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USI Affinity and the American Bar Association (ABA) recently announced a new partnership with Berkley Select, a Berkley Company, to offer a new Employment Practices Liability Insurance (EPLI) program for law firms nationwide. As the broker for the ABA Insurance Program, which provides insurance and financial solutions for ABA members and their firms, USI Affinity now offers access to this new EPLI program designed to meet the unique needs of law firms.

We are excited to have William Fair join our organization as Chief Underwriting Officer. Bill has over 27 years of industry experience and holds his CPCU, RPLU, and ARe. He is also a licensed attorney and has held various strategic leadership roles in Property & Casualty and Facultative Reinsurance underwriting organizations. Most recently, Bill was the Sales and Strategy SVP for an international reinsurer.

Formal Opinion No. 492 states that a lawyer who receives information that “could be significantly harmful” from a prospective client and then represents a client in the same or a substantially related matter where that client’s interests are materially adverse to those of the prospective client violates Model Rule 1.18(c), unless the conflict is waived by the prospective client. Whether information that “could be significantly harmful” has been disclosed by a prospective client is a fact-specific inquiry and determined on a case-by-case basis.

Jeffrey Yao comes to Berkley Select having over 20 years in the property & casualty industry and hold his Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Jeff has extensive expertise having held claims leadership roles with a focus in areas of Management Liability and Professional Liability.

Alastair Shore has over 30 years of experience in the property casualty insurance business and holds the Fellow of both the Casualty Actuarial Society (FCAS) and the Institute of Actuaries (FIA). He is also a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Alastair has held various leadership roles for major insurance companies including Chief Financial Officer, Chief Risk Officer, and Chief Actuary.