BatesCarey LLP partner, Adam H. Fleischer, will present a webinar titled Independent Counsel: When Required & Strategies for Defense. The half-hour webinar is presented through the Claims & Litigation Management Alliance (CLM) 2015 Webinar Series. It will take place on Wednesday, March 11 at 11 a.m. central. For registration, click here.

In recent months, courts have issued numerous decisions impacting both the liability exposures frequently seen on the professional liability front, as well as the insurance coverage issues arising from those liabilities. To keep you abreast of these developments, we provide below a summary of those recent professional liability decisions. As an overview, the decisions generally fall into these categories, addressing the following issues:

Robert J. Bates, Jr., Arthur F. Brandt, and Michael H. Passman contributed to the 2014 edition of "Commercial and Professional Liability Insurance," an Illinois insurance law handbook published by the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education. Robert J. Bates, Jr. and Arthur F. Brandt co-authored the chapter on the pollution exclusion. Michael H. Passman authored the chapter on declaratory judgment litigation. The book can be ordered here.

On September 17, 2014, Michael H. Passman presented on "Reservation of Rights and Estoppel" at "Handling Insurance Coverage Disputes," an Illinois insurance law conference in Bloomington, Illinois organized by the Illinois Institute of Continuing Legal Education. Michael's presentation included a discussion of (1) the options available to an insurer upon receiving a potentially covered claim, (2) reservation of rights letters, (3) how a reservation of rights letter effects the relationship between the insurer and the insured (including a discussion of the independent counsel rule), and (4) the Illinois estoppel rule.

Maria G. Enriquez will be attending the Women's Business Development Center's 28th Annual Entrepreneurial Woman's Conference in Chicago on September 17, 2014. The Women's Business Development Center focuses on meeting the needs of women and minority business owners in the Midwest. The conference offers women the opportunity to build relationships with potential clients, business experts, and other women business owners. For more information, please click here. On-site registration is available beginning at 7:30 a.m. at McCormick Place-West, 2301 S. Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, IL.

A new Illinois appellate decision clarified 35 years of confusing precedent, and shed light on a challenging coverage question: When an exonerated prisoner sues a public entity for malicious prosecution, is the public entity's insurance triggered in the year in which the wrongful evidence or coerced confessions were first fabricated, or is insurance triggered in the year when the exoneration occurs and the tort of malicious prosecution ripens? This coverage debate may be of growing significance, given that criminal exonerations seem to be increasing across the country.

Cory M. Figiel will be leading a panel discussion on the duties of insurers, entitled, "Young Lawyer Track: Duty – Or No Duty?" The panel discussion is hosted by the ABA on March 5, 2015 in Tucson, Arizona. The discussion will be led by Cory M. Figiel of BatesCarey LLP, Bridget Schuster of Williams Kastner & Gibbs, and Isaac Ruiz and Kathryn Knudsen of Keller Rohrback for the ABA Section of Litigation 2015 Insurance Coverage Litigation CLE Seminar.

Maria G. Enriquez will be a panelist on the upcoming webinar, "Bullying by and of Lawyers: Why It Happens and What to Do About It?" The webinar takes place on Tuesday, September 16, 2014, from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. EDT. The expert panel will explain why bulling is a persistent problem in the bar and on the bench, examining its effects on victims and perpetrators. The panel includes practitioners, a psychologist with expertise in lawyer behavior, a judge who has developed judicial professionalism programs, and a former state bar president. Maria G. Enriquez will be joined by panelists Hon. Michael P. Donnelly (Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas), Peter Graham, PhD (Acumen Assessments), and Julie I. Fershtman (Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith).

Please register here. The event code is CE1409BUL.

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BatesCarey LLP invites you to a panel discussion on "Enforcing 'Foreign' Arbitration Clauses and Responding to Jurisdictional Challenges in U.S. Courts," hosted by the XL Bermuda Claims Department. The discussion will be led by Ommid C. Farashahi and Jason P. Minkin of BatesCarey LLP and Joshua S. Force of Sher Garner Cahill Klein & Hilbert, L.L.C.

There have been several recent noteworthy decisions from courts examining insurance coverage for, and liability issues impacting, architects, engineers and other design professionals. These cases have dealt with, among other things:

• the scope and application of the "professional services" exclusion in commercial general liability policies;
• the duty of care owed to future homeowners;
• criminal liability for circumventing state and local codes;
• application of the "first cost" doctrine for calculating damages;
• the "completed and accepted doctrine;" and
• allocation between covered and non-covered claims.

We provide brief summaries of these cases below.