Loss Prevention
ALAS, Inc.’s (ALAS) loss prevention program is the most comprehensive available in the lawyers’ professional liability insurance industry. Good firms have always understood the importance of sound loss prevention practices. Significant growth in the size of law firms, important developments in lawyer liability, and changes in the law that affect how lawyers practice have only heightened the importance of loss prevention.
ALAS loss prevention counsel, all former partners at established, high-quality firms, provide a wide range of services to meet this need. The mutual nature of ALAS encourages our insured firms to share their experiences with us and with other ALAS insured firms and greatly enhances our efforts. We hear regularly from firm lawyers about new challenges in their respective jurisdictions or practice areas. They also respond enthusiastically when we seek their help in specialized practice areas, or with law firm management and administrative issues. Further, the ALAS Claims Department shares with us their experience with professional liability law suits. Based on this shared experience, ALAS loss prevention counsel can provide practical, timely guidance to our insured firms. Of course, we recognize that our advice is not necessarily appropriate for every lawyer or law firm or for every situation. As a result, ALAS loss prevention materials are not designed, nor are they intended, to establish practice standards or standards of care applicable to the performance of a lawyer in any given situation.
Conferences and Presentations
Annual General Meeting and Loss Prevention Programs. The Annual General Meeting (AGM) is the centerpiece of the ALAS year, and loss prevention presentations are a major part of that meeting. Our programs feature knowledgeable experts from inside and outside ALAS firms, along with mock juries, mock mediations, video vignettes, audience surveys, and other audio-visual tools that ensure the programs will be interesting as well as informative. We provide useful ideas that the attendees, largely our insured firm liaisons, can implement at their firms. Video recordings of the AGM programs are sent to insured firms in DVD format.
Firm Loss Prevention Presentations. ALAS loss prevention counsel frequently present programs to insured firm lawyers around the world. We use actual claims scenarios to show firm lawyers how situations that arise regularly in their practices can lead to a malpractice claim. By alerting lawyers to the potential risks in those situations and urging them to seek help promptly from their in-firm loss prevention partners, we arm them with the tools necessary to minimize exposure.
Regional Loss Prevention Conferences. ALAS sponsors annual regional loss prevention conferences with the assistance of our primary firm liaisons. The conferences are held in over 40 cities around the United States and in London. They feature an ALAS loss prevention presentation and/or group discussion on a topic of interest, typically chosen from a menu of topics offered by ALAS, as well as a short update on developments at ALAS.
Firm Administration Conference. This biennial conference brings together administrators from ALAS insured firms to discuss the most perplexing problems that they confront. Conference programming includes plenary sessions presented by panels of law firm experts and ALAS personnel on topics such as technology, employment practices, management liability, and claims trends, interspersed with breakout sessions on these and other subjects of interest to participants.
Practice-Specific Consultation Groups. ALAS sponsors a Patent Consultation Group that conducts a conference or a Webcast each year to provide a forum for our insured firms’ intellectual property lawyers to discuss their unique loss prevention challenges. ALAS also has sponsored two Bankruptcy Consultation Group conferences and will continue to do so when warranted.
Special Workshops and Seminars. ALAS organizes special topical workshops and seminars to respond to timely needs of ALAS firms. For example, ALAS recently conducted a series of half-day regional practice group management workshops led by insured firm managing partners, practice group leaders, ALAS representatives, and others. Attendees included managing partners, loss prevention partners, practice group leaders, office heads, and firm administrators. Similarly, in 2008, almost 500 insured firm lawyers and administrators attended conferences in 13 cities related to law firm records management. We incorporated what we learned from those conferences into a law firm management guide on records management. Other special ALAS seminars have analyzed the risks associated with certain practice areas, including estate planning, financial institutions, health care, and bond and municipal finance.
Consultations
ALAS offers a wide variety of publications to assist insured firms with their loss prevention efforts. All of these resources are available in a fully searchable format on the ALAS Web site.
Loss Prevention Manual. The ALAS Loss Prevention Manual, updated annually, is a comprehensive, in-depth reference guide on professional responsibility and liability issues relevant to ALAS insured firms.
Prototype Lawyers’ Manual. The ALAS Prototype Lawyers’ Manual includes over 100 sample policies and related forms specifically designed to address the needs of our insured firms.
Loss Prevention Journal. Published three times a year for all insured firm lawyers, the ALAS Loss Prevention Journal includes articles on a broad range of topics of interest for our insured firms.
Loss Prevention Hotlines. For issues that are time-sensitive, such as new court decisions, ethics opinions, or administrative regulations, ALAS e-mails Hotlines to our insured firms.
Loss Prevention E-Newsletter. For items that may not merit the immediate attention of our Hotlines, we periodically publish an E-Newsletter containing five to eight topical articles.
Law Firm Management Guides. From time to time, ALAS publishes law firm management guides that provide practical guidance on important issues such as records management, lawyer mobility, employment practices liability, management liability, and business intake. New management guides on data security and the intellectual property practice are planned for 2012.
Training Videos and Webcasts
Videos. ALAS produces educational videos that our insured firms use for in-house programming. Our DVD, “Welcome to ALAS: An Introduction to Loss Prevention,” is targeted at lateral hires who may come from practice environments not as sensitive to loss prevention issues as ALAS insured firms. Other DVDs address the business intake process, the intellectual property practice, conflicts of interests, and handling mistakes and claims.
Webcasts. ALAS periodically presents live Webcasts to our insured firms. These Webcasts address a wide range of subjects of interest to both lawyers and law firm managers and administrators, including challenges related to law firm management, e-discovery, advanced conflicts of interest, and global law practice. Those who miss the live version can view the recorded Webcast for several months following the live program, and they can request a video CD of the program thereafter.
Loss Prevention Minutes. ALAS produces short Loss Prevention Minute videos that contain reminders about key loss prevention practices. These messages are sent by e-mail to our insured firm liaisons for further distribution at their firms.
ALAS’s loss prevention programs and publications are based on our extensive knowledge of professional liability risks. We are not aware of any other loss prevention program that can compare with the ALAS program.