Fellow members:  

I am delighted to welcome you to the Fall Edition of the ACCC Newsletter, which contains a lot of great information about ACCC’s projects and programs for the year. This report highlights some of our progress. 

We recently had our first full board meeting of the year. The Board of Regents reviewed reports of the various committees. I was so impressed by these reports which reflect the hard work of our members. The Committees are the heart of our community - The place where things get done. We have all been in organizations where committees are dormant. Not so here! I heard Committee reports about writing compendiums, scheduling webinars, and coordinating panels for the Symposium and the Annual Meeting. Thanks to all Committee Chairs! While each year we have special events, Committees sustain the College on a continuing basis. What I find most gratifying is the participation of our younger members, whose enthusiasm is remarkable. 

Now to a report on our upcoming projects. You will see an article in this newsletter calling for papers for the new Insurance Law Journal we are publishing with the University of Connecticut Law School. We are looking at a January publication date. Please review the Article written by Mike Aylward and Doug Skelley about the Journal and requirements for papers. 

Next, registration looks good for our Annual Insurance Law Symposium to be held in Hartford, Connecticut on November 7. The program is entitled “Insurance Coverage for Mass Disasters with a Focus on Cyber Risk and Cyber Insurance.” It will be an outstanding and timely event. Please look at the program’s agenda and register for it. Don’t forget to sign up for our optional tour and dinner at the Mark Twain house the night before. Hats off to Steve Goldman and Tracy Saxe for their efforts to put together what promises to be an outstanding event. 

The “Silver Tsunami” Task Force was created so the ACCC can tackle a problem that is arising with many bar groups - older members are retiring and not being replaced. I am happy to report that this Task Force, ably chaired by Alex Henlin and Creighton Page, composed of many of our younger Fellows, has met and begun to formulate plans to locate younger attorneys as potential members. The group has already developed a candidate list and shared it with the Membership Committee. 

Finally, the ACCC is increasing its collaboration with other organizations that share similar goals. With that in mind, the College has been asked to highlight the re-birth of the American Chapter of AIDA (the Association Internationale de Droit des Assurances, aka the International Insurance Law Association). The American Chapter has been dormant, but recently there has been an impressive campaign to reconstitute the US chapter. Many of our members are involved with this re-birth. AIDA has pulled together a great list of advisors who are both academics and practitioners. They are actively planning a March conference at Duke - Vanderbilt must have already been booked - that will be open to all interested. The program is entitled, “The Insurance Law Forum: Global Perspectives” and will be held March 11-13 at Duke Law School. AIDA’ s leadership is extending a special invitation to this Conference to ACCC Members. More details will be provided later but save the date if interested. 

Have a great fall, and I hope to see you at the Symposium. 

Stephen Pate