Conference Chairman: Ronald E. Mallen

Bankruptcy trustees are bringing many financially significant lawsuits against major law firms. This panel of experienced trial lawyers will examine the recent decisions and discuss what you need to know to litigate these claims. The developing issue of who has standing to sue and for what remedies will be discussed. Many recent decisions concern whether the trustee can pursue legal theories of deepening insolvency, as well as aiding and abetting a fiduciary breach. Litigation considerations involve whose interests the trustee can represent, the right to a jury trial, the attorney-client privilege and defenses, such as in pari delicto defense and the Wagoner doctrine.

Panel Moderator: John W. Sheller

Speaker: Charles A. Gilman

Speaker: John K. Villa

This panel of trial lawyers will examine the significant new case law of the past year, including decisions debating when federal courts have subject matter jurisdiction irrespective of diversity. The panel will provide an update on the use of lawyer-defendant “admissions” and how ethics rules can be used in actions against lawyers. A potentially significant decision that Federal Rule 408 bars admissibility of settlement evidence for measure of damages, even if invoked for the benefit of a settling party, will also be analyzed. l While discussing all of these decisions and their implications in context of relevant legal issues and tactical concerns, the panel will provide practical guidance for the litigator.

Panel Moderator: James I. Sullivan

Speaker: David J. Beck

Speaker: Nancy Jane Marshall

Experienced trial lawyers and expert witnesses will examine the recent case law and trends, and provide insight into the use and selection of expert witnesses. The panel will opine about whether expert witnesses can and/or should be used for summary judgment, the type of issues that demand expert testimony and which testimony the court is likely to preclude. They will tell how the testimony should be structured to avoid legal conclusions and net opinions, and when an expert can testify to issues of law. Finally, they will share their insights for selecting the right expert.

Panel Moderator: Frances M. O’Meara

Speaker: Robert C. Baker

Speaker: W. William Hodes

Prior knowledge issues dominated the preceding year’s professional liability coverage decisions. Consistent with prior cases, some of the decisions used an objective standard, finding that the insured's knowledge of his own wrongful conduct precluded coverage. Other decisions, which concerned insureds that settled claims with their former clients and did not report these until those settlements collapsed, came to opposite conclusions as to coverage. The panel will discuss these recent cases, which also show that courts are still using a subjective standard based on the particular wording of application questions. Additionally, the difference between a claim and a potential claim remains unsettled. The panel will also discuss how the courts ruled on the obligations of a carrier to inform its insured when their right to hire independent counsel arises, and what happens when a negligence claim is intertwined with a non-covered claim involving misappropriation of client's funds.

Panel Moderator: David Grossbaum

Speaker: Jeffrey Goode

Speaker: Robert Irish

Claimants continue to pursue remedies against attorneys under a variety of consumer protection statutes because of provisions for multiplied damages, penalties or an entitlement to attorneys’ fees. In the past year, there have been important decisions under Pennsylvania's Consumer Protection Act, Florida's Driver's Privacy Protection Act and the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The panel will review these decisions as well as the significant legal developments under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, including whether the statute's bona fide error defense applies to "mistakes of law" committed by attorneys. Finally, the panel will talk about the trends under these and other statutory causes of action.

Panel Moderator: David Schultz

Speaker: Mark E. Ellis

Speaker: Barbara A. Sinsley

Many legal malpractice policies provide for a defense for disciplinary matters and, frequently, legal malpractice claims are accompanied by disciplinary complaints that may be made for tactical purposes. This panel examines that interface as well as trends in disciplinary law. The panelists will discuss what happens when a lawyer’s personal fitness is the focus in a disciplinary case, and why some disciplinary prosecutors and courts are looking to use privilege, estoppel or other exclusionary doctrines to prevent lawyers from articulating a defense to charges of unethical conduct. The panel will explore the often-conflicting trends and developments in this area and evaluate the risk of a lawyer being prevented from defending himself or herself against charges of misconduct.

Panel Moderator: J. Richard Supple, Jr.

Speaker: James J. Grogan

Speaker: Ellen A. Pansky

Members of the audience have an opportunity to engage in a “Q&A” dialogue with the panelists as they attempt to answer questions concerning legal malpractice or risk management. Take your best shot on your complex issues – everything is fair game.

Panel Moderator: Peter R. Jarvis

Litigators and risk management lawyers examine the very recent and unsettled case law that confronts patent lawyers and their insurers. A state-federal battle line has been drawn on whether patent law issues in legal malpractice cases can be litigated in state courts. The often highly speculative nature of damages has been examined by several courts with highly divergent conclusions. This experienced panel of legal malpractice litigators will examine these and other developing issues.

Panel Moderator: Thomas P. McGarry

Speaker: Pamela A. Bresnahan

Speaker: John J. Steele

This panel will review the present state of the LPL insurance marketplace, 2008 overall results, and how current economic conditions will impact the availability and cost of LPL insurance. Many are saying that the market is softening. Is it and in what respect? The panelists will also discuss hard-to-place coverage areas, such as intellectual property, including how these "hot to handle" law firms manage their exposure, and the options available to them in the traditional and nontraditional marketplace.

Panel Moderator: Victoria L. Orze

Speaker: Janet M. Henderson

Speaker: Kim Pihlstrom

Law firms, when defendants, must be alert to opportunities to reduce or even eliminate damage exposure. Reducing such exposure also requires an awareness of the techniques, and timely corrective or mitigating action. Relying on an unmotivated or unsophisticated legal malpractice claimant to take such action is an uncertain proposition, at best. This panel will discuss alternatives to passive file management by exploring various active measures that may be taken to reduce loss, such as self-help, intervention and take-over.

Panel Moderator: Thomas L. Browne

Speaker: Martin S. Checov

Speaker: Joseph W. E. Schmitt

John H. Johnson, IV, Vice President of National Economic Research Associates, Inc. will discuss the continuing debate over the legal profession's billable hour. He will explore and examine why the law firm billing and profitability model doesn't work for firms and clients in today's marketplace. His research underlies the new initiative by the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC).

Speaker: John H. Johnson, IV

In response to suggestions by our attendees, this year we present a forum for law firm general counsel and risk management lawyers to explore topics of interest specific to their role and responsibilities. Issues covered by this panel of general counsel will be derived from topics and questions submitted in advance by conference attendees and advisors. Attendees of this session will also be encouraged to introduce additional topics for general discussion.

Panel Moderator: Edward J. Zulkey

Speaker: Hope A. Comisky

Speaker: Kevin S. Rosen

Did you ever wonder "how did this case get into that lawyer's hands?" This panel comprised of plaintiff-side legal malpractice lawyers will explore the selection criteria and potential "red flags" that plaintiffs' lawyers may consider when taking a case. They will discuss issues and concepts such as "splitting the seams," covered versus uncovered claims, concomitant disciplinary proceedings, impact of potential breach of fiduciary duties, size and certainty of damages, consumer protection, collectability, lack of insurance, defendant's reputation, necessary experts, prior counsel, as well the potential fee and costs arrangements. This panel is sure tol provide a provocative interactive forum.

Panel Moderator: David P. Hartnett

Speaker: Robert B. Gould

Speaker: Elliot R. Schiff

The Internet allows lawyers and firms to send marketing messages to potential clients around the world. But such outreach creates potential problems as lawyers broaden their reach and strengthen their message to try to gain and retain clients. In this session, panelists will examine what lawyers are doing on the Internet, and how such activities create problems, including risking client confidences, impacting standards of care, creating potential liability that can be litigated in distant jurisdiction, and providing evidence against firms at trial.

Panel Moderator: Michael P. Downey

Speaker: Micah Buchdahl

Speaker: Lucian T. Pera

Sometimes, it seems that the numbers of lawyers changing firms on any one day exceeds the number of arrivals and departures at any airport. Every firm on the arriving or departing end of this process needs to strike a delicate balance between the rights and expectations of clients on the one hand, and the rights and ethical duties of individual lawyers and firms on the other. This panel will speak from experience about the available options and the consequences for those concerned.

Panel Moderator: Peter Jarvis

Speaker: James M. Bergin

Speaker: Kelly Firment

Speaker: Ronald C. Minkoff

Momentous changes are on the horizon that may alter forever the way in which professional services generally, and legal services in particular, are delivered. This panel will look at three of these potentially paradigmatic changes: (1) the continuing movement toward, the need for, and the implications of a licensure structure for lawyers that permits law practice across state lines (MJP); (2) the implications of the Legal Services Act 2007 for American law firms - and how the American legal profession might establish a national regulatory structure in order to remain globally competitive; and (3) the new, client driven movement toward alternative billing structures: whether (and why) the breeze of the past may be about to become a hurricane, and what will be left of the traditional law firm model if it does. After introducing these topics, the panel will invite extensive audience involvement in the discussion.

Panel Moderator: Anthony Davis

Speaker: Gillian Hadfield

Speaker: Michael Roster

Speaker: Kirk A. Swanson