President's Message

Angela Elbert

Neal Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, Chicago, IL

Dear Fellows:

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 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 committee at membership@americancollegecoverage.org. 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 here or 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. 

Best wishes -- Angela 

2024 Insurance Law Symposium

By Symposium Planning Committee Co-Chairs:

Laura Hanson

Meagher & Geer, PLLP, Minneapolis, MN

Christopher H Yetka

Larkin Hoffman Daly & Lindgren, Ltd.

Minneapolis, MN

Join your colleagues on Friday, November 15, 2024, for the American College of Coverage Counsel’s 10^th Annual Symposium at the University of Minnesota Law School. The Symposium brings together leaders in the field of insurance coverage from both the carrier and policyholder sides. This year’s symposium theme is artificial intelligence in the insurance space. National legal experts and academics in the field of artificial intelligence will provide background on the issues, and discussion of trends we expect to see in the insurance litigation arena. Topics include:

· What is AI? (Michael S. Levine, Hunton Andrews Kurth; Professor Daniel Schwarcz, University of Minnesota School of Law; Kate Middleton, EcoLab); Barbara O’Donnell, McAngus Goudelock & Courie

· Artificial intelligence as friend (WALLE!) and foe (HAL!): An exploration of computable contracts; AI assisted policy drafting and underwriting; and potential AI uses in handling insurance claims (John Bonnie, Weinberg Wheeler Hudgins Gunn & Dial; Ruth Kochenderfer, Marsh; Megan Ma, Stanford Law School; Julie Weerth, AXIS Capital)

· AI Risk Management: Gee, What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Uh, Is That Covered? (John Buchanan, Covington & Burling; Alana Bergman, MedTronic; Elaine De Franco Olson, Cargill Inc.; Jascha Prosiegel, Munich Re)

· Student Luncheon Presentation: Insurance Makes the World Go ‘Round – Can it be your Legal Career, too? (Laura J. Hanson, Meagher & Geer, PLLP; Sara Greening, Larkin Hoffman; Amy Woodworth, Travelers Insurance; Hon. Jerome B. Abrams, JAMS

· Can you Depose Artificial Intelligence? Mock Oral Argument (Hon. Jerome B. Abrams, JAMS; Seth Friedman, Lewis Brisbois; Chris Mosley, Foley Hoag)

·  Ethics, Deep Fakes, and AI, Oh My: Navigating the New Frontier of Insurance Fraud (Christopher H Yetka, Larkin Hoffman; Stacy Broman, Meagher + Geer; Mark Lanterman, Computer Forensic Services; Neil Posner, Much Shelist)

Out of town attendees are also invited to attend the Speakers Welcome Dinner at at Spoon and Stable on Thursday, November 14, 2024 (additional fee - advance registration required).

CLE credit for the Symposium has been applied for and is expected to be approved for a total of 5.0 CLE credits (4 Substantive and 1.0 Ethics). Attendees seeking CLE credit must include their state and corresponding bar number(s) when registering for the conference.

All law school faculty and students are invited to attend free of charge. For more details and to register visit the ACCC Insurance Law Symposium event page.

The registration deadline for both the Symposium and optional Speakers Welcome Dinner is Friday, November 8, 2024. Space is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. Register now to join us!

The ACCC would like to thank the following sponsors for making this event possible:

·  Jeff Kichhaven Commercial Mediation (Speakers Welcome Dinner Sponsor)

·  Schulwolf Mediation (Reception Sponsor)

· Stout (Event Sponsor)

2024 Segalla Award Recipients By Debra Varner, Varner & Van Volkenburg, PLLC

Martin C. Pentz

With Tom Segalla and Debra Varner

Lisa Pake

With Tom Segalla and Debra Varner

The Thomas F. Segalla Service Award recognizes dedication and service to the College. Award recipients must demonstrate Creativity, Visibility, and Persistence, three characteristics that embody Tom Segalla’s approach to his practice, volunteerism, and leadership in the practice of law.

Recipients must be members in good standing at the time of the award. There are two recipients each year: one who represents insurance companies and one who represents policyholders or plaintiffs in insurance coverage and extracontractual matters.

The selection committee for this year’s award included Tom Segalla, Steve Pate, Andy Downs, Lorie Masters, and Tracy Saxe.

The policyholder recipient was Marty Pentz of Foley Hoag (Boston, MA). Marty Pentz has been an active member of the College for years. He joined the Board of Regents in 2018 and served two three-year terms. Marty was an invaluable member of the Finance Committee where he served for five years. Marty was also a driving force driving force as Co-Chair of the Outreach and Regional Events Committee, in coordinating social gatherings for Fellows across the country. He has also shared his expertise as a speaker at our annual insurance law symposiums and Pop-Up Dialogue sessions. 

The insurer recipient was Lisa Pake of Haar & Woods (St. Louis, MO). Lisa has been active in the College for many years and has tirelessly served as Co-Chair of the Membership Committee since 2016. She is a new member of the Board of Regents. Lisa has also shared her expertise as a speaker for Pop-Up Dialogue sessions.

Congratulations to Marty Pentz and Lisa Pake. Thank you for your dedication to the College. 

2024 Currie Award Recipient

By Debra Varner, Varner & Van Volkenburg, PLLC:

Thomas F. Segalla

With Debra Varner, Steve Pate and Ned Currie

The Edward Currie Founder's Award was created in 2023 to recognize a senior insurance lawyer, who must be, or must have been, a Fellow (regular, honorary, or emeritus) in good standing, who represents the highest level of accomplishment, competence, professionalism, and ethics in the practice of insurance law and/or insurance litigation, and who has inspired others to do likewise. The award's namesake, Edward "Ned" Currie is one of the founders of the College and served as its third president, 2015-2016.

Steve Pate served as chair of the committee, with members Debra Varner, Koorosh Talieh, and Stacy Broman. Upon announcement of the creation of the award, the committee received fifteen nominations. After much deliberation, the committee selected Thomas F. Segalla as the recipient of the Edward Currie Founder’s Award.

Tom’s celebrated 51-year legal career has embraced three core principles that he has applied consistently to his professional and personal lives - CREATIVITY - VISIBILITY - PERSISTENCE. From a grassroots start, Tom co-founded his law firm, Goldberg Segalla, by taking out a personal loan on his house. Through his efforts, the firm has gained an international reputation for excellence.

Tom has held 32 leadership roles in 15 national and international organizations involved in the law and insurance, including the ACCC which he helped found at an initial breakfast meeting with seven other friends. Tom jotted down his organizational thoughts on a napkin.

In addition to the ACCC’s Thomas Segalla Award bearing his name, he has been recognized by many other organizations, including DRI’s prestigious Louis B. Potter Lifetime Professional Service Award, given to attorneys who demonstrate respect for the law, foster trust among lawyers, and support activities that educate the American public about the legal system.

In addition, DRI established the Thomas F. Segalla Excellence in Education Award to honor Tom’s passion for raising the standards of excellence and ethics in the legal profession.

Other awards include:

·      Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Buffalo Law School

·      Lifetime Achievement Award, New York Law Journal 

Tom is co-author of the renowned insurance law treatise Couch on Insurance 3d which has been cited as authoritative in over 600 reported decisions. 

A senior member of Tom’s firm, who is also a member of ACCC, described Tom’s selfless devotion to improving the professional careers of the lawyers at Goldberg Segalla:

·      Mentoring practically all the younger lawyers in the firm’s insurance coverage practice;

·      Creating opportunities for their advancement in the practice of insurance law; and

·      Teaching younger lawyers to carve out extracurricular “Tom Time” for the good of the insurance industry or the law firm. 

The legal profession is truly blessed to have Tom Segalla as a member. The ACCC is also blessed to have Tom Segalla as one of its Founders and most dedicated Fellows. 

Congratulations to Tom Segalla!! Well-deserved.

Member Spotlights: Cyber, Computer & Emerging Issues Committee Co-Chairs

By Michael Aylward, Morrison Mahoney LLP.

Former ACCC President Michael Aylward sat down last month with John Buchanan and Mary Borja, the current chairs of the College’s Cyber, Computer rand Emerging Issues Committee, to discuss their plans for the committee in 2024-2025 as well as the winding path that each has followed from college to the pinnacle of insurance coverage litigation.

ACCC:  What drew you to a career in the law?

Buchanan: I must confess, I viewed law school as a path to keeping my options open for life. Back in the mid-1970s, Harvard accepted my proposal to pursue a joint law-architecture degree. What were they thinking, to accept such a dumb idea? Not only did I finish the J.D. with a year-and-a-half still left for the M.Arch., but with the real estate depression at the time, new architects were lucky to get jobs drawing bricks. But more to the point, by then I’d worked as a summer associate at a law firm and discovered that I actually really enjoyed the nerdy problem-solving in law practice. So, in retrospect, it was a psychological experiment between the left brain and the right brain—and the left brain won. 

A couple years after I joined Covington, I found the regulatory matter I’d been assigned to pretty boring. So, one day I barged into Bob Sayler’s office and asked if he had any interesting cases he could use help on. Before I knew it, I was in the middle of the Coordinated Asbestos Coverage litigation and flying up to Hartford to depose the general counsel of a big insurance company I guess the rest was history.

Borja: My path was far more pedestrian than John's story. When I was 5 or 6, I watched Perry Mason every night and I wanted to be Perry Mason. When I got out of law school, I interviewed with D.C. firms looking for a litigator position and was interviewed by Walter Andrews for a job at Wiley Rein where I ended up working for Laura Foggan on the W.R. Grace claims.

ACCC: John, what was the most unusual coverage case you ever handled? 

Buchanan: Two of XM Satellite Radio’s satellites—one named “Rock,” the other named “Roll”—incurred a solar panel problem that cut both their transmission power and their useful lifetimes in half (they were ultimately replaced by “Rhythm” and “Blues”). So, I got called in to help XM pursue a claim for Rock n’ Roll losses under their satellite-in-orbit policy.

Borja: That’s hard--it's like children, how do you pick your favorite? What I like is that the cases are always changing. 

ACCC: You have both been active with the ABA and other groups. What attracted you to the ACCC?

Buchanan: Well, my wife calls it the nerdiest of the nerd-fests. But for me, it's the best of the best. I also like the opportunity to have collegial, intellectual (okay, nerdy) conversations with people from different perspectives.

Borja: I was persuaded to join by friends like Angela Elbert and Mary Craig Calkins, who were involved and excited about it. 

ACCC: Either or both of you have chaired the Cyber, Computer and Emerging Issues committee for the past five years. How has the committee changed during that time?

Borja: We broadened the scope of the committee so that it wasn’t just cyber and now covers lot of emerging claim types like representations and warranties and judgment protection claims.

ACCC: Some of our members may be reluctant to get active with a committee that isn’t already in their wheelhouse. What's your elevator pitch about why every ACCC member should be a member of the Cyber committee?

Borja: We are an endlessly creative and thoughtful group of people, and so, even if it's not your work today, just learning about developing issues and how insurance fits particular needs. If nothing else, it's something that may just scratch the itch of curiosity that people have. Is it cocktail chatter? I don't know - it depends on the party you go to. It's useful to have a committee that is looking over the horizon. 

Buchanan: That over the horizon perspective is one of the real resources that the ACCC offers to its members.

ACCC: All we hear about these days is artificial intelligence. Is it overhyped or is it going to be the real deal? 

Borja: AI is becoming so pervasive. Perhaps not from the insurance coverage perspective today but in terms of part of the fabric of our society, so yes, it's a really big deal. 

Buchanan: Well, I think, or at least hope, that the hype about our future robot overlords is overblown. In the interim, the challenge is to create guardrails to manage AI…. 

Borja: But AI will take them off, John. 

Buchanan: Yeah, that's true. Is there insurance for that?

ACCC: What’s on the drawing board for future committee projects?

Buchanan: We’re currently working on an AI panel for the law school symposium this Fall in Minnesota. We are also looking at a future pop-up panel to discuss the ABA’s recent ethics opinion on using Generative AI. And one of our members just did a pop-up on bankruptcy coverage issues from Purdue Pharma and other recent SCOTUS rulings.

ACCC: In reviewing your resumes, I was struck by the fact that both of you are still working for your original law firms. That’s incredibly unusual these days.

Borja: I feel like I just got here, so I don't know. 

Buchanan: I've certainly had people talk to me about going elsewhere over the years, but for me it always seemed like a step down or a step back. I like the people I work with, and I like my clients. So, I guess they’re stuck with me for a while. 

ACCC: Do either of you ever have second thoughts about other careers you might've followed? 

Borja: Actually, for a while I wanted to be an FBI agent but the whole thing about being a guy seemed unrealistic at the time and now I’m probably not to be trusted with carrying a gun.

Buchanan: Besides drawing, I would also consider automotive journalism if I ever retire. Our all-volunteer newspaper here in Norfolk sorely needs somebody who can be the local equivalent of the Wall Street Journal’s Dan Neil. Not that I could ever rival Dan’s wit and erudition, but that could be an amusing retirement gig - test-driving interesting or odd-ball cars, then writing about them. 

ACCC: We’ve all had the experience of sitting next to someone on an airplane who asks what you do for a living. Do you admit to being a coverage lawyer or do you have a clever alternative?

Buchanan: Well, my answer is, I sue insurance companies. That generally gets an enthusiastic response. 

Borja: I got tired of people telling me what’s wrong with lawyers, so now I say that I design lampshades. That kills the conversation right there and I can get back to doing whatever I was doing. 

ACCC: And on that edifying and illuminating note, we are going to end this conversation. Thank you both for all that you’ve done and all that you continue to do for the ACCC.

Did You Know?

By Robert D Allen, The Allen Law Group

Perhaps the most underutilized asset of the ACCC by the Fellows is its website. The statistics show that most Fellows never log into the site. As a practical matter, the website has a lot to offer, and it has unlimited potential to connect Fellows in a variety of ways.

To invigorate the use of the ACCC website, the upcoming Newsletters will focus on various features of the website.

As a start, all Fellows should log on to the website: Home (americancollegecoverage.org), review your profile, and update it as necessary - for example, I found a bunch of unnecessary symbols and characters on my profile.

The web page has both public and ACCC-only versions. From the public access, viewers can browse the site for information about the College, the committee pages, upcoming events, and the biographies of Fellows. In an attempt to avoid the never-ending phishing and spoof emails, non-Fellows can no longer access Fellow email addresses.

The Fellows-only section requires logging into the section with a username and password. Once logged in, Fellows can access all public information as well as Fellows-only information, such as upcoming committee meetings and past event materials. Also, Fellow email addresses are available in the Fellows-only section.

There are many ways to utilize contact information. You can search by name, city, state, insurer or policyholder, and type of Fellow (honorary, judicial, emeritus). For example, I recently used this feature to invite all Dallas local Fellows to our new office open house. 

As we proceed with this initiative, we welcome technologically savvy Fellows to participate and assist in this process. Anyone interested should contact Pearl Ford-Fyffe at Pearl@americancollegecoverage.org.

2025 ACCC Annual Meeting Call for Speakers

“Show me the money”— Cutting Edge Claim Negotiation and Dispute Issues, Including Strategies for Navigating CGL, PL, Crime, D&O, and E&O claims and disputes in 2025.

The American College of Coverage Counsel is seeking panel proposals for the 2025 Annual Meeting, scheduled for May 7-9, 2025, at the InterContinental Chicago, Chicago, IL. We will hold an evening cocktail Welcome Reception on Wednesday, May 7, with panel sessions occurring all day Thursday, May 8, and the morning of Friday, May 9. Information regarding group hotel rates and reservations will be published soon.  

The Conference Planning Committee continues to seek advanced instructive and informative panel proposals on varied topics for the 2025 Meeting, as they relate to the theme above.

All proposals will be considered which 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. If you propose a panel topic that has been previously covered in ACCC conferences or symposiums, please be sure to offer different or distinct perspectives.

Each panel must be diverse and evenly balanced from the standpoint of:

 1) Presenter coverage practice (both policyholder and carrier)

 2) Gender

 3) Race/national origin/ethnicity

Only Fellows of the College may be speakers, except judges or professors. (Please see the ACCC Speaker Reimbursement Policy regarding related expenses.) Proposals that identify a full slate of presenters by name and reveal the required expectation of diversity are preferred. However, the planning committee can assist as needed in filling speaker vacancies. 

If a panel’s proposal is selected, they must submit one paper addressing the presentation topic to qualify their session for CLE credit. One PowerPoint file is also encouraged by each panel. Each confirmed speaker will receive a confirmation letter containing details regarding deliverables and deadlines.

The Submission deadline is Noon ET, Friday, September 20, 2024.

Click here to submit a panel proposal.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you again at the May 2025 Annual Meeting!

First-Party Insurance

Christina May Bolin

Christian & Small LLP, Daphne, AL

Micah E. Skidmore

Haynes and Boone, LLP, Dallas, TX

For 2024, the First-Party Insurance Committee has focused on two significant projects, in addition to contributing content and programming for the annual meeting and pop-up dialogues.

The First Party Insurance Compendium. 

We are in the process of updating the The First Party Insurance Compendium (Compendium) covering 50 states and the District of Columbia. The last edition was published in 2016, and members of the committee are contributing state-by-state updates to reflect the current state of the law on first-party appraisal. We anticipate completion, including submissions, editing and final publication, in December 2024.

Monthly Case Law Updates. 

Beginning in August 2024 and continuing monthly through the end of 2024, individual committee members will prepare brief synopses of new judicial opinions addressing first-party insurance issues for circulation to the committee.

Publications/Presentations/Pop-up Dialogues. 

On February 7, 2024, the Committee posted an article on the ACCC website reporting on a recent decision from the Texas Supreme Court barring recovery of attorneys’ fees following first-party appraisal and satisfaction of the award. On March 12, 2024, the Committee posted another article on a recent decision from the Colorado Supreme Court on the notice-prejudice rule as applied to first-party property insurance. All committee members are encouraged to post content relating to first-party insurance issues to ACCC Account Director, Pearl Ford-Fyffe for posting on the ACCC website. The Committee is also continuing to work on presentations for the annual meeting in 2025 and pop-up presentations to occur in September and December 2024.

Our next Committee meeting is scheduled for September 19th.

Want to become more involved in the ACCC? Join a committee!

Our Co-Chairs are actively seeking volunteers to join their committees. Click on the links below to learn about each of them.



· ADR

· CGL/Excess Liability Insurance

· Communications

· Cyber Insurance & 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 here!

ACCC Membership Directory Change 

It has come to our attention that some ACCC Fellows have received phishing emails from marketing firms attempting to sell contact lists, falsely claiming to be associated with the American College of Coverage Counsel. Some Fellows have also received email messages from someone impersonating the ACCC President.

Please be aware the ACCC Executive Committee and Board of Regents take these fraudulent activities seriously. The College does not provide its contact list to third parties. If you receive messages of this nature, they are phishing scams and should be deleted immediately. Furthermore, ACCC Board of Regents Members and staff will never email, text, or call to request that a Fellow purchase something on behalf of the association.

To avoid falling victim to phishing scams, please follow the tips provided by the Federal Trade Commission, including not responding to emails or pop-up messages that ask for personal or financial information.

As an effort to reduce access to member information by these scammers, ACCC has removed Fellows' email addresses from public directory search results. Fellows can still access this information by logging in to search the member directory.

If you have any questions or would like to share your thoughts, please feel free to contact ACCC's Executive Director, Carol Montoya, at carol@americancollegecoverage.org or Account Director, Pearl Ford-Fyffe, at pearl@americancollegecoverage.org / 703-683-5561; or an Executive Committee member at any time.

Meet ACCC's New Fellows

Jacquelyn was born in Washington, but not the one that first comes to mind - Washington, Pennsylvania. WashPa for those in the know. It’s located in Southwestern PA, home of Washington and Jefferson College (the 11th oldest college in the U.S.). She didn’t go there, though. WAY too close to home. Jacquelyn started her career as an oncology nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. She didn’t see herself as a bedside nurse for the rest of her life (though she loved the job) and thought she would be a lousy administrator.

Where are you from; where did you grow up?

I was born and raised in Washington. I am a graduate of the University of Washington and have a law degree from the University of Pittsburgh. I also have an LL.M. from the Universität Augsburg (Germany). 

What steered you to a career in law?

I can’t do math. 

What did you do after law school; what was your first job as a lawyer?

My first job as a lawyer was as a law clerk for the Honorable Judge Stephen Brown of the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division III. I first got interested in insurance law while clerking for Judge Brown, when I had a case about the application of an exclusion. I thought it was really interesting. I then began as an associate at an insurance defense firm and then went to Soha & Lang to do coverage work and have been doing that ever since. I have been with Soha & Lang for over twenty years.

What is the most interesting thing you do outside of the practice of law?

I like hanging out with my friends, drinking microbrews and listing to vinyl (and arguing over said vinyl with said friends while drinking said microbrews). My friends are mostly from high school and college, so I’ve known them forever. My favorite rock group of all time is a Seattle band, the U-Men, who are local legends. My favorite rock album is probably In Utero by Nirvana.

What is the biggest change you’ve seen over your career with respect to coverage litigation?

Practicing in the State of Washington, the two biggest changes that I have seen are the perpetually increasing liability exposure for insurance companies and the evisceration of the attorney-client privilege between insurance companies and their attorneys.

MEET CHERYL VOLLWEILER

New Fellow Cheryl Vollweiler is a partner at Skarzynski Marick & Black in New York, bringing over 30 years of experience to the table.

Throughout her career, Cheryl has represented insurers in high-profile and complex cases, ranging from products liability/mass torts to general liability, cyber risks, technology and data security, life sciences, toxic torts/environmental, bad faith litigation, premises and hotel liability, property damage and first party coverage, and issues under specialty insurance policies and risk retention group policies, to name just a few.

Cheryl grew up on Long Island in Nassau County, New York. In sixth grade, her teacher organized an interactive lesson on the legal system, staging a “mock crime” with “mock witnesses.” She was chosen to be one of the defense attorneys. Over six weeks, the class visited courthouses to observe various kinds of proceedings, met with the law librarian to learn about statutes and “precedent,” had attorneys visit the class to explain how the legal system worked, and gathered evidence to build a case. Cheryl and her “colleagues” even prepared and presented arguments to their classmates, who served as jurors on four panels. When Cheryl and her co-counsel won four acquittals, she knew that she wanted to become a lawyer.

After graduating from Brandeis University and earning her J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, Cheryl started as an associate at Herzfeld & Rubin in NYC working on products liability defense and environmental litigation, including coverage cases. She did not even have a break! Cheryl had been a summer associate at the firm between her 2L and 3L years, and they hired her to start right after classes ended. Cheryl worked for them full time while studying for the bar exam, diving into the legal world headfirst. 

Her first big coverage case was the Lac D’amiant du Quebec v. American Home Assurance appeal, which addressed trigger of coverage in the context of environmental pollution claims under New Jersey law. Cheryl wrote certain sections of the Third Circuit appellate briefs on behalf of Midland Insurance Company, after which the court ultimately adopted the triple trigger theory under NJ law. She states: “It was a pivotal moment in my career, and I will never forget the thrill of contributing to such an important case.”

Most law students travel a bit before jumping into their first legal jobs, but Cheryl has made up for lost time since then. She has handled coverage matters in 36 states, litigated in 20 of them, and arbitrated coverage disputes in London, Bermuda, and Switzerland. Outside of work travels, she has been to 50 countries on six continents so far (including Antarctica), plus 40 of 50 states in the US. Cheryl plans to add that elusive seventh continent in 2025! See Cheryl at our Annual Meeting to learn which one!  

Nominate a Fellow

The Membership Committee routinely vets new prospective Fellows for the College. To maintain the prestige of membership, the only entry to the College is through referral made by a current Fellow (someone who is NOT in the same firm as the nominee).

ACCC seeks nominations of qualified candidates practicing law in the U.S., Canada, and Bermuda.

Qualified candidates are lawyers engaged in the private practice of law, with a concentration primarily in the fields of insurance coverage, bad faith and/or extracontractual claims, licensed to practice law in the highest court of their respective states, and who have engaged substantially in the practice of insurance law for at least 15 consecutive years. Time spent as a judge or law clerk may be considered in determining whether the 15-year requirement has been satisfied.

Nominations should be submitted to membership@americancollegecoverage.org. Please include the nominee’s name, basic contact information, and link to their firm bio. The Membership Committee will conduct initial vetting, including contacting other local Fellows for references, and will then send an application to the candidate as a next step.

Candidates should not be made aware they have been nominated until a member of the ACCC membership committee reaches out to the individual with an invitation to apply. If a candidate is nominated and does not progress to the application stage, the nominator will be informed. 

Memories from the ACCC 12th Annual Meeting

Thank you to our 2024 Annual Meeting Sponsors

Texas Supreme Court Queues Up Two Insurance Cases for its Early 2024-25 Term

By Robert D Allen, The Allen Law Group, Dallas, TX

UM/UIM Bad Faith and Excess Incorporation of Primary’s Terms to be Addressed.

On October 3, 2024, the Texas Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in In Re: State Farm Mut. Ins. Co. and Lindsey Nicole Dessart, Cause No. 23-0755, 2023 WL 5604142 (Tex. App.—Dallas, 2023)

As taken from the Texas Supreme Court website:

The issue in this case is whether the trial court must sever and abate Insurance Code claims when a motorist sues her insurance company for underinsured motorist benefits and violations of the Insurance Code.

Mara Lindsey alleges that she was injured in an automobile accident. Lindsey settled with the driver of the other vehicle for his insurance policy limit and then sought underinsured motorist benefits from State Farm. State Farm, through its claims adjuster, offered Lindsey far less than she claims she is entitled to under her policy. Lindsey sued State Farm and the claims adjuster, seeking a declaratory judgment that she is entitled to additional benefits and for violations of the Insurance Code. State Farm moved to sever and abate the Insurance Code claims until the underlying declaratory judgment action determines the amount of liability and damages caused by the allegedly underinsured motorist.

Lindsey opposed the motion, arguing that bifurcation is the proper procedure for underinsured motorist cases, and discovery on the extracontractual claims is permitted against the insurer before the bifurcated trial. The trial court denied State Farm’s motion and the court of appeals denied mandamus relief.

State Farm petitioned for a writ of mandamus from the Supreme Court. State Farm argues that the Insurance Code claims should have been severed and abated and that Lindsey is not entitled to discovery on those claims until she establishes that she is entitled to underinsured motorist benefits because the liability and damages caused by the underinsured driver exceeded the amount of the third party’s policy limits. State Farm also argues that because the claims should have been abated, the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to quash the depositions of State Farm’s corporate representative and claims adjuster, who lack personal knowledge about the facts of the underlying accident. Finally, State Farm argues that the trial court abused its discretion by limiting State Farm’s access to Lindsey’s medical records when her medical condition is at issue.

The Court granted argument on the petition for writ of mandamus.

The significance of this case is whether Texas law is going to allow discovery on an insurer’s UM/UIM claims handling before the claim is determined as uninsured or underinsured. On the one hand, insurers want to put a lid on anything claims handling because of the way UM/UIM claims ripen under Texas law. On the other hand, policyholders enjoy the leverage they obtain by taking claims handling discovery before that they prove the claim was uninsured or underinsured.

Next, on October 30, 2024, the Texas Supreme court will hear oral arguments in Ohio Cas. Ins. Co. v. Patterson-UTI Energy, Inc., Cause No, 23-0006, 656 S.W.3d 729 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2022, pet. granted).

As taken from the Texas Supreme Court website:

This case concerns the interpretation of an excess insurance policy that follows an underlying policy, except where the terms, conditions, definitions, and exclusions of the policies conflict.

The Patterson entities hired Marsh USA, an insurance broker, to obtain multiple layers of general liability insurance coverage. Through Marsh, Patterson obtained an underlying policy that provides coverage for defense costs, including attorney’s fees. Patterson also obtained multiple policies providing excess layers of coverage, including a policy issued by Ohio Casualty.

The Ohio Casualty policy contract states that except for the “terms, conditions, definitions and exclusions” set out in the Ohio Casualty policy, its coverage follows the underlying policy. Patterson was sued for personal injuries following an industrial accident and settled with the plaintiffs. Patterson then sought coverage from its insurers. Ohio Casualty promptly provided its share of the settlement amount, but it refused coverage for Patterson’s defense costs.

Patterson sued both Ohio Casualty and Marsh, asserting that either Ohio Casualty breached the insurance contract by failing to provide coverage for defense costs or else Marsh falsely represented to Patterson that the Ohio Casualty policy covered defense costs. The parties filed competing motions for summary judgment on the issue of coverage. The trial court concluded that the Ohio Casualty policy does cover defense costs and granted summary judgment for Patterson. The court of appeals affirmed, reasoning that the Ohio Casualty policy does not specifically disclaim the underlying policy’s coverage of defense costs.

Ohio Casualty filed a petition for review, arguing that its policy only provides coverage for certain types of loss that does not include defense costs. Ohio Casualty contends that because it set out definitions related to covered loss in its policy, those definitions control over the definitions related to covered loss in the underlying policy.

The Court granted the petition for review.

The significance of this case is how specific must excess insurers be to differentiate their coverage from the primary policy in an otherwise following form policy. On the one hand, the insurer is arguing that the absence of a definition of ultimate net loss in the excess policy (which included defense costs under the primary policy) means that the excess carrier does not follow form to the primary’s ultimate net loss provision. On the other hand, the policyholder is maintaining that the excess insurer should have had a specific exclusion excluding defense costs if it did not intend to follow the primary insurer’s ultimate net loss definition.

The American Law Institute Restates the Law of First-Party Bad Faith

By Michael F. Aylward, michael.aylward4@gmail.com, Newton Centre, MA

Ten years in the making, the RLLI was the first restatement devoted solely to a single industry and was fiercely opposed by the insurance industry. The controversy that doffed the RLLI has continued since 2018, with numerous state legislatures approving measures that forbid their courts from relying on the restatement to resolve cases. (1) 

It may come as a surprise to many that after its harrowing experience with liability insurance, the ALI is willing to wade back into these troubled waters in an attempt to restate the law of bad faith for first-party insurance. Yet, this is indeed the case. On May 21, 2024, the ALI membership met in San Francisco and voted to approve volume 3 of the new Restatement (Third) of Torts (Third Restatement), including section 20A, a lengthy section addressing first-party bad faith.

Read the full American Bar Association feature article here.

Fellow News

Insurance Law & Litigation - Insurance

Saxe Doernberger & Vita, P.C., Naples, FL & Trumbul, CT

Gregory D. Podolak

Tracy Alan Saxe

Jeffrey J. Vita

Insurance Law

Plunkett Cooney, P.C., Bloomfield Hills, MI

Charles W. Browning

Kenneth C. Newa

Share Your News With Us!

Do you have news to share? ACCC will publish news of Fellows’ achievements, firm changes, awards, wins, etc. If you are quoted or published, send us that as well. We are looking for content about our members to include in Member News, as an Article of the Month, and in social media posts. Send your information to us at info@americancollegecoverage.org. 

· R. Brandon McCullough, Houston Harbaugh, P.C. in Pittsburg, PA

· Michael Moore, Corr Cronin LLP in Seattle, WA

· James (Jamie) J. Sanders, Clyde & Co. in Chicago, IL

· Kile Turner, Norman, Wood, Kendrick & Turner

· Marie VanDam, Jackson & Campbell, Washington, DC 

· Cheryl P. Vollweiler, Skarzynski Marick & Black LLP in New York, NY

· Brendan Winslow-Nason, Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP, Seattle, WA

· Harrison Yoss, Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP

· Tammy Yuen, Skarzynski Marick & Black LLP in New York, NY

ACCC Pop Up Dialogue Webinar

Shifting Litigation Risk: Legal Finance and Insurance

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

4:00 - 5:00 PM EDT

This panel will give an overview of the mechanics of the evolving field of commercial legal finance/litigation funding, explaining how financiers de-risk plaintiffs and plaintiffs’ lawyers by funding litigation and advancing funds against expected damages and fee awards. It will also explore the insurance industry’s own recent forays into taking plaintiff-side litigation risk. Finally, it will touch on claims that legal finance influences the dynamics of litigating and settling disputed matters.  

Speakers:

Professor Tom Baker, University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School

Amber Finch, Partner, Reed Smith LLP

G. Andrew Lundberg, Managing Director, Burford Capital

Presented by ACCC

ACCC Pop Up Dialogue Webinar

True Neutrals? – An Arbitration Discussion

Wednesday, Oct 16, 2024

3:00 - 4:00 PM EDT

This pop-up will review the relative pros and cons of party-appointed arbitrators versus ‘true neutral’ arbitrators for proceedings between policyholders and insurers. We’ll also review the differences between neutral and non-neutral party-appointed arbitrators and discuss what to consider when deciding between using a single arbitrator vs. a panel of three.

Speakers:

Jill Berkeley, Of Counsel at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg LLP, Chicago, IL

Jean Lawler, Lawler ADR Services, LLC, El Segundo, CA

Lisa Romeo, Vice President of the American Arbitration Association, Boston, MA

Presented by the ACCC ADR Committee

If you would like to suggest a future Pop-up Dialogue topic or participate as a speaker on a panel session, email pop-ups@americancollegecoverage.org.

To see copies of presentation slides and recordings available from previous Pop-Up sessions, visit the Event Materials Archive page on the ACCC website. (Member login required)

ACCC 2024 Insurance Law Symposium

Friday, November 15, 2024

University of Minnesota Law School

Minneapolis, MN

Hotel Information:

Marriott Courtyard, Minneapolis Downtown

1500 Washington Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55454

Rates: $139 USD/night for 11/14 - 16/2024 (Book by: 10/24/24)

Reserve your overnight accommodations at this link.

Visit the Symposium event page on the ACCC website

for the agenda and latest details.

Thank You to our Symposium Sponsors

ACCC 2025 Annual Meeting

Thursday, May 7 - Friday, May 9, 2025

The InterContinental Chicago

Chicago, IL

Visit the conference event page on the ACCC website

for the latest details and sponsorship information.

Thank You to our 2025 Conference Sponsors