 10:45 am  What Could Possibly Wrong Go?: Generative AI, Liability, and Insurance
Avenue Ballroom                    Seth Tucker, Covington & Burling LLP
Lobby Level                         Jean Lawler, Lawler ADR Services, LLC 
                                        Carolyn Rosenberg, Reed Smith LLP 
                                        Jeff Bowen, Lindemann Miller Bowen

Generative AI is poised to enter virtually every field of writing and image-making, drawing on machine learning and massive data to generate new content. Because the technology is relatively new, there is little case law exploring the liabilities that might arise from its use or how those liabilities might be covered by insurance. This panel will discuss what Generative AI is, examine a few of the legal issues that AI has already generated, offer educated guesses about the types of liabilities that users could face when something (allegedly) goes wrong, and analyze how such liabilities might be covered by insurance.

10:45 am – 11:00 am  Break

11:00 am – 11:45 am  Reimbursement 25 Years Post-Buss v Superior Court 
Avenue Ballroom                Bob Allen, The Allen Law Group 
Lobby Level                        Mary Borja, Wiley Rein LLP 
                                        Alan Van Etten, Deeley King Pang & Van Etten 
                                        Chris Mosley, Foley Hoag 

It was 1997 when the California Supreme Court rocked the insurance law bar with its landmark opinion in Buss v. Superior Court, allowing an insurer, under certain circumstances, to pay a loss and then seek reimbursement for its payments toward uninsured claims. At the time, Buss was one of only a handful of cases that had considered the issue. In the 25 years since Buss was handed down, at least 25 jurisdictions have considered the issue and the results are mixed. This panel will explore the development of the law on reimbursement over the past quarter century.

11:45 am – 12:30 pm  Erosion of the Insurer Attorney/Client Privilege in Bad Faith Discovery Wars: 
Avenue Ballroom                Do Courts Get it Wrong Treating Insurer Coverage Counsel Like Adjusters?
Lobby Level                        When They Do, Can Insurers Use the Same Legal Principles to Discover
                                        Policyholder Privileged Information? 
                                        Edward Currie, Currie Johnson & Myers 
                                        Lorelie Masters, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP 

There is a growing trend in American courts to erode the insurer's attorney/client privilege in bad faith litigation. If a court deems coverage counsel to have performed "adjusting functions", however generic, the privilege might not apply at all to coverage counsel's communications to the insurer. In other instances courts are likely to rule the insurer impliedly waived the privilege. This presentation will present opposing viewpoints on whether courts get it wrong or right on "lawyer as adjuster", and whether insurers should have the same right to discover policyholder privileged information using the same arguments and law advanced by the policyholder.

12:30 pm – 1:30 pm    Lunch
Camelot Room                   ACCC Annual Business Meeting
Floor #3

1:30 pm – 2:00 pm      Extended Work Break

2:00 pm – 2:45 pm      Leading the Charge - Jury Submissions and Instructions in Insurance Coverage
Avenue Ballroom               and Bad Faith Cases
Lobby Level                       William J. Chriss, The Snapka Law Firm
                                           Christopher Martin, Martin Disiere Jefferson & Wisdom 
                                           Alex Potente, Clyde & Co.

A panel discussion of critical issues in preparing and submitting jury charges or submissions in first-party and third-party coverage and bad faith cases, including broad form and granulated coverage submissions, allocation between covered and uncovered claims, reasonableness of settlement of the underlying suit, submission of common law and statutory bad faith/extracontractual claims, special instructions where the court has determined that there is a duty to defend and/or coverage, retrial of underlying liability and damages and fraud and collusion issues in cases involving sweetheart deals.

2:45 pm – 3:30 pm        Wrongful Conviction Liability Coverage in the 2020s 
Avenue Ballroom                William Beck, Lathrop GPM LLP (Moderator)
Lobby Level                        William Bulfer, Teague Campbell Dennis & Gorham, LLP
                                          Karen Dixon, Skarzynski Marick & Black LLP 

Since Forrest County v. Travelers in 2016, courts have established new pathways to trigger liability coverage, in force during decades of incarceration, for law enforcement officers, local governments and their officials in wrongful imprisonment cases. The panel will discuss how those decision trends change the ways exonerees plead civil rights claims, change how claims professionals consider coverage, and change how plaintiffs, defendants and insurers resolve civil rights coverage claims. The panel will cover trigger, deemer clauses, expected harm and the other major issues. Bill Bulfer (Teague Campbell) and Karen Dixon (Skarzynski Marick) represent insurers as coverage counsel in wrongful imprisonment and similar long-tail cases. Bill Beck (Lathrop GPM) represents exonerees as civil rights plaintiffs’ coverage counsel and represents policyholders on long-tail coverage claims.

3:30 pm – 3:45 pm      Break

3:45 pm – 4:45 pm     Cutting Edge Conflicts Surrounding the Duty to Defend 
Avenue Ballroom               John Shugrue, Reed Smith LLP 
Lobby Level                      Jeffrey Stempel, University of Nevada, Las Vegas 
                                       Emily Garrison, Honigman LLP 
                                          Monica Sullivan, Nicolaides Fink Thorpe Michaelides Sullivan LLP 

A roundtable panel discussion that will address, among other things: - Duty to defend vs. duty to reimburse defense costs - Clawback claims - Taco Bell doctrine - Large deductible/SIR policies with duty to defend - Hammer clauses and withdrawal of defense - Ethical issues including conflicts of interest, insurer counsel guidelines and privilege/work product protection.

6:00 pm – 6:30 pm     Tribute to Michael Huddleston
Avenue Foyer
Lobby Level

6:30 pm – 7:30 pm     General Reception – Sponsored by BDO
Avenue Foyer
Lobby Level

7:30 pm – 9:00 pm      Dinner – Sponsored by Jeff Kichaven Commercial Mediation
Renaissance Ballroom        Presentation of 2024 Edward Currie Founders Award
Floor #5                           Presentation of 2024 Thomas F. Segalla Service Awards
                                         Recognition of 2023-2024 New Fellows

Friday, May 10, 2024

7:00 am - 8:00 am      Registration
Avenue Ballroom Foyer
Lobby Level

8:00 am – 9:00 am     Breakfast Buffet & Committee Meetings
Streeterville
Ground Floor

9:00 am –9:45 am       Which side are we on? Practical and Ethical Considerations 
Avenue Ballroom               When Insurer-Side Firms Represent Policyholder Clients
Lobby Level                       Richard Milone, Milone Law Firm PLLC 
                                        Amy Johnson, Strategic Insurance & Litigation Consultants, LLC.  
                                           Neil Posner, Much Shelist, P.C. 
                                           Alycen Moss, Cozen O'Connor

Law firms that represent insurers sometimes take policyholder-side cases, which can lead to interesting ethical and practical questions. This panel will be in the form of a case study where a law firm with an insurer-side practice that represented a professional athlete in a disability claim against an insurer that the firm currently represented in other matters. The panel will discuss best practices and potential traps for firms to consider.

9:45 am – 10:30 am    Reps & Warranties Insurance: When RWI Policies Cover a Seller's Breach,
Avenue Ballroom                and When They Don't
Lobby Level                        Vince Morgan, Bracewell LLP 
                                        Stacy Broman, Meagher + Geer, P.L.L.P.

This presentation will discuss the history and role RWI policies play in M&A transactions, how the policies are structured, and common claim issues that arise, including what constitutes a covered underlying breach, valuation disputes, and considerations for arbitration and litigation. The discussion will include several cases that illustrate key coverage issues for practitioners.

10:30 am – 11:15 am  Shelter from the Storm: Finding Insurance for Climate Risks
Avenue Ballroom                Robert Walsh, White & Williams
Lobby Level                        Heather Sanderson, Sanderson Law 
                                         Gina Clausen Lozier, Clausen Choquette PLLC 

This panel will discuss many of the insurance issues arising out of climate change, including: (1) the impacts of the SEC’s proposed rule changes regarding climate-related risks and ESG issues on D&O insurance coverage and claims; (2) the applicability of CGL insurance to climate-related claims; and (3) coverage issues and developments in the property insurance market, including emerging coverage risks and the increased use of parametric insurance and other non-traditional property insurance coverages.

11:15 am – 12:00 pm  Honorable Disengagements and Dishonorable Engagements:
                                        Reinsurance and Ad Hoc Arbitrations
Avenue Ballroom                 Peter Rosen, JAMS 
Lobby Level                        Paula Litt, Honigman LLP
                                           James E. Fitzgerald, Esq., Fitzgerald Legal Consult, P.C.

This panel will explore direct and reinsurance arbitrations under the ARIAS rules for direct insurance (insurer v insurer and policyholder vs insurer) and reinsurance arbitrations, CPR’s non administered rules and the Bermuda form.

Avenue Ballroom                Debra Varner, Varner & Van Volkenburg, PLLC; ACCC President
Lobby Level