Day One – Monday, April 30, 2012
9:45 Main Conference Registration and Coffee Served
10:05 Co-Chairs’ Welcoming Remarks
Charles Scibetta
Partner
Chaffetz Lindsey LLP
Jeffrey L. Kingsley
Partner
Goldberg Segalla LLP
10:10 In-House Think Tank: Latest Risks, Claims and Trends They’re Seeing and How Outside Counsel Can Adapt As a Result
Peter Szendro
SVP Reinsurance Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer
Willis Re
Marnie Hunt
Managing Director
Aon Benfield
Patricia Taylor Fox
Assistant General Counsel
Chartis
Andrew L. Noga
Executive Vice President & General Counsel
Aspen U.S. Holdings, Inc.
Edward J. Kelley
Vice President & Deputy General Counsel
Transatlantic Reinsurance Company
Moderator:
Jeffrey L. Kingsley
Partner
Goldberg Segalla LLP
- Factors companies consider in hiring outside counsel
- Deciding when and whether to arbitrate
- Posting of collateral in the event of arbitration
- Market consolidation and its impact on dispute resolution
- A look at the current arbitration system
- Would an all neutral arbitration panel improve the arbitration process?
- Is the informal discovery process impacting the effectiveness of arbitration?
- Is mediation a viable alternative?
- Is an “honorable engagement clause” a blessing or a curse?
- Finality of the arbitration award
- Reforming the arbitration process among companies through an agreement
- Realities of reinsurance companies in runoff
- Special challenges currently faced
FOCUS ON ARBITRATION
11:30 Avoiding the Coin Toss: Proven Methods of Streamlining the Arbitration Process and Its Alternatives
Anthony Vidovich
Vice President & Assistant General Counsel
The Hartford
Denis Loring
Senior Vice President, Global Financial Solutions
RGA Reinsurance Company
Lee Routledge
SVP Claims and Litigation
SCOR
William C. O’Neill
Partner
Crowell & Moring LLP
Selection of Arbitrator and Umpires
- Clarifying arbitrator and umpire qualifications
- Widening the pool of party arbitrator and umpire candidates
- Ensuring umpire impartiality without sacrificing expertise
- Avoiding party manipulation in the selection process
- Specialized umpire selection methods
Improving the Arbitration Process
- Controlling discovery
- mproving transparency in the award decision
- Simplifying the process
Streamlining the Process: An Examination of English and Bermudian forms:
- Utilizing all neutral panel
- Reasoned awards
- Limiting ex-parte communication
Alternatives to Arbitration
- AIRROC Dispute Resolution Procedure
- AAA Alternative Dispute Resolution
- Early mediation and settlement
12:30 Networking Luncheon for Speakers and Delegates
1:30 Procedural Challenges to Arbitration Proceedings and Federal Arbitration Act Disputes: Incorporating the Latest Developments Into Your Reinsurance Dispute Strategy
Robert W. DiUbaldo
Partner
Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP
Philip J. Loree Jr.
Partner
Loree & Loree
Richard Faulkner
Partner,
Blume, Faulkner, Skeen & Northam, PLLC
Mary Cannon Veed
Partner
Arnstein & Lehr LLP
Judicial Review of Arbitration Awards
- When can an arbitration award be challenged?
- Factors for vacating or modifying and award
- What is the standard of review?
Umpire and Arbitrator Disqualification
- What are the most common challenges being brought?
- What constitutes grounds for disqualification?
- When can a motion to disqualify be made?
2:30 Avoiding Ethical Landmines in Reinsurance Arbitration – Featuring 1 Hour of CLE Ethics
Peter A. Scarpato
ARIAS-U.S. Certified Arbitrator
President, Conflict Resolved, LLC
Larry P. Schiffer
Partner
Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP
Teresa Snider
Partner
Butler Rubin Saltarelli & Boyd LLP
Brett H. Ludwig
Partner
Foley & Lardner LLP
- Application of ethical guidelines and codes to arbitrators
- Do existing codes apply
- Should arbitrators be held to existing codes
- The role of ARIAS-U.S.
- Scope and applicability of disclosures
- Responding to arbitrator or umpire questionnaires
- Initial disclosures and their scope
- Ongoing disclosures
- Accepting appointments
- Issues for sitting arbitrators
- Issues for sitting umpires
- When to say no
- When should party arbitrators resign from a panel?
- When is there a conflict of interest?
- Actions by other panel members
- Can and should arbitration panels use independent experts?
- What can/can’t attorneys ask arbitrators to do?
- Must party-appointed arbitrators “toe the party line”?
- Can arbitrators be fired?
- How should arbitrators deal with unethical conduct by the parties
- Bad faith in various contexts, including: contract formation, underwriting risk and renewals, handling of claims, frivolous or unnecessary discovery
- Scope of authority for arbitrators to impose “punishment” outside the contract language
3:30 Afternoon Refreshment Break
3:45 View from the Commissioners: NAIC Action and Revisions, New Priorities and Emerging Trends in State Regulation, and the Impact of It All for Reinsurance Litigators and Arbitrators
Susan E. Voss
Commissioner
Iowa Insurance Division
Christina Urias
Director
Arizona Department of Insurance
William P. White
Commissioner District of Columbia
Department of Insurance Securities and Banking
John Franchini
Commissioner New Mexico
Insurance Department
Karen Weldin
Stewart
Insurance Commissioner
State of Delaware
Moderator:
Amanda Yanek
Government Relations Policy Counsel Chief State Liaison
NAIC
- Accrediting reinsurers
- Notice and special reporting provisions
- Credit for Reinsurance Model Law and Regulation
- An overview of reinsurance collateral reform under the NAIC model law
- New requirements for reinsurance credit
5:00 Minimize Exposure and Ensure Compliance With Recent Legislative and Regulatory Changes
Roland Goss
Partner
Jorden Burt LLP
Michael Kurtis
Partner
Nelson Levine de Luca & Horst, LLC
Jeffrey S. Burman
Deputy General Counsel – Reinsurance
Chartis
Moderator:
Lindsay Doering
Partner
Law Office of A. Lindsay Doering
- Dodd-Frank
- Non-Admitted and Reinsurance Reform Act
- Federal Insurance Office Act
- Financial Stability Oversight Council
- Surplus lines reform issues under Dodd-Frank
- Solvency II: A look at the European Insurance Industry’s capital adequacy requirements
- The US response to Solvency II
- Taxation of offshore cessions
- Effect on foreign reinsurers with US subsidiaries and cross border business
- Practical short term implications of recent NAIC action, including:
- Recent changes to the Model Holding Company Act
- Amendments to credit for reinsurance models involving collateral reform, and reduced collateral programs in various states
6:00 Conference Adjourns
Day Two – Tuesday, May 1, 2012
7:30 Continental Breakfast
8:00 View from the Bench: Federal Magistrates Share Their Views on Overturning Arbitration Decisions, Umpire and Arbitrator Disqualification, Loss Allocation and Consolidation, and Agreements to Maintain Confidentiality
The Honorable James P. O’Hara
Magistrate JudgeUnited States District Court, District of Kansas
The Honorable Janie S. Mayeron
Magistrate Judge United States District Court, District of Minnesota
Moderator:
Edward K. Lenci
Partner
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP
- When are courts willing to overturn arbitration decisions?
- What factors go into the decision to vacate or modify?
- What is the standard of review?
- Questions surrounding allocation
- When allocation is binding, and when it can be challenged by a reinsurer
- What do courts look at in deciding issues involving layers of loss and allocation?
- Umpire and arbitrator disqualification
- What are the grounds for disqualification?
- When can a motion be made?
- Consolidation questions
- How do courts treat agreements to maintain confidentiality?
9:00 View from the Arbitrators: Resolving the Thorniest Issues of Discovery, Consolidation of Claims and Acting Outside the Scope of the Contract
Timothy McCaffrey
ARIAS-U.S. Certified Arbitrator
Mary Ellen Burns
ARIAS-U.S. Certified Umpire and Arbitrator
Ronald S. Gass
ARIAS-U.S. Certified Umpire and Arbitrator
Richard Chernick
Certified Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators
Moderator:
Clifford H. Schoenberg
Partner
Mayer Brown
Arbitral Control of Discovery & the Process in General
- When do arbitrators limit discovery
- The use of non-party witnesses in deposition and discovery
- Controlling scheduling and updates
- What the panel wants to hear: acts, specifics and business perspective
Consolidation of Separate Claims and Multi-Party Arbitration
- Who decides the issue of consolidation
- The role of the arbitrator in multi-party arbitration
- Complications raised by cross border arbitrations
Acting Outside the Scope of the Contract
- The power to grant relief not requested by the parties
- Attorney’s fees, punitive damages, etc.
- When is an equity based ruling appropriate?
- Availability of bad faith damages in reinsurance disputes
- Can a cedent recover declaratory judgment costs from their reinsurer?
10:05 Morning Coffee Break
10:15 Expert Strategies for Solving Runoff Disputes and Achieving Finality and Profitability in a Tough Economy
David Vaughan
Chief Operating Officer
Tawa plc
John M. Parker
Senior Vice President-Reinsurance Reinsurance Counsel
RiverStone-US
Cynthia R. Koehler
Vice President, Assistant General Counsel
Complex & Emerging Risks Liberty Mutual Group
Costas Frangeskides
Partner,
Insurance and Reinsurance
Holman Fenwick Willan LLP
Norbert Lommer
Global Head of Finance Global Discountinued Business Division
Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty
Moderator:
Jonathan F. Bank
Partner
Locke Lord LLP
- Insights and tactics for collecting:
- From a run-off company
- As a run-off company
- Improving your experience with companies in run-off
- Maintaining the relationship after run-off
- Understanding the mind-set of run-off companies and their counter-parties
- STRIPE as an alternative for tackling complex run-off recovery
- Debt: sales and purchases
- Broker abandonment
- Working within the follow the fortunes doctrine
- International collections
- Special issues involving foreign reinsurers and retrocessionaires
- Working with U.S. companies in London market disputes
11:30 Effective Methods for Controlling Legal Costs in Reinsurance Disputes: Best Practices, Project Management, Limiting Discovery and Beyond
Martin P. Cillick
Senior Attorney
Allstate Insurance Company
Arthur Gang
Senior VP and Associate General Counsel
Partner
Reinsurance Company of the US
William G. Goldsmith
Assistant General Counsel
Chartis Insurance
Edward M. Manganiello
Of Counsel
Bruckmann & Victory LLP
Moderator:
Charles Scibetta
Partner
Chaffetz Lindsey LLP
Establishing an Efficient Lawyer-Client Relationship
- Utilizing in-house counsel
- Considering value when selecting outside counsel and structuring fees
- Communication and interaction between in-house and outside counsel
- Identifying client’s core objectives
- Use of and adherence to an arbitration budget
- Allocation and management of resources
Scope and Schedule for the Adversarial Proceeding
- Identification, analysis and narrowing of issues
- Use of simplified arbitration process where appropriate
- Single arbitrator; statement of facts, stipulated facts; briefing; oral argument; telephonic meetings and hearing
- Using the organizational meeting to develop an agenda
- Using available procedural rules/guidelines
Discovery and E-Discovery
- Determining how much discovery is necessary
- Obtaining documentation from reinsurance intermediaries, brokers, managing agents, and other third party administrators
- How to prevent depositions and document requests from stalling the arbitration
- Modernizing and simplifying the procedure for accessing electronic information
Arbitration Hearing or Trial
- Setting the number of witnesses
- Stipulating agreed facts
- Curtailing the length and number of briefs
- Using the arbitration clause to control proceedings
12:30 Reinsurance Claims in the Context of Insolvencies: How to Navigate Disputes with Receivers
William Costigan
Counsel
Dornbush Schaeffer Strongin & Venaglia LLP
Lewis E. Hassett
Partner
Morris, Manning & Martin, LLP
Rick Rosenblum
Partner
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Deborah F. Cohen
Partner
Pepper Hamilton LLP
- Litigation Forum
- Federal court vs. state court vs. arbitration
- Insolvency court’s power over non-residents
- Enforcement of arbitration clause against receiver
- Follow-the-fortunes and follow-the-settlements
- When is the arbitration contract enforceable against the receiver of an insolvent insurance company?
- State by state comparison; New case law in this area
- Alternatives to rehabilitations and liquidation
1:30 Networking Luncheon for Speakers and Delegates
2:30 U.S. Department of the Treasury Update: OFAC Compliance for Reinsurers and Their Counsel
David J. Brummond
Senior Sanctions Advisor – Insurance Office of Foreign Assets
Control Department of the Treasury
- What litigators/arbitrators need to know about sanctions
- Profile of sanctions most encountered by reinsurers
- Sanctions expectations of OFAC
- Facultative vs. proportionate reinsurance; list-based programs; exclusionary clauses; levels of due diligence
- Reinsurer response to sanctioned interest or transactiono Blocking requirements; reporting requirements
3:05 Anticipating the Effect of Significant Changes in International Standards and Regulatory Systems to Benefit Your Litigation and Arbitration Strategy
Marcelo Ramella
Deputy Director - Policy, Research and International Affairs
Department,
Bermuda Monetary Authority
- Systemically important financial institutions
- Macro-prudential approaches and other developments
- Recent developments and current priorities at the IAIS
- New standards for the supervision of reinsurance
- Systemic risk and global financial stability
- The Financial Stability Board reform agenda and its influence on insurance and reinsurance regulation
3:40 Conference Ends – Focus Session B Registration
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