Attorney-Client Privilege in Insurance Disputes: Preserving Confidentiality, Meeting Legal Ethics Standards
Waiver and Exceptions to the Privilege, the Tripartite Relationship, and the Role of Counsel in Claims Handling and Litigation
Recording of a 90-minute CLE webinar with Q&A
This CLE course will guide insurance counsel on steps to protect confidential communications and preserve the attorney-client privilege. The panel will discuss waiver and exceptions to the privilege, the interplay with reinsurance and reporting to reinsurers, the tripartite relationship, the role of lawyers in the context of insurance disputes, and relevant legal ethics standards.
Outline
- Overview of the attorney-client privilege in insurance litigation, including the interplay with reinsurance
- Tripartite relationship issues and exceptions to privilege
- Best practices for preserving the privilege
- Meeting legal ethics standards and guidelines when serving as insurance defense counsel
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- What privilege challenges do counsel to insurance companies face on claims disputes and litigation?
- How does the role of the insurance company counsel undermine the attorney-client privilege and sometimes lead to an unintended waiver?
- What are some exceptions to attorney-client privilege that arise in insurance disputes?
- What are best practices for insurers' counsel to protect the attorney-client privilege?
- What are insurance defense counsels' legal ethics obligations to the insured, and how can counsel ensure strict compliance with applicable ethics standards?
Faculty
Adam Gajadharsingh
Attorney
Barnes & Thornburg
Mr. Gajadharsingh has handled general corporate, class action, insurance defense, breach of contract, and unfair... | Read More
Mr. Gajadharsingh has handled general corporate, class action, insurance defense, breach of contract, and unfair competition disputes, among others. He has significant experience in the fields of data security, knowledge management, and e-discovery. Mr. Gajadharsingh is also well-versed in privilege protection, having developed procedures and training protocols to help ensure that privileged and work product material is not inadvertently produced during the discovery process. He has trained hundreds of attorneys regarding privilege law and has reviewed and/or challenged the validity of thousands of privilege coding determinations. Mr. Gajadharsingh has also presented on data security and privacy issues.
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Travis S. Hunter
Director
Richards Layton & Finger
Mr. Hunter is a trial lawyer who has successfully handled cases in all of Delaware’s state and federal courts,... | Read More
Mr. Hunter is a trial lawyer who has successfully handled cases in all of Delaware’s state and federal courts, with particular expertise handling large commercial and trade secrets disputes in the Delaware Superior Court’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division (CCLD). He routinely litigates complex commercial and intellectual property cases involving business contracts, mergers and acquisitions, trade secrets, patent disputes, insurance coverage, and products liability. Mr. Hunter has served as trial counsel in some of Delaware’s largest trials, including two of the largest cases ever filed in the CCLD, as well as trial counsel in large arbitrations filed with the American Arbitration Association.
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Larry P. Schiffer
Partner
Squire Patton Boggs (US)
Mr. Schiffer practices in the areas of commercial, insurance and reinsurance litigation, arbitration, and mediation. He... | Read More
Mr. Schiffer practices in the areas of commercial, insurance and reinsurance litigation, arbitration, and mediation. He also provides advice on coverage, insurance insolvency, and contract wording issues for a wide variety of insurance and reinsurance relationships. He is active in legal and insurance industry associations where he has held various leadership positions. Mr. Schiffer has lectured in the U.S. and the UK, and has been widely published on reinsurance and other insurance, litigation, and technology topics in various national and international journals and publications.
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