Double Indemnity for Credit

It's almost the end of the year and all over the U.S. busy little lawyers are scurrying around doing their best to rack up enough continuing legal education (CLE) credits to remain in good standing with their respective bars for at least one more year.

Although both Wisconsin and New Mexico give first year lawyers a break and don't require CLEs from them until the following year after admission (2008 in my case), it's never to early to let one's butt grow numb via the combined efforts of a hotel chair and an overly sentence-heavy, power point slide show.

(Tip for Presenters: Stop reading the paragraphs of information you've put in your slides. Let the audience do that, it helps keep them awake).

I spent the day in a bad faith insurance CLE, which if truth be told was interesting and informative.

The seminar had the added bonus of reminding me of a particular insurance course at Wisconsin taught by one Professor Peter Carstensen. His course was great not only because of the subject, but also because Carstensen is a funny guy who knows how to keep his audience entertained. The only issue I had with the course was that it was scheduled to meet in the wee early hours of the morning, i.e. 8:00, 8:15 or some such time and which significantly impacted my attendance, no doubt.

But to think... a scant 18 months after first learning about subrogation, bad faith and those sneaky endorsements, I'm actually practicing insurance defense and enjoying myself immensely.

Thanks Pete!