Dream Job was an ESPN reality show in which young slackers and sports nuts vied to become a real-life Sports Center newscaster. The winner got a one-year contract and the right to shout "Boo-yah!" during footage of home runs sailing over ballpark fences.
Some defense lawyers also are discovering their dream jobs. Defendants facing class action lawsuits or other mass torts often embrace a national coordinating counsel structure to guide their claim defense. Increasingly, however, defendants clamor and lobby insurers to fund national coordinating counsel when they have few claims or lawsuits. I have seen adjusters being pressured to appoint national coordinating counsel when there have been three or four product liability claims. In one case, a company that did not yet have a single claim entreated us to appoint national coordinating counsel for it.
Perhaps goaded by law firms, who see such assignments as plum jobs, some corporate clients and risk managers are convinced that this arrangement is a prudent step for their insurers to fund and implement. Let's examine the tradeoffs, the pros and cons of adopting a national coordinating counsel model for claim defense.
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