Managing Pandemic Pandemonium

Managing Pandemic Pandemonium and the Climate Change Conundrum: What is a Design Professional to do?

This is a virtual event. Zoom log-in information will be emailed to registrants 24 hours in advance from events@aialosangeles.org. If you do not receive a confirmation 24 hours prior to the event, please email events@aialosangeles.org.

CES Learning Units: 1 LU

The A&E Professional Liability program of RSG National Specialty Programs is excited to share this exclusive webinar sponsored by Aspen American Insurance Company, Collins + Collins LLP, and the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles chapter.

This educational webinar is available to the Architects, Engineers, and Design Professionals insured through Aspen American Insurance Company and their retail insurance agents and brokers.

This webinar will focus on the twin challenges to the design community resulting from the Covid pandemic, soon entering its 3rd year, and the insidious effect of climate change on designing the built environment. While seemingly somewhat different in nature, the pandemic and climate change present many of the same challenges to the design community in terms of major adjustments to how people live, work, gather, entertain, worship, congregate, and function in the new and coming “normal”. These twin challenges are fundamentally altering the expectations of society and the client constituents of architects, engineers, and designers of all stripes. The expectations and targets dictated by society are constantly moving which fundamentally alter how the built environment will be designed and function going forward. The focus of the presentation will be on not only the changes that are occurring but how those changes ripple through the legal exposure to the designers which have always existed but are now being stretched and altered in some profound and permanent ways. The goal of the presentation will be to share some understandings, expectations and insights on how to better protect the design community from claims and litigation. The webinar will discuss contractual protections, the importance of a better defined scope in terms of what the designer will and will not do, refining the standard of care, and how to try and get out ahead of changes that are being imposed on humanity from forces seemingly beyond our control. In conclusion, the goal of this webinar is to lead to a better understanding of how to deal with a profound and fundamental truth; change is inevitable and therefore, you must manage change or change will manage you.

Presenters:

Brian K. Stewart, Esq. – Managing Partner, Collins + Collins, LLP
Brian K. Stewart, Esq. is the managing partner of Collins + Collins, LLP, a law firm with offices throughout California. He focuses on professional liability and catastrophic injury matters, with an emphasis in representation of design and construction management professionals in all aspects of their practice, including contract review through trial and appeal. He was awarded the Honorable AIA-CC designation in 2009, the Presidential Citation from AIA-CC in 2014, and the Honorable AIA-LA designation in 2016. He is licensed to practice law in California and Illinois and is a member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). He and his firm are rated AV-Pre-Eminent by Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Stewart is a frequent speaker at professional and industry events.

Brooke Williams – Senior Claims Examiner, Aspen Insurance
Brooke Williams is a Senior Claims Examiner with Aspen Insurance handling professional liability claims for architects and engineers. Brooke has seventeen years of combined experience as an attorney representing professionals and in handling professional liability claims. Prior to joining Aspen, Brooke worked as Senior Claims Counsel with Hiscox Insurance, as Staff Counsel for Cincinnati Insurance, and as an attorney with two insurance defense firms in Atlanta, Georgia. Brooke attended the University of Mississippi School of Law, and she is licensed to practice law in Georgia.

Learning Objectives:
+ Analyze the effect on the design community of the Covid pandemic and the continuing complications caused by changes in client expectations due to actual and perceived health concerns the pandemic has brought on and how to manage these issues from a legal standpoint.
+ Analyze the effect on the design community caused by climate change and the effect on the standard of care when dealing with the seemingly contradictory goals of resiliency in design and designing “green” to lessen the impact on the planet in terms of resources used in construction.
+ Explore the above issues with an eye towards limiting the exposure to the design professional to claims and litigation by analyzing such things as proper scope definition, management of client expectations, contractual defenses and “best” practices in design with the goal of avoiding litigation to the extent possible.
+ Forecast and explore what potential future litigation will look like as well as possible defenses to that litigation resulting from dynamic changes both within and outside our structures affecting how they are designed. The presentation will explore how design professionals can better protect themselves from the changing world created by the pandemic and our collective pandemic response as well as the influence of the changing environment on both the interior and the exterior of the built space by exploring some “what if” scenarios.