Preventive Law
As the owner of a $30 million automobile insurance managing general agency and, most recently, as a general counsel to a $3 billion property & casualty insurer, I have experienced legal issues from the client’s perspective. And I have learned that what clients want most is early and efficient resolution of issues, not time-consuming and expensive litigation of them. Most of my attention over the last fifteen years has been devoted to resolving disputes, not fanning them.
We believe that a lawyer’s first job is to help his or her client avoid trouble. We are available for spot or more extensive consultations on application and policy drafting, underwriting, cancellation and claims practices, billing and privacy concerns, advertising and other marketing questions, and vendor and other contract issues. We try to understand what is coming around the bend and want to exchange views with our clients. We believe continuous and candid dialogue puts clients in a better position to anticipate the possible downside consequences of their practices and actions.
This is particularly so in this era of aggressive use of California’s Unfair Competition Law to challenge insurers’ business practices. While Proposition 64 has ameliorated some of the worst abuses of that law, many UCL issues are either unsettled or disputed within the appellate courts. What one court may believe should properly be left to an administrative agency, or even private parties, another court may eagerly address. In this unpredictable climate, we believe insurers should avail themselves aggressively of preventive counsel as to all their interactions with their various constituencies.