A New Era: Introducing Sean Preston

I love solving big hairy problems, and we’ve got one!

I returned to Massachusetts about 18 months ago. I hit a deer in Montana during the 3,000-mile trip from Washington state. A tire shop’s pry bar helped pull the left front bumper off my tire and I finished the remaining 2,200 miles to rejoin my wife and kids in Wareham, MA. Home.

My wife has graciously supported my career as an international corporate lawyer for most of the last decade. Our three children were born in Boston, Berlin (Germany) and Washington state, respectively. This final move to Massachusetts, her home state, was well-earned and well-deserved.

After wrapping up our matters out west, I needed a body shop to get my truck looking just as “cherry” as before. My first shock was just how hard it was to choose the local shop I already had in mind. In fact, the only thing harder was later choosing a locally owned glass shop when the family minivan got a chip in the windshield. Something was funny about these insurance claims.

Luckily, I made instant friends with AASP/MA member, Robertson’s Auto Body (Wareham) – and thankfully I did. I’ve been serving shops with another local attorney ever since, and I’ve had my eyes opened to some of the creative tactics employed by a handful of Massachusetts insurers hoping to reduce their contractual responsibility to their own customers.

If you have seen me at an AASP/MA chapter meeting or statewide event, you have likely noticed me taking notes and digesting industry knowledge as efficiently as I can. I do not consider this to be your industry and fight but OUR industry and fight! I am drinking from a firehose because I am seeing something troubling, and it’s the same thing that many of you can feel: our industry is being squeezed from our neighbors on every side (legislature, insurers and consumers).

Over the past 30 years, I have seen this twice before, however with different neighbors bearing down. I grew up in my family’s continued on pg. 38