Chicago

The D&O Diary was in Chicago for a brief visit this past week. Chicago is a great place to visit anytime of the year, but the month of May might be just about the optimal time to visit. On the day of my arrival at least, the weather was just about perfect. The purpose of my visit to Chicago was to attend the 2024 Annual Meeting of the American College of Coverage Counsel.

The ACCC is a leading organization of attorneys that represent the interests of insurers or policyholders in insurance coverage litigation. This was my first time attending an ACCC annual meeting. I was nominated as an ACCC Honorary Fellow last year, but due to scheduling conflicts I was unable to attend last year’s event. It was great to be able to attend this year and to have this introduction to the organization, its membership, and its focus. The event was very social, but there was also substantive sessions as well. The sessions were as in-depth as any I have ever attended. Although there were a number of attendees at the event that I have previously met, including several whom I know quite well, there were also a lot of attendees whom I had never met before. It was great meeting everyone, and being a part of this event.

Here’s a picture taken at the opening night reception with Angela Elbert, of the Neal Gerber & Eisenberg law firm, who officially became the ACCC’s President at this year’s Annual Meeting.
Here are two of the people I met for the first time at this event, Andrew Nadolna of JAMS, and Gina Clausen Lozier of the Clausen Choquette law firm in Lake Worth, FL.

Here’s a picture of my dinner party on the first evening of the event; I meant to get a picture at the dinner, but just forgot to do it, so we posed for this picture afterwards. From left to right, Bob Katzenstein of the Smith Katzenstein Jenkins law firm; Mike Manire of the Manire Galla Curley law firm; my good friend and former colleague Leslie Ahari of the Warner Ahari Mangel law firm; and Gavin Curley of Manire Galla Curley.
A group shot taken at the lunch reception on the event’s first day.
With Bob Allen of the The Robert Allen Law Group in Dallas. Bob was a great host for me during my first time attending the conference, he made sure I had dinner arrangements and that I generally knew what was going on. Many thanks to Bob for his courtesy and friendship.
Here’s a picture with Richard Milone of the Milone Law Firm in Washington, D.C. Richard and I met at the conference because Richard introduced himself to me as a reader of The D&O Diary. We went on to learn that we have many acquaintances in common.
Here’s a picture with Alan Van Etten. I am here to tell you that Alan is the smartest guy in the industry. Alan has not only established himself doing insurance coverage work, but he figured out a way to do it in Honolulu. Genius. Sheer genius.
I snapped this group picture as the official photographer was trying to organize everyone for a group picture. A hopeless exercise trying to organize a bunch of lawyers. I went ahead and took a picture while everyone was still resisting the photographer’s futile herding efforts.