Agenda
Day 1 — Main Conference
October 24, 2023
8:45 am
9:00 am
2023 REVIEW: Views from the Brokers/Carriers on Claim Trends, New Products Entering into the Market, Underwriting Considerations, Plus Insights on the Defense Counsel Panel
David GarrigusExecutive Vice President - North American Practice Leader – ProExHUB International
Brian D. SmithSenior Vice PresidentGallagher Bassett
Erin K. Mannesto, J.D.Complex Claims Analyst, Financial Lines & Liability – North America Allianz Commercial
- How brokers are approaching the market: View from the brokers on what clients are most concerned about
- Underwriting considerations as they relate to claims trends and market conditions
- How carriers are responding to EPL claims
- Bringing new products to market: Identifying coverage gaps in the market; underwriting concerns; claims considerations and current exclusions
- Key trends to watch out for:
- The Pregnancy Fairness Act: What is a known accommodation? Where do regulations stand?
- To what extent are marijuana claims on the rise: Setting the record straight on the present and future of liability risks
- Use of AI in the Workplace: How might it impact claims?
- Non competes under the microscope: Impact on claims risk
- Claims severity: Types of claims and industries with the most claims
- Social inflation’s impact on increased cost of settlements
- Is the industry seeing a backlog of claims coming to light?
- Late claim reporting
- Foreign claims: Insuring US companies with foreign locations; insuring domestic companies with foreign origins; which carriers have these polices and what is being covered
10:00 am
2023 REVIEW: The Clients’ Perspective: Views from In-House Labor and Employment Counsel on Current Trends in the EPLI Marketplace and Post-Pandemic Drivers That Are Underlying the Purchase of Coverage
Beth Mabe GianopulosSenior Associate, General CounselAtrium Health
Kristina KerwinSenior Counsel, Employment Law, North AmericaAccenture Federal Services
- When is coverage triggered and needed?
- Avoiding lawsuits by minimizing claims: Early resolution strategies:
- Predicting value of claim if litigated
- Defining costs of claim
- Resolving claims early: What do you need to know within the first 60 days
- Best practices for controlling the cost of the defense of claims
- Payouts; Alternative fee arrangements
- Implementing internal cost-reduction procedures
- Reducing the costs associated with the use of defense counsel
- Pitfalls employers should avoid while easing their COVID-era policies
- Vaccination policy trends:
- Which precautionary policies are being retained?
- What kinds of claims are still popping up around vaccination?
- Which reasonable accommodations are being preserved?
- What are the greatest post-pandemic risks around claims?
- Staying compliant with jurisdictional post-COVID requirements: NY, CA
- Practical applications of EEOC post-COVID guidelines
- OSHA requirements and any new guidance
- I-9 compliance: How to update your virtually inspected forms
11:00 am
Extended Networking Break
11:45 am
AI IN THE WORKPLACE
Emerging Themes Governing the Use of AI in the Workplace: Administering the Power of Automation Around Workplace Transparency, Discrimination, and Data Integrity
Letoyia C. HortonClaims Focus Group Leader-EPLBeazley Group
Laura R. Lapidus, Esq.Management Liability (EPL) Risk Control DirectorCNA Insurance
Dianna D. McCarthyPartnerKaufman Borgeest & Ryan
- Transparency: AI screening in employment decisions. Providing notice to the candidates
- New York City’s law regulating AI screening
- Illinois’ law targeting AI used to analyze video interviews
- Anti-discrimination
- EEOC Title VII guidance; Employers and their responsibility to evaluate their algorithmic decision-making tools for disparate impact, including by considering the “four-fifths” rule
- System and data integrity: Audits, testing, reporting and recordkeeping
- Jurisdictions where employers’ regular audits and testing of AI systems must assess whether the system results in bias towards certain individuals, privacy risks (i.e., with respect to identifying information) or other known harm or material negative impact
- California’s Civil Rights Council proposal of new rules that would permit employers to use evidence of anti-bias testing as a defense to allegations of a discriminatory adverse impact of AI or automated system
- New developments in this rapidly evolving area of employment law: Federal, state and local levels
- A potential sea change with the use of AI/ChatGPT within law firms
- Litigation data, trial transcript analyzing
- What are the risks around the technology’s accuracy and security, most specifically about how law firms’ concerns of privacy and client confidentiality?
- The benefits of AI as a tool for workplace efficiencies:
- Goal setting and tracking
- Time management/work coaching
- Drafting emails and reports
- Meeting summaries and action items
- Customer support
- INTERVIEW
12:45 pm
1:15 pm
2:30 pm
RIF’s AND WHITE-COLLAR LAYOFFS
RIF’s and the White-Collar Ripple Effect: Internal Investigations, Avoiding Backlash, and a RIF Compliance Checklist
Jonathan KurensSenior Vice PresidentMarsh USA Inc.
Joe KellySenior Vice President, Commercial Management LiabilitySompo International
- Internal investigations around what will trigger EPL coverage amid a decrease in staff
- White-collar layoffs: Identifying particular insider risks
- Investigating non-competes
- Preventing data breaches
- Protecting intellectual property
- Skeletons in the closet often uncovered when amid executive-level layoffs
- Mediation and arbitration requirements for potential retaliation around:
- Sexual (or other workplaces) harassment
- Wrongful termination
- Failure to employ or promote
- Breach of terms of employment contract
- Negligent evaluation
- Wrongful discipline, bullying
- Wrongful infliction of emotional distress
- Navigating jurisdictional employee protection nuances and pitfalls
- Maintaining inter-departmental communications around layoff protocols: Awareness of coverage, record-keeping, gaining advice from internal EPL counsel
- Updating and circulating employee off-boarding procedures
- Fundamentals for checking all the legal compliance boxes in designing and implementing RIF programs
3:15 pm
Jan HaylettSenior Vice President, Bermuda and Global Markets ClaimsAllied World Assurance Company, Ltd
Michelle BaileySenior Vice President/UnderwriterAXA XL
Duan LeverockVice PresidentAon Bermuda Ltd.
- Intro to Bermuda marketplace
- Product availability
- Who buys in Bermuda?
- Why Bermuda
- 2023 market challenges:
- Areas/industries/policies of increased concern
- Severe claims and impact of social inflation
- 2024 outlook:
- How are Bermuda market players underwriting risk?
- Appetite: Attachment levels, pricing, coverage, and overall availability of capacity
4:00 pm
Break
4:15 pm
Jody Kahn MasonPrincipalJackson Lewis P. C.
Elissa DoroffHead of Claims, AmericasMosaic Insurance
- Securing proprietary information while employees work from home
- Determining the lengths and limits of employee access to company data
- BIPA: Management of biometric technology within BIPA rules and potential claims risks
- Current biometric claims case analyses: Rogers versus BNSF
- Lessons learned from this case and how to analyze BIPA claims in the future
- Reconciling the need to leverage new digital platforms with protecting sensitive, confidential data
- Overcoming obstacles to preserving attorney-client and work product privilege when working from home
- Retaining any recordings, especially of meetings: Legal obligations
5:00 pm
The New Normal of the Hybrid Workforce: Addressing Accommodations and Evolving Risks Around Operations in a Multi-Generational Environment
Heather R. BeckerPartnerLaner Muchin
Claudine R. English, Esq.Vice President, Employment Practices Liability, Crime, and Fidelity Product Officer, Financial Lines-Technical UnderwritingZurich North America
Rachel FreedmanVice President - Head of Employment Practices Liability ClaimsSompo International
- The new normal:
- The new reality of reasonable accommodations in a post-pandemic work environment
- The importance of addressing mental health of the workforce: Policies and protocols for managers
- he mounting, and mostly silent, employee experience gap
- Navigating the pros and cons of remote supervision
- Piloting increased cyber risks
- Use of AI and its supervision risks: Privacy, discrimination
- Managing tax implications for cross-border remote workers
- The new world of remote work etiquette and harassment claims how to tackle them quickly
- Dress
- Harassment: Defining “inappropriate actions” in a remote world
- Manager training programs
- Keeping remote workers feeling invested and valued in an employee-empowered environment
- Creating clear return to the office programs: Who’s required to be in the office and why
- How do you restrict remote work without losing employee engagement/motivation?
- Managing and mitigating ADA claims for those employees who wish to remain remote
5:45 pm
Close of Day One
Cocktail Reception Sponsored by:
Day 2 — Main Conference
October 25, 2023
9:00 am
9:05 am
9:35 am
NON-COMPETES THINK TANK
D&O and Non-Competes in the Crosshairs: Issues in Enforcing and Managing Restrictive Covenants amid Extraordinary Regulatory Scrutiny
Jordan KurkowskiExecutive Vice President, Professional LinesAmwins Insurance Brokerage, LLC
Peter A. SteinmeyerPartnerEpstein Becker Green
- Recent trends in non-competition clauses
- D&O trusts and captives
- D&O underwriting behaviors
- Securities litigation trends
- Restrictive policy language interpretations
- Federal/jurisdictional trends around use of non-competes
- MN/NY ban on use of non-competes
- NLRB: The outcome of the McLaren Macomb decision
- FTC: Final rule outlook and inevitability of legal challenges
- • An interactive, audience-feedback driven review of sample non-competition clauses and analyses of their enforceability
10:30 am
Break
10:45 am
Pay Equity and Transparency: Dissecting Recent Defense Wins/Losses and The Lesser-Known Lessons for Addressing Wage Disparities
Samantha J. Manfredini Look, Esq.Vice President, EPLI, Financial Services Group, Commercial Risk SolutionsAon
Christine HendricksonVice President, Strategic InitiativesSyndio
Matt MayDivisional Assistant Vice President – Claims, Executive Liability DivisionGreat American Insurance Group
- Analyzing newly rolled-out state laws and changes to standards for pay transparency: CA, CO
- Impact of the white-collar recession: Impact of job losses on data, state of C-suite executive pay
- Evaluating racial and ethnic pay differences amid social justice issues
- Loosening labor market: Starting salary and retention pay decisions
- Steps to taking a proactive stance toward releasing pay data publicly
- Defending and covering pay equity claims intermingled with gender discrimination claims
- The new, emerging trends in pay equity litigation and what is coming down the pipeline
11:30 am
EPLI, Wage & Hour Claims and PAGA Actions: The Newest High Stakes Questions Confronting Practitioners and Their Impact on Defense Strategies
Sherron WilliamsSenior Vice President, Financial and Professional Lines – BermudaVantage Risk Ltd
Kimberly LewisSenior Vice President, Professional Insurance ManagerArgo Group
John WallaceChief Insurance OfficerVouch Insurance
Leticia KimblePartnerRaines Feldman Littrell LLP
- The Gig Economy: Status report on employee versus independent contractor classification
- The state of PAGA in 2023:
- PAGA representative waivers: Permission to prosecute claims of other alleged aggrieved employees
- Employer assertions that some PAGA claims/cases are unmanageable, and therefore cannot proceed on a representative basis
- Settling a PAGA case where there exists a concurrent PAGA case with overlapping claims
- Claims and defense cost expense
- Mixed allegation claims where there is a discrimination claim coupled with W&H allegations
- EPLI changes and how carriers are responding to the continued growth of wage and hour claims
- Exploring sub-limits on wage and hour claims under EPLI policies
- Assessing how riders or addendums to EPLI policies for wage and hour claims affect the market
- FLSA clarity around joint employer liability
- Statute of limitations, waivers and arbitration
- How far employers can go and where to draw the line
12:15 pm
Lunch
1:30 pm
COUNSEL/INSURER/POLICY ETHICS
Overcoming the Ethical Dilemmas Associated with the Relationship between Counsel, Insurer and Policyholder
Raymond Cashman, Esq., CPCUDirector, Management Liability and Specialty ClaimsNationwide
Magdalen BickfordMember, Chair Labor and Employment GroupMcGlinchey Stafford
- Examining the unique ethical challenges that arise from the relationship among counsel, insurer and policyholder
- Identifying and navigating the conflicts of interest that arise because of this tripartite relationship
- Analyzing the dual-client dilemma facing counsel retained by an insurance company to represent a policyholder
- Devising strategies for overcoming and avoiding the challenges created by this trichotomy
- Establishing best practices for communicating with plaintiffs and company employees to avoid crossing ethical lines
2:15 pm
Laura McKinstrySenior Claim CounselTravelers
Jennifer R. O’ConnorMemberSaiber
- Developing winning strategies for arbitrating EPL claims
- Assessing the challenges of overseas arbitration of EPLI coverage disputes, and tips on how to protect oneself during the process
- Establishing strategies for settling collective and class EPL actions
- Understanding how the actual EPL policy can play a crucial role in the settlement and mediation of cases
- Evaluating recent successes and failures in the use of ADR to resolve EPL claims
- Identifying key break points during litigation at which to consider mediation
- Devising tactics for persuading employees, employers and carriers to attempt mediation
- Assessing the costs of litigation and conducting a cost/benefit analysis to determine your ADR options
- Developing strategies for achieving a result in arbitration/mediation that is satisfactory to all parties
- Assessing the merits of arbitration as a means of resolving a discrimination, harassment or other employment practices claim
3:30 pm