But he added that due to the generally low incidence of employment practices lawsuits abroad, it is difficult to convince overseas employers to pay for EPLI in the worldwide hard market.

His and other panelists' comments came at a Professional Liability/Employment Practices Liability symposium for lawyers and accountants held by the Professional Liability Underwriting Society in New York.

Mr. Schiavone said potential buyers want "the deductibles to be zero," and the retentions (the self-insured amount an insured must pay before a policy kicks in) are low, Mr. Schiavone observed.

Cathleen M. Fitzpatrick, senior vice president at Marsh Inc., New York, reported that her company has been seeing more inquiries from overseas employers about EPLI and that there appears to be more willingness among carriers to accommodate the needs of those employers.

Alan A. LeNoble, vice president at Liberty International Underwriters, New York, said he found that EPLI is more likely to be sold in countries that have a case-law precedent type of legal system, such as the United Kingdom and Australia.

In contrast, he described a case in Colombia in which apparent medical malpractice resulted in the death of a newborn. Mr. LeNoble said that while attorneys in the United States "would have been all over this," in Colombia the incident was regarded an act of God, a reflection of the culture.

He also observed that since Japanese-owned corporations in the U.S. --such as Mitsubishi-- have been hit with substantial employment discrimination lawsuits in recent years, employers in Japan are now more willing to buy EPLI.

Mr. LeNoble also predicted that the next "hot spot" for the international EPLI market will be Israel. Among the reasons for this are that the Israeli society is litigious and many U.S. attorneys have repatriated there, he explained.

The panelists agreed that in most cases when EPLI claims are presented overseas, the payouts are $5,000 or less. At the same time, premiums are low.

Mr. Schiavone suggested that one deterrent to more lawsuits abroad is that in most countries, the losing party must pay the legal costs of the other side.

Ms. Fitzpatrick added that the EPLI market abroad is approximately at the stage in which the U.S. market was five-to-10 years ago. "The [employment] laws are starting to change and there will be requirements in place" in countries such as the U.K. and in the European Union, she noted.

Mr. LeNoble said that when evaluating the size of an exposure, he looks at how many U.S. workers are at a particular overseas company.

This is because expatriate employees, who have certain expectations of a workplace environment stemming from their U.S. experiences, are the ones more likely to initiate an employment practices lawsuit against a company abroad, he explained.

Finally, Mr. Schiavone suggested that the current anti-immigrant climate found in some European countries will probably have a spillover effect on employers--and by extension the EPLI market--as the number of discrimination claims by immigrant workers is likely to rise.