Improve Your Run-off Negotiations: Hands on Training for Successful Negotiation Strategies, Techniques and Results

Following in the tradition of highly successful seminars that AIRROC has sponsored for its members in other cities, Foley created an all new program designed to provide run-off professionals with a valuable day of training. The seminar was based upon a mock ceded claim that involved issues typically faced on a day-to-day basis by ceding companies and reinsurers in run-off. After presentations by Foley lawyers regarding the key claims, accounting, and legal issues implicated by the fact pattern, participants were divided into ceding company and reinsurer teams. The teams evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of their positions, and developed a goal and a strategy for achieving that goal in negotiations. Those strategy sessions were followed by mock settlement/commutation negotiations in which multiple participants for each team had the opportunity to negotiate on their team’s behalf. Teams assessed the progress of the negotiations at breaks, and addressed important “real life” questions, such as whether to shift negotiation strategies, how to creatively satisfy their counter-party’s interests while still achieving their goal, and whether and when to draw that “line in the sand” and initiate legal proceedings instead. As an important backdrop, Foley lawyers provided insight into negotiation strategies and techniques as well as the analytical framework necessary to evaluate the likelihood of success in arbitration or litigation in the event a negotiated settlement or commutation cannot be achieved. At the end of the day, the teams came together and shared their experiences to collectively develop insights into approaches and strategies that were successful and, just as critically, those that backfired.

The seminar was designed for all run-off professionals who play a role in the claims process, including legal, accounting, and ceded and assumed claims staff. The participatory nature of the program provided less experienced professionals a rare opportunity to obtain valuable “hands on” negotiation experience in a training setting. And those who have negotiated countless settlements nonetheless benefitted from the opportunity to step back and re-examine their approaches to negotiation and to hear what other highly experienced professionals do to prepare for and conduct their negotiations. The hope is that the day provided insights into both substantive run-off issues as well as the negotiation process in general.

For more information, please contact Art Coleman at [email protected] or 203.595.9650.