Message from the Chairs

Our committee heads into its busy season now, so look for reminders about upcoming events and "save the date" notices. Most important, mark your calendars to attend our annual Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee CLE program in beautiful Tucson, Arizona on March 4-6, 2010 at the Westin La Paloma. This year’s meeting cochairs, Ernest Martin and Maria Enriquez, are planning an excellent program for us all. Together with their meeting vice chairs, Ted Howard and Tracy Alan Saxe, Ernest and Maria are putting together all of the details for top-notch CLE events, networking opportunities, and more. I look forward to seeing you there!

We hope you were able to join us for the ABA teleconference, Total Recall: To What Extent Is There Insurance for Defective Product Exposure? on Tuesday, November 10, 2009. ICLC members James M. Davis of Reed Smith LLP, Rebecca Haller of Meckler Bulger Tilson Marick & Pearson LLP, and Bradley D. Murlick, Managing Director, Insurance and Claims Practice at Navigant Consulting Group, Inc put on a great presentation. We will look for other topics for future webcasts as well, as this is a very effective way of promoting ICLC capabilities and educating Section members on new insurance coverage developments.

Meanwhile, we continue the other, often less-visible operations of the ICLC. As you know, Mary Craig Calkins has succeeded John James this year as my policyholder cochair. You may not know that new Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Vice Chairs also have been named. They are Ray Wong on the insurer side and Sherilyn Pastor on the policyholder side. Ray and Sherri will be working with us to manage all of the committee’s activities over the coming year. Speaking of appointments, we also have completed the subcommittee chair appointment process, and look forward to working with many of you on issues from bad faith to excess coverage, from construction to asbestos, and from reinsurance to D&O, as well as on membership, programming, and more. For those of you who are not already involved, please let us know of the areas of interest to you and we will make sure you are added to the appropriate ICLC subcommittee lists.

The ICLC continues publication of its highly-acclaimed Coverage publication in both hard copy and electronic format this year, and we again invite you to consider submitting an article to the editors of this excellent journal. Please volunteer yourself; don’t await an individual invitation to contribute to Coverage or to our website "hot topic" areas. And please volunteer your ideas on how we can improve on the resources that you receive as members of the Section of Litigation ICLC. We welcome your ideas and comments. Thank you for all of your hard work on behalf of the committee and I look forward to hearing from you throughout the year.

Laura Foggan
Insurance Coverage Litigation Committee Cochair