PLUS Special Section

Emerging issues

Economy drives agenda at annual conference

By Phil Zinkewicz

Next month the Professional Liability Underwriting Society (PLUS) will hold its 22nd Annual International Conference at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Depending on the class and its specific exposures, professional liability can be a volatile line of business. The market is still soft for most areas of professional liability and will probably remain so into next year. For financial institutions and financial planners, however, the market for directors and officers liability has already hardened—and small wonder.

The still-faltering economy and revelations of fraud and scandals in the financial community have combined to create strong consumer dissatisfaction, leading to increasing numbers of lawsuits. This year the PLUS Conference theme is “Singin’ the Blues? Professional Liability at a Crossroads,” and sessions will focus on emerging issues facing the professional liability industry as a result of the economic crisis.

At the conference, PLUS will offer 15 educational sessions on three tracks—Executive Liability, Traditional Professional Liability, and Emerging Hot Topics. In addition, PLUS will present two special educational sessions: “Secret Sauce—Using Diversity for a Sustainable Competitive Advantage” moderated by Corbette S. Doyle, Lecturer in Leadership, Policy & Organizations at Vanderbilt University; and “Wicked Problems,” an industry leaders panel discussion moderated by Marvin Zonis, Professor Emeritus, Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago.

Keynote speaker at the conference will be former President Bill Clinton, founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation. Other speakers are Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink, The Tipping Point, and Outliners and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine; Walter Bond, former NBA player and “America’s Accountability Leader”; and Dr. Robert P. Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute.

One conference session will deal with U.S. Supreme Court decisions and securities class action lawsuits. Moderated by John C. Coffee Jr., Adolph A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School, the panel will discuss how liability has increased for directors and officers because of the mounting litigation activity. The panel will look at the number and types of cases being filed; dismissals being sought and granted; the types, sources, and determination of damages being claimed; and which defenses may be most effective for these claims in the future.

Jennifer Rothstein, insurance discovery specialist, ACT Litigation, will moderate a panel that will examine defense costs and how they represent a significant and dramatically increasing portion of the claims expenses for professional liability insurers. The panelists will discuss ways to manage and control these costs, in particular those incurred for expert witnesses, discovery, and e-discovery.

Other panels will examine the current financial crisis and Ponzi schemes in terms of fiduciary respon­sibilities; developments in the excess and surplus lines market; and tort liability issues and their impact on the professional liability arena.