Course Descriptions
Professional Liability Week | June 2026
Don’t miss Wilson Elser’s complimentary Professional Liability Week series.
Professional Liability Week brings together members of our Professional Liability & Services team to share insights on the evolving challenges of professional liability risk. This four-part webinar series examines key issues, including scope of services disputes, digital-age risks in documentation and communication, the strategic use of contract language in managing and transferring risk, and the emerging implications of artificial intelligence in claims handling and defense. Each session offers practical strategies for evaluating exposure, strengthening defenses, and navigating an increasingly complex liability landscape.
Join one or all sessions for practical insights from Wilson Elser’s industry experts.
JUNE 8, 1 PM ET
Scope of Services: Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives for Claims Professionals
Kimberly Blair, Peter Catalanotti, Joseph, Francoeur, and Alexandra Skarka
The session provides a cross-disciplinary overview of how scope of services issues arise across design and construction, legal, brokerage, and real estate professions. Presenters will address how engagement agreements define and limit the scope of professional services, the risks of scope creep and undocumented service expansion, and available defenses based on scope limitations. Also discussed are evidentiary sources and trial strategies for scope disputes; deposition tactics specific to scope of services claims; underwriting red flags and claims investigation best practices; third-party liability exposure when non-clients rely on an insured’s work product; and potential subrogation opportunities.
JUNE 9, 1 PM ET
Hit Send; Hit Panic! Protecting Your Protocols in the Digital Age
Maxwell Billek, Peter Larkin and Daniel Tranen
This presentation is designed to help professionals understand the risks they face in the digital age arising from document retention, email, metadata, and accidental disclosure of information. The presentation provides recommendations for risk management in these areas and explains how such risks can create or exacerbate liability in claims. It also encourages claims handlers to examine their own habits and practices in these areas and identify opportunities for improvement.
JUNE 9, 1 PM ET
Hit Send; Hit Panic! Protecting Your Protocols in the Digital Age
Maxwell Billek, Peter Larkin and Daniel Tranen
This presentation is designed to help professionals understand the risks they face in the digital age arising from document retention, email, metadata, and accidental disclosure of information. The presentation provides recommendations for risk management in these areas and explains how such risks can create or exacerbate liability in claims. It also encourages claims handlers to examine their own habits and practices in these areas and identify opportunities for improvement.
JUNE 10 , 1 PM ET
Contracts with Teeth – Effective Defenses and Risk Transfer
John Podesta, Wendy Testa and Andrew Rossi
A strong contract can serve as a sword to a party proactively pursuing a remedy or risk transfer from another contracting party. A well-negotiated contract can effectively shield a contracting party from significant liability exposure that is not reasonably related to that party's actual professional services. Contractual risk management is therefore critical, along with the need to evaluate certain risk that may be required to secure the client, obtain business, or “win” a project. It also requires the risk management team – claims professional, broker, and defense counsel – to adjust its strategy when handling contractual disputes, particularly when faced with challenging contract language and decisions on which players to consider for joinder and/or potential risk transfer.
JUNE 11 , 1 PM ET
When AI Fails: Risks of Overreliance on Artificial Intelligence in Insurance Claims and Defense Litigation
Lawrence Lee Washburn, IV and Ryan Williams
This session examines how the increasing adoption of AI across the insurance industry creates new exposures when claims professionals defer to algorithmic outputs at the expense of exercising independent professional judgment. Presenters address how AI tools are currently being used in claims evaluation, reserving, and coverage analysis; the specific risks of uncritical reliance on AI-generated outputs; the professional and ethical obligations that cannot be delegated to technology; what assigned defense counsel are doing with AI tools in litigation – including legal research, drafting, and case strategy – and how that usage affects the quality and integrity of the defense provided. Also discussed are best practices for claims professionals to verify and supervise AI-assisted work product from both internal and external sources, and emerging regulatory and case law developments governing AI use in insurance and legal practice.
JUNE 11 , 1 PM ET
When AI Fails: Risks of Overreliance on Artificial Intelligence in Insurance Claims and Defense Litigation
Lawrence Lee Washburn, IV and Ryan Williams
This session examines how the increasing adoption of AI across the insurance industry creates new exposures when claims professionals defer to algorithmic outputs at the expense of exercising independent professional judgment. Presenters address how AI tools are currently being used in claims evaluation, reserving, and coverage analysis; the specific risks of uncritical reliance on AI-generated outputs; the professional and ethical obligations that cannot be delegated to technology; what assigned defense counsel are doing with AI tools in litigation – including legal research, drafting, and case strategy – and how that usage affects the quality and integrity of the defense provided. Also discussed are best practices for claims professionals to verify and supervise AI-assisted work product from both internal and external sources, and emerging regulatory and case law developments governing AI use in insurance and legal practice..
Stay ahead of emerging challenges in today’s complex risk landscape.