Dallas Bar Association
HEADNOTES Focus Tort & Insurance Practice
June 2016 Volume 41 Number 6
Bar None Presents Straight Outta Uptown: The World’s Most Dangerous Lawyers BY MICHELLE M. ALDEN
Join the cast and crew of Bar None June 15-18 as they present Bar None XXXI – Straight Outta Uptown: The World’s Most Dangerous Lawyers. This is the 31st year for the Bar None variety show and it promises to be the best show yet. Watch Dallas area lawyers and judges sing, dance, and make you laugh so hard your sides hurt. As much as the cast and crew love performing and making people laugh, their real motivation is to support the Sarah T. Hughes Diversity Scholarship program. The scholarship program was established in honor of U.S. District Judge Sarah T. Hughes, a former trustee of the Dallas Bar Foundation. The Hughes Scholarship provides tuition and fees for deserving minority students each year. Students at SMU Dedman School of Law, UNT Dallas College of Law, and Texas A&M School of Law are eligible to apply for the scholarship. The Dallas Bar Foundation takes its responsibility for finding deserving recipients seriously. If you have ever met a Hughes Scholar, you know how impressive these
students are. Support them by coming to Bar None. Thousands of volunteer hours go into putting on such a large production each year. The hours come from lawyers all over the metroplex including 31-year-veteran Director Martha Hardwick Hofmeister and Producer Tom Mighell, as well as the choreographers, script writers, committee members, actors, and numerous behind-the-scenes staff. All of these Bar Noners share a passion for making a difference in the lives of the Scholars, our legal community and, for a few hours, the audience members. Show your support for the Dallas legal community and the Hughes Scholars by heading to the Greer Garson Theatre on the SMU Campus June 15-18. To purchase tickets, visit www.barnoneshow.com, or contact Elizabeth Philipp at (214) 220-7487 or ephilipp@dallasbar.org for sponsorship and ticket information. HN Michelle Alden is the Managing Attorney of the Dallas Volunteer Attorney Program and a Member of the Marketing Committee of the Bar None Production Company. She can be reached at aldenm@ lanwt.org.
DBA to Dedicate Two Habitat Houses STAFF REPORT
Every year, for the past 24 years, the Dallas Bar Association has raised funds for, and built, an entire home for a family in need. The DBA is the longest running wholehouse sponsor in Dallas. This year marks our 25th anniversary, and to highlight that milestone, we partnered with AT&T to build not one, but two Habitat homes. The second home is already fully funded, thanks to the generosity of AT&T, through its Senior Executive Vice President and General Counsel David McAtee, and the work of DBA President Jerry Alexander and DBA First Vice President Michael Hurst. The additional home was funded by DBA members, firms, and other organizations that support this life-changing program. Both homes, which are located near each other at 2031 Nomas Street and 2015 Nomas Street,
Focus
Dallas, will be dedicated on Saturday, June 11, at 9:00 a.m. All members are welcome to join us as we help present these homes to two deserving families who have worked alongside us to build their new homes—the Reh Meh family consists of Pray and Len and their children Poe, Pray, and Nga; and the Campos family, which consists of Jose and Fancisa and their children Danilo, Darwin, and Angelique. The DBA Home Project Committee coordinates the build and is led by co-chairs David Fisk, of Kane Russell Coleman & Logan PC, and Ethan Minshull, of Wick Phillips. If you still need to make your charitable donation, please make the donation payable to Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity and send to DBA Home Project, ATTN: Yedenia Hinojos, Dallas Bar Association, 2101 Ross Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75201. HN
Tort & Insurance Practice
Collaborative Law Strategies for the Insurance Defense Practice BY DWAYNE J. HERMES AND ERICA R. LAY
Although collaborative law has traditionally only been utilized in the family law context, there are opportunities to adapt the collaborative law framework for an insurance defense practice. In the insurance defense context, collaborative law can be utilized as a means of reducing the cost of litigation. Regular reporting to the insured and carrier that includes analysis of whether collaborative law is an option is a method of demonstrating to the carrier the firm’s ability to achieve resolutions creatively and in a way that furthers objectives of all involved. According to the 2015 Claims & Litigation Management Alliance Litigation Management Study General Report, risk industry executives indicated that they wished their panel
firms did a better job of demonstrating creativity, focusing more on resolution, and utilizing non-discovery and nontraditional methods. Simply put, carriers are looking for defense firms to ‘think outside the box’ in achieving resolutions. This is where collaborative process comes into play. The goal of this article is to share a few strategies for adapting the collaborative law framework for an insurance defense practice. The process described is a robust version that can be modified based on the particular case. The first step is to educate the insured and the carrier regarding the collaborative process. Make sure that the insured and the carrier agree to expectations of conduct and sign the participation agreement. If they are unwilling to sign the participation
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Inside 5
Fine Art Insurance – A Horse of a Different Color
11
New Damages Law with Total Destructions
13
DBA Pro Bono Golf Tournament
17
Mass Torts 101 for Smarties
Register now for the SBOT 2016 Annual Meeting The 2016 State Bar Annual Meeting is in Fort Worth, June 16-17. For more information and to register, visit www.texasbar.com/annualmeeting.