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Book Review
It's exciting to find something entirely new and innovative. That's how I feel about the treatise by Richard Jacobs, Lorelie Masters and Paul Stanley, “Liability Insurance in International Arbitration ' The Bermuda Form.”
Thorn Rosenthal of New York's Cahill Gordon & Reindel firm was commissioned to draft a policy in the mid-1980s for Marsh & McLennan, to be used by policyholder-sponsored insurance companies that had been formed for the purpose of increasing capacity in the catastrophic excess casualty market. The policy form Rosenthal created became known as the Bermuda Form. It was the insurance industry's first occurrence-reported general liability form, combining elements of occurrence, accident and claims-made forms. The treatise sets forth in detail the legal and economic forces that stimulated the development of the occurrence-reported form, concluding:
The 'Bermuda Form' policy, as originally drafted and issued by ACE, is properly to be regarded as a balanced policy form, aiming to hold the ring fairly between the interests of policyholders and the interests of investors, as the same industrial corporations were in both roles. Id. at 14, section 1.19.
This treatise is the first comprehensive published analysis of the Bermuda Form, and therefore fills an important void in the literature. The authors have pioneered into an untrodden region.
Most coverage lawyers spend a fair amount of their time looking at forms that have been widely used and repeatedly construed by appellate courts. Often we find ourselves, as researchers and adversaries, plowing through a welter of opinions and commentary to select the most well-reasoned or best-stated interpretation of particular contract wordings, or discerning trends across multiple jurisdictions that have dealt with substantially similar texts.
Major Differences In UK, U.S. Copyright Laws
This article highlights how copyright law in the United Kingdom differs from U.S. copyright law, and points out differences that may be crucial to entertainment and media businesses familiar with U.S law that are interested in operating in the United Kingdom or under UK law. The article also briefly addresses contrasts in UK and U.S. trademark law.
Strategy vs. Tactics: Two Sides of a Difficult Coin
With each successive large-scale cyber attack, it is slowly becoming clear that ransomware attacks are targeting the critical infrastructure of the most powerful country on the planet. Understanding the strategy, and tactics of our opponents, as well as the strategy and the tactics we implement as a response are vital to victory.
The Article 8 Opt In
The Article 8 opt-in election adds an additional layer of complexity to the already labyrinthine rules governing perfection of security interests under the UCC. A lender that is unaware of the nuances created by the opt in (may find its security interest vulnerable to being primed by another party that has taken steps to perfect in a superior manner under the circumstances.
Removing Restrictive Covenants In New York
In Rockwell v. Despart, the New York Supreme Court, Third Department, recently revisited a recurring question: When may a landowner seek judicial removal of a covenant restricting use of her land?