President's Message
We are super excited about the upcoming law school symposium at the University of Minnesota on November 15 themed around Artificial Intelligence ("AI"). The planning committee (Laura Hanson, Chris Yetka and Dan Schwartz) and the additional panel creators (Mike Levine, John Buchanan, John Bonnie) have been working hard to create cutting edge programming including both Fellow and non-Fellow speakers who are the leaders in their fields on AI and other related topics. Those topics are detailed in the article below. We hope you will join us on November 15 to learn more about AI. You can register at this link. Many thanks to both the planning committee and panel creators for all of their hard work! Do you have program proposal ideas for next year's Annual Meeting? It is also time to send in those ideas to the Annual Meeting Planning Committee. The Committee is looking for topic proposals that include (but are not limited to) emerging issues (Advanced ADR, War/Cyber War Exclusions, Hammer/Demand to Settle & Withdrawal of Defense, RWI Disputes, Climate Change, etc.) in first and third-party coverage matters, including extracontractual exposures, practical pre-trial & trial tips and techniques in coverage cases, and navigating ethical issues in a coverage practice. Thank you to the Annual Meeting Planning Committee Mike Kiernan, Rikke Morice, Karen Dixon and Mike Levine for all their work to date on the planning of what we expect to be another fabulous meeting. Please mark your calendars and save the date for May 7-9, 2025. Did you know that the largest growing category of Fellows of late is Emeritus Fellows? Emeritus Fellows generally consist of past Fellows whose working status has changed from active to retired. It is imperative for the future of the College that we continue to recruit and grow the College with new coverage gurus who meet our membership requirements (engaged substantially in the practice of insurance coverage law for at least 15 consecutive years, devoting at least 70% of their practice to this area). Please take a moment to think about the protegees of retiring Fellows and/or coverage stars you are working with or against now and whether they currently meet the membership requirements. If they do, please nominate them to the College. Nominating a new potential Fellow candidate is easy! All you need to do is email the membership committee at [email protected]. Contact our Co-chairs Lisa Pake and Vince Morgan, or our Account Director, Pearl Ford-Fyffe if you have any questions regarding the criteria for membership. The College is strong financially, and we are creating additional investment and growth opportunities. Many thanks to Treasurer KT Talieh and the finance committee for their hard work in putting together new proposed policies and recommendations for the College's future. Are you looking for additional ways to get involved more with the College? Committees are looking for more members. Our substantiative Committees include the following: ADR, CGL/Excess Liability Insurance, Communications, Cyber, Computer & Emerging Issues, D&O, Management & Professional Liability, Extracontractual and Bad-Faith Claims Litigation, First-Party Insurance, Outreach & Regional Meetings, Pop-Up Dialogues, Professionalism and Ethics. Volunteer to join a committee hereor reach out to Pearl Ford-Fyffe to let her know of your interest in a particular committee. She will connect you with the committee Co-chairs and add your name to that committee’s roster, so you can be invited to future committee meetings. Thanks very much to all our hard-working committee chairs for all of their efforts. I'd like to specifically highlight the work of the Pop-Up Dialogue Committee and its co-chairs Lisa Weixelman and Alex Henlin. Some upcoming pop-ups include Shifting Litigation Risk: Legal Finance and Insurance, on Wednesday, September 11, 2024 and True Neutrals? – An Arbitration Discussion, on Wednesday, October 16, 2024. If you missed a recent Pop-Up discussion that you were interested in, take a look at the Event Materials Archive, which can be found in the drop-down menu under Publications in the main menu on the ACCC homepage. Here we have past event materials, including the Pop-up Dialogue recordings that we recently began to record. Member login is required to access. As you can see, there are many ways to get involved in this terrific organization. Please seek out the ways that work best for your interests and schedule. I hope to see you at the AI Symposium on November 15 at the University of Minnesota. |
