Fellow members:  

At the time I write this message, many of us have just returned from this years’ Law School Symposium, held at the University of Connecticut School of Law, held in Hartford, Connecticut. The Symposium started on the very day that many flights were cancelled because of the Government Shutdown. Despite this, attendance was excellent, though there are a few stories floating around about Fellows who were delayed or had flights cancelled. The attendance reflects the dedication of our members. Moreover, there were a great many law students who attended.

It was, indeed, a great event. Under the able leadership of Tracy Saxe and Stephen Goldman, with the assistance of new Honorary Fellow Travis Pantin, Director of the Insurance Law Center at the UConn School of Law. It was a flawless program focusing on cutting-edge issues involving Cyber Attacks in Catastrophic Losses. The Program was collegial and conversational. Midway through the program, I realized that Tracy and Stephen had gathered the best minds in the country to speak. While I was impressed by the Program, the law students were “wowed.” In fact, Travis Pantin has stated that after the program, “Several of them were totally convinced they should pursue a career in insurance coverage work.” This was music to my ears: of course, one of the missions of the Symposium is to interest these students in our work.

The night before, we had a wonderful dinner at The Mark Twain House, where each attendee was able to tour the house and explore the museum next to it.  We learned of Twain’s involvement with insurance - he invested in several insurance companies in Hartford and, typical for Twain, he lost his shirt.

Discussion of the Symposium provides a segue for my next subject. We are making real progress with the creation of the Journal of the American College.  Under the able leadership of Michael Aylward, some eight articles by our members have been edited and submitted to student editors of the UConn Insurance Journal. Several of these young editors attended the Symposium. In fact, these editors told me that the next day - a Saturday - they were having a “footnote party” to start their work on the ACCC’s articles. We are planning to produce Volume 1, No. 1 in the early months of 2026.

Now for some shout-outs. All of us are concerned about our aging membership. This is why I appointed the “Silver Tsunami” Committee to seek out ways to locate young attorneys who have the potential to become members of our group. Alex Henlin, as the carrier side Chair, and Creighton Page, as the policy-holder side Chair, have created a task force of other younger members who have provided some concrete plans for increasing our visibility, identifying (and reaching out to) potential candidates. The group has produced a “running list” of some 35 “ones to watch.”

Finally, I want to give a shout-out to Lisa Pake. In December, Lisa will retire as carrier-side Chair of the Membership Committee. Lisa has served as Co-Chair for many years. Her sagacity, good judgment, and overall decency have made the Membership Committee the “Jewel in the Crown” of the College’s Committees. She will be missed. Fortunately for the College, Laura Hanson has agreed to take over as the carrier-side chair for 2026. Once again, many thanks to Lisa.

As President, I believe things are going well for the College, due to many people’s hard work. We recently hit a milestone of having 400+ members in the College. Let’s keep things going.

Stephen Pate