75 Years of the Fidelity & Surety Law Committee
Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section

Dick Wisner and co-editor James A. Black, Jr. presented this paper at the FSLC Spring Meeting, May 22, 2009, in La Jolla, California.

Forward. The concept for this program grew out of a request by the Young Professionals group of the Fidelity and Surety Law Committee last year for someone to talk to them about the Committee and its history. Dick Wisner made the presentation at the FSLC Mid-winter Meeting in New York. Dick's presentation was warmly greeted, and he suggested to Seth Mills, the current Chair of the Committee, that it would be a good idea to update the history of the Committee with a presentation at a luncheon at one of the Committee's meetings. Since the Committee has just completed its 75th year of existence, Seth Mills immediately seized upon the idea to be part of the celebration of the Committee's 75 years of service to the industry and the law and commissioned Dick Wisner and Jim Black to put together this paper for presentation at the 2009 Spring Meeting in La Jolla, California.

We quickly realized that Paul McNamaray’s paper relating the First Fifty Years of the Committee's history not only did not need to be repeated but that it could not be done as well. It was decided, therefore, that we would republish Paul's work in the Appendix to this paper and we would focus on the last 25 years. In doing this, we called upon the Past Chairs for their input for their years and other memorable events that occurred during their work with the Committee.

We greatly thank all those who have contributed their stories and hope that this compendium will keep alive the memories and lore of this storied Committee. We offer this in Memory of the past Chairs who have gone on to practice in that Great Court of Last Resort.

The Editors

It is fitting that we include in this compendium, the thoughts and recollections of those who served the Committee during its first 50 years and who are still with us and who were able to share their thoughts and memories.

1968-1969: B.C. Hart of Minnesota was the Chair of the Committee 40 years ago and Chair of the Section 30 Years ago. B.C. greets us as follows:

My response to your e-mail invitation to supplement J. Paul McNamara's incomparable "First Fifty Year History of the Fidelity and Surety Law Committee" is made easy for those of us who served as Committee Chair during those 50 years.

However, it would be, at least for me, an unpardonable act of supererogation even to attempt any meaningful supplement to J. Paul's successful history of the first 50 years.

I have only one clear recollection of my experience as Chairman.

Technically, at the time I was unexpectedly elected, the Chairmanship was a two year term. At that time, I felt that my good friend and mentor, Bob Hume, deserved and should have been selected ahead of me. Strategically, I thought that he had other leadership ladders to climb which would be enhanced by leadership of the FSLC.

Without conferring with him, I resigned at the end of my first year as Chair and Bob was, predictably, elected to fill out my term. Not so predictably, the benefits of a one year term for the Chair stuck and has been in practice, to the benefit of the Committee, ever since.

Now, if my recollection of History is incorrect, I am sure someone else will set me straight.

We all know that "History is written by the survivors," such as those contributing to this 75th Anniversary volume ... but we also suspect that history is "a lie agreed upon." Unless we want to see my recollection set in stone, others should respond because, once written and published, this will be a part of our legacy and of our history.

There is no need to correct B.C.'s recollections, as he is correct as usual. While there are few, if any, left to argue with him, the record clearly shows that his selfless act of "abdication" to his friend Bob Hume did have the lasting effect of subjecting the Chair to only one year service. While some might note that Robert Ager, Gayle Weller and Gene Brady all served two year terms later on, the pattern was set and starting with Frank Skillem, every Chair since has served a one year term. I know all Past Chairs join us in thanking B.C. for setting the precedent.

Finally, we would be remiss to fail to point out that B.C.'s wit and charm were not all that he had. He will forever be remembered, in addition to his leadership skills and fine legal mind, for his non-stop dancing at TIPS and FSLC events and the long line of women waiting for a turn to dance with him.

While B.C. does not comment upon it, it is a matter of record that his outstanding contributions to fidelity and surety law were formally recognized by the committee when he was named the very first recipient of the Martin J. Andrew Award.

1978-1979: Douglas M. Reimer. Doug Reimer greets the Committee as follows:

Your e-mail came in while we were out of town. I will give some thought to the subject and be in touch with you in due course. We are doing well as can be expected. I retired from the law practice and am now working for a construction company. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

1981-1982: Robert D. Carnaghan. As Paul McNamara pointed out in his History, shortly after Edward E. Dorsey became Chair, he passed away and Robert D. Carnaghan, who was the then newly appointed Chair-elect, had to step in and take over the reins as Chair. All of this occurred while he was the Vice President and Head of the Claim Department of the Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland and fully engaged with those duties. In any event, without the benefit of any planning or organization such as we have today, Bob, without missing a step, ably organized the programs and activities of the Committee through his year.

In his usual humble manner, Bob offered these thoughts of his year as Chair:

I recall an event which I thought evidenced the high regard of the F.&S. Committee's standing. The event I refer to has stayed in my mind thought it had no drama nor do I have a recollection of any name.

Shortly after I succeeded to the Chairmanship of the F.&S. committee upon the death of Ed Dorsey, the Chairman, I was called to a meeting of all the various committees under the jurisdiction of TIPS. Each committee chair was asked to report on plans and of her details. I had not received an education on our Committee due to Ed's rather sudden death. While waiting to be called to report, I suffered from a feeling of incompetence.

The meeting was lengthy, and as chairman made their reports, they were allowed to leave the meeting. I was the last to be called upon. As I drew a deep breath, I heard the chairman say (as I recall), "Bob, we know about the good work of the F.&S. Committee and we will not waste your time." Understandably, the compliment was not a credit to me. Our Committee had many good governors and members who produced scholarly papers for our interest and the interests of the various segments of business such as contractors of various specialties, financial institutions, various businesses and governmental activities.

While Bob is clearly overly modest about his own accomplishments, his story does reflect the esteem with which this Committee has been held since its beginnings.

As many of you may know, Bob Carnaghan coined the term "Inquiries and Requests" or the shorthand version "I&Rs." During a conversation with Bob in the course of this project, he related to me how this came to be.

He stated that he was sitting in the office of a bank president following up on a proof of loss form which had been filed with the F&D in connection with a large and complex claim on a financial institution bond. The bank president pointed to a large stack of boxes which took up most of the room and said, "You'll find everything you'll need in those boxes to substantiate our claim." Bob explained to the gentleman that while his statement may, in fact be true, there was little chance that he would be able to determine exactly which of that myriad of papers would support each of the multitude of assertions made in the proof of loss.

Bob stated that he was struck with a need to come up with an organized way to allow insureds to set forth their claims and the items of proof which would support and, in fact, prove their various assertions which may be made in a proof of loss form. As a result, he developed a system which he called "Inquiries and Requests" to do just that. I recall at least four in-house seminars conducted by Bob Carnaghan at the F&D in which he taught the attorneys how to draft effective "I&Rs."

His ideas and those in-house seminars evolved into a mainstream investigative tool for the industry which has been commented upon in many authoritative publications.

Bob's contributions to the law were recognized when Mike Keeley presented him with the Martin J. Andrew Award at the Mid-Winter Meeting in San Francisco in 2007.

1982-1983: Daniel Mungall, Jr. was Chair of the Committee as the first 50 years of the Committee came to a close but Dan's service to the Committee and Fidelity and Surety law did not end with his year as Chair. While his service as Chair moved the Committee into new areas of activity and programs, his service as Associate Reporter of the American Law Institute's Restatement Third of the Law of Surety and Guaranty was truly monumental and for which we all owe a deep debt of gratitude. These are his words concerning his year and beyond:

I returned to the Stradley firm in December of 1945 and became Lewis Stevens' legal assistant. He had developed quite a fidelity and surety practice. One of the companies was Seaboard Surely Company of which Harold Rudolph was Secretary and General Counsel.

I worked substantially with Hal, and at one point, probably late 40s or early 50s, he invited me to attend a FSLC breakfast meeting in New York City. There were about twenty to thirty people present. Afterwards, I asked him about joining the committee. He responded that it was a closed group and did not allow additions. Some years later, I heard one of the old timers express at a committee meeting that we should not publish some material that might be useful to "outsider." It indicated to me the limited scope that early committee allowed.

In about 1960, a couple of my partners suggested that I join the Committee. I told them what had happened earlier but was urged to apply anyway. I found that J. Paul McNamara was Chair and he saw to it that I became a member. Sometime later, I complimented Paul on his broadening of the Committee's membership. He said that his predecessor, who was a company man, had been responsible for that very responsible alteration in the procedure for admission to Committee membership.

Bob Carnaghan was Chair of the Committee, I believe in 1981-1982. The Chair-Elect was a well-known Atlanta F.&S. lawyer, but he died, I believe, in October 1981. Bob asked me if I would serve as Chair-elect and I accepted with alacrity. Unfortunately, the fall meeting at which Chair-elects were "educated" as to what their responsibilities would be, had already taken place so I had no advance education as to the Chair's responsibilities.

I believe that the 1982 annual meeting of the ABA was in San Francisco. The FSLC meetings were held, I believe, on Sunday and Tuesday breakfast. At that point, Bob appeared to turn the responsibilities over to me.

I will interrupt the recitation of my FSLC memories to describe what happened to me with respect to the Forum Committee on the Construction Industry. In 1981 or 1982, after Bob had gotten me named as Chair-elect of FSLC, Phil Kirwan asked if I would serve as Chair of the Forum committee at a time when it coincided with my coming FSLC Chairmanship. I told Phil that I was slated for the Chairmanship of FSLC at the same time and he responded that Doug Reimer had served as Chair of both committees. I was about to embark on a twenty-five percent annual reduction of my billable time pursuant to a recently adopted firm retirement program, so I said I would serve as Chair of the Forum Committee. Thus, at that summer ABA meeting, I undertook both jobs.

At the ABA meeting, both the FSLC and Forum Committee meetings had considerable discussions of a substantial revision of the Bankruptcy Act that had been adopted or was under consideration by Congress. I suggested that it would be a great subject for a January meeting for both Committees and there seemed to be agreement on that pint in both Committees.

Generally, the FSLC meeting was on a Friday in January preceded by a meeting of the Surety Association that had an office in New York. I telephoned the Association and they agreed that their meeting could be held on a Wednesday prior to meetings on

Thursday and Friday. I decided on a joint meeting on bankruptcy. I appointed Bill Haug from the FSLC and a representative from the Forum committee to be Co-Chairpersons in charge of the Thursday joint meeting of the two Committees on the subject of bankruptcy.

Up to that day, the meetings of the Forum Committee had been sparsely attended My recollection is that the joint meeting that Thursday was well attended by both Committees and that the dual meetings were continued long after that with great success to both. My impression was that this was the beginning of a very busy and successful; Forum Committee. I don't presently recall any other noteworthy occurrences during my Chairmanship.

Incidentally, I learned after the event that Doug Reimer had been Chair of both Committees -but NOT at the same time.

Sometime after my Chairmanship of FSLC, a suggestion was made that there ought to be a library of surety and fidelity articles. In the early days, there had been a printed booklet with the titles of such articles but no indication of from whence they could be obtained. I think I may have been retired then -or about to be -but I was appointed chair of a committee to develop a complete list of such articles and then assemble the articles for a FSLC library. My recollection is that Gordon Elkins of Stradley persuaded those running FSLC to appoint Stradley as the custodian of the Library when assembled.

We learned very early that it was not enough to include in the inventory just the title and author because of such titles as John Petro’s "Shall we dance?" - I think the article was on the subject of arbitration. Anyway a brief summary of the content of an article by a lawyer would make the Library more useful and this became a major part of dealing with new articles. Until 2003, I helped Stradleyites in doing this summarization of articles and organizing the Library.

In the late 1980s, The American Law institute decided to do an update of the Restatement of Suretyship. Chairman James Black appointed me as the person to collaborate and cooperate with Professor Geoffrey Hazard, Jr., the Executive Director of the ALI. A meeting was held in the Stradley offices in about 1990 attended by Professor Hazard and by surety lawyers and lawyers specializing in financial guarantees. Professor Hazard indicated the procedures that would be followed. First of all, he would appoint an academician as the reporter and an advisory committee to the Reporter. The Reporter would submit a draft of a portion of the Restatement first to the Advisory Committee in June, He would make such changes as he thought appropriate as a result of discussion with the advisors. He would then submit the product to the ALI Directors in the fall. He would then make such change as the Directors voted for and submit the revision for approval of the ALI membership at the Annual Meeting in the spring. After explaining all of this, Professor Hazard said he would seek the academician and then advise how to proceed. He settled on Neil Cohen as Reporter and, apparently at the urging of Jim Black, appointed me as Associate Reporter, I had no authority, but Neil showed me in advance every draft he was planning to submit; any changes he was persuaded by me or directed by the Directors and members to make; and generally gave consideration to anything I submitted although he always retained the authority to make final decisions, subject only to reversal by the Directors and the ALJ members.

Financial guarantees are similar to surety bonds in that the guarantor and the surety have guaranteed the obligation of a principal to an obligee. A significant difference is that in most financial guarantees the obligee has already advanced funds to the principal and is seeking assurance as to repayment. In suretyship, the surety guarantees a performance still to be made by the principal but to an obligee who has obligations to perform to the principal. Because of that difference, the law has developed differently in some respects in the two fields. There is quite a bit of statutory regulation of financial guarantees that doesn't apply to suretyship. These differences make it difficult to set forth definitions and rules that clearly apply to both types of undertakings.

There was a long-standing "reservation of rights" doctrine that a creditor could release his debtor and reserve his rights against the guarantor. Courts ruled that the rights of a guarantor against the debtor remained undisturbed. In effect the debtor did not avoid liability on the underlying debt. The Reporter’s first treatment of this situation was that a release by the creditor of the debtor discharged the debtor and also the guarantor. If, however, rights against the guarantor were reserved, the guarantor remained liable and he was provided with limited or no rights against the debtor. In the course of a heated discussion of the matter when it came before the Advisory Committee, James Black rose to his feet and said, in considerable heat, that there were two matters he always believed to be basic in suretyship, I don't recall the second one but the first was that “I have always thought that a release of principal by the oblige always releases the surety." (Ed. Note: Mr. Black recalls the following dialogue as noted later in this paper. "There are two things that I have learned as being basic to suretyship. This First is that suretyship involves a tri-partite relationship and second is that the release of the principal releases the surety.")

Incidentally, the Advisory Committee consisted of a group of academics, a group of financial experts, and Jive surety lawyers plus me. Needless to say we didn't make any progress in the advisory committee meeting in getting any change in what the Reporter had submitted on the subject.

When the draft came before the ALI directors in the fall, I questioned the release provision as it affected a surety on a construction project. I pointed out that, if the owner and the contractor had a substantial dispute that they compromised by exchanging mutual releases on the issue with the owner reserving rights against the surety, this would leave the surety who is then sued by the owner, with no one to provide the facts and documents necessary to defend the owner's claims. Professor Hazard suggested a different rule could apply to a situation in which the underlying obligation was one not for the payment of money. That suggestion was adopted by the Directors. I do not remember the details as to the Report's draping of such a revision. I know we discussed the revision and it met what the Directors had approved. I think it was accepted by the ALI members without comment. I reported on this issue shortly after the Restatement was published because I did not want to leave a situation in which an argument could be advanced that a surety lawyer had accepted that final resolution. In retrospect, the argument I advanced could also be applied to a dispute between the principal/contractor and a supplier who were quarreling about what the supplier was owed. A settlement of such a dispute with a reservation of the supplier's right on the payment bond could leave the supplier with a claim on the underlying obligation to pay money. The compromised result is still not acceptable to sureties.

After the Restatement was published, the FSLC presented a paper that discussed and in some instances objected to the end result. The name was changed to the "Restatement of Suretyship and Guaranty" and apparently there was quite a massaging of language so as to recognize the applicability of principles to both suretyship and financial guarantees. This recognized that those two areas are different and that, despite similarities, there are differences that warrant, and have resulted in, different rules in similar situations.

Dan's thoughts and remembrances shared above are a valuable insight into not only the Committee's activities and history, but also of the drafting of the Restatement. He is far too modest. His position as "Associate Reporter" is unique as far as I know, in the annals of the ALI. Professor Hazard recognized that Dan's unique perspective and knowledge of suretyship required more than just being a member of the advisory committee.

If the rules of the ALI had not been so strict in requiring a person from "academia" to be the Reporter, I have no doubt that Dean Hazard would have appointed him to that position. As it was, Dan spent long hours poring over drafts of the Restatement and long hours in deep conversation with Professor Cohen, during the drafting process. Many issues never came before the Advisors because Dan persuaded Mr. Cohen to clarify them at the start.

While he has not mentioned it, I know one of the things he takes great pride in is the criticism of the "Munsey Trust” decision in the Restatement. While the Restatement is by no means perfect, it is a distinct improvement over its predecessor and to that fact, we all owe a great debt to the endless hours Dan devoted to this work.

Dan became the second person to receive the Martin J. Andrew Award when he received it from Patricia Thompson in 1999.

The Eighties showed a continued growth in both Committee membership and in increased programs and publications. Nancy Parker from TIPS continued her long-term support of the Committee in its meetings; however, the responsibilities of running the committee were largely left to the Chair of the Committee and the volunteers who could be recruited. There were a small number of Vice Chairs who met with the Chair at the Mid-Winter meeting which continued to be held in New York. Additionally, each Chair, upon retiring, became a "Senior Vice Chair" for three years.

In this manner, the continuity of the Committee was maintained. The Committee maintained the practice which is still followed today, of the Chair, Chair-Elect, and Immediate Past Chair unanimously selecting the person to recommend to the Section for appointment as the next Chair Elect. Hugh Reynolds pronounced that person the "Chair- Elect Presumptive"; however, we now use the term "Chair-Elect Designee."

In any event, the continued growth of the Committee put increasing strains upon the Chair who had to "do it all" and slowly, starting with Jim Crowder, the Committee started to move toward a more formal structure which would not take fruition until the Nineties.

1983-1984: William F. Haug became Chair of the FSLC in August of 1983 and closed out the first 50 years of the FSLC and began what we now refer to as the "last twenty-five years.” Thus, Bill has a foot in both chapters of the Committee and it is fitting that he does. Bill recalls as follows:

During my year as Chair of the Committee, I can recall three things that impacted the Committee.

The first related to the Waldorf which, at that time, needed some serious refurbishment. They would not give us the ballroom for our reception and stuck us like sardines in the Starlight Room on the 18th floor. I moved our Midwinter Meeting to the Grand Hyatt on 42nd Street, which had been newly refurbished. We had over 300, maybe 400, in attendance at the Program and the Reception. The Meeting was a success and the Committee stayed there for another two years.

Up until my year, the funding for the Midwinter Meeting was handled through a Hart & Hume bank account. Because of some IRS regulations, they felt they could no longer run the funds through their bank account. I negotiated with TIPS, through Nancy Parker and TIPS' financial officer, for them to take over the program and to handle the funds and arrangements for the Meeting. As a part of this arrangement, I got them to create a separate account for FSLC so we could keep the profits from the Meeting to fund our other activities. This continued for several years until they stopped keeping the separate account and wanted the profits for TIPS' use. That is another story.

The Committee, during my years, put on the National Institute in New Orleans on Commercial Blanket Fidelity Bonds. Charles Franklin from the Bayous of Louisiana was the Chair of the Program, which was very successful and generated a profit for the Committee. Unfortunately, Charlie became very ill while working on the Program and died shortly the reaper. Because of his efforts, TIPS, from the articles, published in 1985, the first ever "The Commercial Blanket Bond Annotated." The book was dedicated to Charlie.

Bill's service to the Committee and the law did not end with his year as Chair. He went on to serve on the TIPS Council and held every Officer position with TIPS except that of Chair, and the only reason he was not the Chair of the Section was because he turned down the chance to stand for election to that position. In his position as Financial Officer for TIPS, he ran interference for the Committee so that all programs and initiatives went through without a hitch. It was only after Bill was no longer on TIPS Council that the issues arose which led to the Memorandum of Understanding which will be dealt with in detail later on. During this time, Bill also, in his spare time, served as President of the Arizona Bar Association. He was awarded the Martin J. Andrew Award in 2001.

1984-1985: Phillip Kirwan of Kansas City continued the programs of the Committee in the Mid-Winter in New York including the Joint Program with the Forum Committee on Thursday in New York and Fidelity and Surety programs at the Annual Meeting of the ABA. Following his year as Chair, he continued to serve the Committee until his untimely death.

1985-1986: W. Robert Ward followed in his partner Gayle Weller's footsteps as Chair of the Committee. Bob continued the practice of having a Joint Meeting with the forum committee on Thursday in New York. On the lighter side, Bob bore an uncanny resemblance to former President Gerald R. Ford. In January, 198 1, when the Iranian hostages were at the Waldorf while the Mid-Winter Meeting was in session, Dave Ken thought he was approaching Bob only to be rebuffed by Secret Service Agents surrounding the former President. At Beaver Creek, where the Fords maintained a home and their law firm frequently held its annual retreat, and Bob's foursome was invariably followed by an admiring gallery. Bob was a much better golfer than was the former President.

1986-1987: James F. Crowder followed Bob Ward and began the effort to bring the FSLC into sync with TIPS and the ABA from a planning standpoint. Over the years the FSLC had devolved into a Committee that focused upon the Mid-winter Meeting, You have read about the early Mid-winter meetings which were in effect, planning meetings for the programs to be held at the Annual Meeting of the ABA in the summer. Little by little, this changed into a focus upon the Mid-Winter meeting and this did not square up with the TIPS planning schedule which made it difficult to be able to get approval for planned programs and activities. Jim instituted the Spring TIPS meeting as the planning meeting for the FSLC. He held a Vice Chairs meeting in Washington, D.C. in conjunction with the TIPS Spring meeting. Jim also instituted a revision of the Committee's By-Laws in order to codify tradition and to bring the Committee into compliance with TIPS directives. Thus began the process which would eventually culminate in the changes instituted by Harvey Koch and refined by Marty Andrew. Jim continued to be active in the Committee after his year as Chair and served with others on the Restatement Advisory Committee.

1987-1988: Hugh E. Reynolds, Jr. Hugh continued in the steps of Dan Mungal by being Chair of both the FSLC and the Forum Committee at the same time. He topped Dan, however, by being President of the FICC the same year and in addition being Program Chair for the TIPS Annual Meeting. Not surprisingly, Hugh was elected to the Council of TIPS and in turn served as Chair of the Section and also as a Delegate for TIPS to the ABA House of Delegates. Needless to say, there was little need for liaison among the various organizations during his year since Hugh was instrumental in all the organizations. Naturally, Hugh also served with distinction on the Advisory Committee on the Restatement project. Because of problems with the Waldorf the previous years, including high prices and slow elevators, Hugh moved the FSLC Mid-Winter meeting to the Grand Hyatt where it remained for the next three years. Hugh's many contributions to the law were recognized by the Committee when he was awarded the Martin J. Andrew Award at the Mid-winter Meeting in New York in 2000.

1988-1989: James A. Black, Jr. wrote as follows:

Wow! Is it possible? It has been twenty years since I was Chair of this Committee. Jim Crowder approached me during a break at the Mid-winter meeting in New York in January 1987, and advised me that he, Bob Ward and Hugh Reynolds would like me to be the next Chair-Elect of the Committee. I was most surprised to be asked and, after consulting with Joe Eanes, then President of the F&D for his approval, I advised Jim, Bob and Hugh that I was honored by their selection. At the same time I was somewhat overawed with the knowledge that I was to become the fifth F&D employee to hold this position and knew I had big shoes to try to fill (John Luhn – one of the founders – J. Harry Schisler, Elmer McCann, and Robert D. Carnaghan all preceded me). Shortly thereafter, I was introduced to Andrew Hecker, who was to be Chair of TIPS during my year and he advised that "our" Annual Meeting would be in Hawaii. Later, I learned that the TIPS Spring Meeting would be in Bermuda. When I advised F&D's President of these locations, he was not so sure that he should have been so quick to give his approval to this endeavor. Later, when he learned the amount of time spent on Committee work and he was given the bill for the "Thank you dinner "held in the Chair's suite for those who so graciously assisted me through the year, he joked that "the next time they ask for volunteers, stay seated!

Since Jim Crowder had started the practice of having the Vice Chairs Meeting at the TIPS Spring Meeting to allow the Chair Elect to get the planning underway for the next year, I eagerly looked forward to the meeting in Bermuda to get organized. Lo, because of the location, my planning meeting consisted of Hugh Reynolds and sitting down for a very nice breakfast on a veranda at the Southampton Princess Hotel. It was lovely and Hugh gave me some wonderful ideas but I soon found myself at the Annual Meeting being handed a list of program deadlines by the TIPS staff and scrambling to get things going. Fortunately for me, I did not need to make phone call after phone call trying to get people to help out. I was absolutely deluged with calls from the membership, all volunteering to help out in any way possible. At the top of the list was Dick Wisner, who jumped in and assisted with all the myriad of details necessary to carry out all the meetings and social events. While we only had the Mid- Winter Meeting and Annual Meeting to deal with, we did not have the TIPS staff that is in existence now. Dick was that staff for me. The New York Meeting was by all measures an outstanding success. We had record attendance and great programs. I appointed Deborah Griffin of Boston to be our Co-Chair for the Joint Meeting with the Forum committee. My choice was so well received by the Forum Committee that they also appointed Deborah as their Co-Chair. Thus, I believe for the only time, the two Committees had one Chair for the Joint Meeting.

The Friday Luncheon Speaker was one of the most outstanding speakers, I believe we ever had. Harvey Koch arranged for Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to be our speaker (He is now the Chief Judge of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals). Since he was alone, Susan and I invited him up to the Chair's suite the night before. I will never forget him, sitting on the sofa with his feet curled up, doing card tricks while at the same time, engaged in lively repartee with a couple of surety lawyers who were contesting some obscure point of law with him. Judge Kozinski never missed a beat in all this and apparently had a good time also. The next day, the luncheon was packed with over 800 attendees to hear Judge Kozinski deliver his address on the proposition that the right to contract is at the heart of our freedom. He concluded by singing an original song to the tune “Fifty Ways to Leave a Lover." His song was called "Fifty Ways to Break a Contract!" He cleverly worked in cases where the courts had not upheld the contract and always included the Judge who wrote the opinion by name. At the conclusion, the entire audience spontaneously jumped to their feet and gave a wild ovation.

One of the features of the Mid- Winter Program was the surety program on the indemnity agreement. Bob Lawrence of F&D and George Bachrach put together a tremendous program on the indemnity agreement which featured a draft model indemnity agreement. I am told that George and Bob cajoled, harassed and otherwise persuaded members of the Committee into working on this incredibly difficult and time consuming project, so that in the end, it was estimated that over two million dollars of billable time was donated for the project.

The annual meeting in Hawaii was likewise a very successful meeting with excellent surety and3delify programs. As proof of that, at the fidelity meeting on Tuesday morning, a time when normally, most people have already left or drifted off to post meeting activities, there were over three hundred persons in attendance.

It was with relief and thankfulness for all his great assistance that I handed off the gavel to Dick Wisner at the close of the Fidelity Program.

That fall at the TIPS Annual Meeting, I was given the honor of accepting from Andrew Hecker, the TIPS Chair, the TIPS Membership Involvement Award for 1988-1989. While I was given this award and I am looking at it on the wall of my office as I write this, this was awarded for the Committee's work and is a tribute to all those who jumped in and carried me through the year. The award is doubly treasured because of the friendship of Andrew Hecker which started with my nomination and continued until his untimely death. I still treasure his friendship and the memories of such a fine person.

There are only two matters which I can count as my special contribution to fidelity and surety law and the Committee. Both were made possible because of my having sewed as Chair. The first is the appointment of Dan Mungal as Associate Reporter of the Restatement. During the summer of 1988, Hugh Reynolds was contacted by Andrew Hecker, the incoming Chair of TIPS and advised the Dean Hazzard, the Executive Director of the American Law Institute wanted to know if TIPS would have an interest in being part of a project to determine whether to update the 1941 Restatement of the Law of Security. Hugh Reynolds brought me into the discussion and during my term, it was decided to form an FSLC Committee to meet with Dean Hazzard to discuss the topic. I appointed Dan Mungall as Chair of the Committee, with Hugh Reynolds, Jim Crowder, Patrick 0'Connor, Scott Leo and myself serving on the Committee. Eventually, the members of the FSLC Restatement Committee were appointed as Advisor to the ALI for the project. While I strived to have Dan named as the Reporter, and he should have been, I was not able to convince Dean Hazzard that he should ignore the rules of the ALI He did name him Associate Reporter. I believe that title "Associate Reporter” though Dan would discount it, is actually more prestigious than "Reporter” because of its uniqueness. What Dan accomplished for the law and our industry is tremendous and I take great pride in the very small part I may have had in it.

My second contribution to the law and the Committee, however, came when I was no longer Chair of the Committee, but had assumed that office most sought after, Immediate past Chair. After consultation with and the unanimous agreement from Dick Wisner and Harvey Koch, I was given the honor of approaching Marty Andrew to ask he if he would agree to follow Harvey Koch as Chair of the Committee. To later have my name forever linked with his, when Marilyn Klinger bestowed upon me the award named for him, was an honor beyond description ...

1989-1990: Richard S. Wisner

Does the name Stanley Morris ring a bell? Many of you may not remember Stanley Morris, but I will never forget him. He actually gave me my first committee assignment. Stanley asked me if I would be willing to distribute the "papersJ1 during the annual meeting in 1968, which was held in Chicago. Wow, was I excited! I not only was going to attend my first meeting, after only practicing for five years, but I had an assignment too. Well, little did I know that the “papers” were to be distributed to the attendees after the program ended and not before. Needless to say, the tongue lashing Stanley gave me was something I have never forgotten. But I survived my huge faux pas and 20 years later, with lots of encouragement from Hugh Reynolds, I became Chair of the Committee.

In 1990 the Mid-Winter Meeting of the Committee was held at the New York Grand Hyatt Regency. I asked two of my good9iends Phil Bruner and Paul Devin to be program chairs. Phil and his panel followed a typical format for the morning meeting and the presentations were diverse and excellent. Paul and I discussed doing something a little different for the afternoon Fidelity program. Well, be careful what you wish for. The result was a unique and totally new experience, which consisted of a three-act play entitled "Waiting for the Dough." This creative new format was used to analyze the legal and factual issues involved in a fidelity claim arising under the Financial Institutional Bond Form 24. I feel rather certain that no one will ever forget the play and its case of characters, especially Sandy and Mandy. Much applause should be given to Paul and his creative partner in this endeavor, his wife, Judi.

Another first took place at this meeting. Many of you would assume that the FSLC Directory containing the members' names, addresses and phone numbers was always a part of the FSLC. However, this is not true. In fact, the idea to create the FSLC Directory- (as we know it today) came about as a result of Jim Crowder's suggestion during a meeting of Vice Chairs at the 1990 Mid-Winter Meeting in New York. The apparent reason why this did not come about sooner than it did was reluctance to publish the names of surety company people along with their phone numbers fearing that they would become subjected to excessive marketing calls. Within a short time frame, at my direction, the ABA staff collected the appropriate information and a FSLC Directory was finally published to include company people who were members of the FSLC.

The following July, a meeting was held with Professor Geoffrey C. Hazard, Jr., Director of the American Law Institute, along with several other attorneys, which included members of the academic profession and those representing commercial lenders to discuss revising the Restatement of the Security. The original had been adopted and promulgated by the American Law Institute on May 9, 1941. As a result of that meeting we requested Dan Mungall to chair a committee to begin the revision process. Supporting Dan in this endeavor were Hugh Reynolds, Jim Black, Jim Crowder, Pat 0'Connor and T. Scott Leo. The revision was completed several years later.

See the Appendix for the review of the play "Waiting for the Dough" (found in the 1990Newsletter of the FSLC).

The next formal Fidelity and Surety Committee meeting took place during the August 1990 meeting at the Chicago Marriott Hotel.

Dave, the Fidelity program chair, again stepped back from the traditional format and presented a first of a kind multi-media presentation. The panel in a series of prerecorded episodes raised thought-provoking issues which must be resolved in bringing a complex fidelity claim to a successful conclusion. The finale included a discussion by the live panel. Once again, Academy Award performances were turned in by all.

The surety program that year was chaired by George Bachrach. The subject of the program was The Subrogation Rights of the Contract Bond Surety. Included in the program was a comprehensive matrix, which listed most of the significant federal and state court decisions, which discussed or impacted the subrogation rights of the contract bond surety. It was a huge undertaking and another first. I was told that the amount of free legal time that went into the project was $1.3 million dollars.

In addition to the programs, a few additional things stand out in my mind. At the start of the Annual Meeting, the Tips Section held their reception in Chicago's Mercantile Exchange, one of the most famous exchanges in the country. We were also honored to have U.S. Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr as our breakfast speaker. As you may well recall, he was later appointed as Special Prosecutor to handle the impeachment proceedings of then-President Bill Clinton.

But without a doubt the most memorable, were all people who worked and played so hard to make my term so meaningful to my family and hopefully the committee as well. Among those was Marty Andrew. Andy and I spent many relaxing times listening to Marty playing the piano in our suite and at Andy's urging in one of our favorite Chicago spots on Rush Street. Those really were the good ole, days. We miss Marty as a friend and I am most humbled and honored to have been the recipient of the Marty Andrew Achievement Award in January, 2006.

The Nineties not only brought in a new decade of leadership but also marked the continuation of the FSLC as a major player in TIPS. The Committee had grown to such an extent that it really needed to have an organization commensurate with its size and activities. As the decade progressed, the new organization took hold and with some bumps along the way, moved into a new relationship with TIPS. At the beginning of the decade, FSLC members were very active in the various Committees of TIPS and had significant representation in the TIPS Leadership. For a period, at the beginning of the decade, Hugh Reynolds, Bill Haug and Jim Black were all on TIPS Council at the same time. Later, Lynn Schubert was elected to the TIPS Council and Ed Gallagher was elected Financial Officer of the Section while others held significant positions within the committee structure of TIPS.

As was mentioned in Paul McNamara's History of the Committee, the funds related to the Mid-Winter Meeting were held for a number of years in the Trust Account of the Hart & Hume law fm. Eventually, the IRS requirements and other considerations were such that they no longer could do so and the funds were transferred to TIPS for the account of the FSLC. This worked for a while but the TIPS leadership could not resist those funds sitting there when they could think of many uses they could put them to. Accordingly, at a TIPS Fall Meeting in Williamsburg, Bill Haug, Hugh Reynolds and Jim Black were summoned to a meeting with the TIPS Chair, Chair-Elect and Financial Officer and advised that these funds would be transferred to the general account of TIPS.

After a considerable heated debate, The TIPS officers relented and allowed the funds to stay in a designated FSLC account. At that moment, Hugh Reynolds leaned over and whispered into Jim Black's ear, "When the Judge has ruled in your favor, leave the court room!" The three promptly left and the funds were safe for now.

Toward the end of the decade, however, the funding and other issues arose between the Committee and the TIPS Leadership, which at that time included only Hugh Reynolds, Past Chair and Delegate to the House of Delegates from the FSLC. Paul Devin stepped into the breach and appointed the "Wisner Commission” to study the issues and make recommendations for its resolution. While the controversy swirled, through Paul's, Patricia Thompson's and Bruce Shreve's leadership, a mutually beneficial agreement was reached which was reduced to writing and is denoted as the "Memorandum of Understanding." This agreement sets forth the working relationship between the Committee and TIPS and is still in effect today. Since this is the Tenth Anniversary of its signing, it is appropriate to include in the appendix to this paper the article authored by Duncan Clore and Paul Devin on the History of the understanding which was published in the FSLC Newsletter in the Fall of 2000 as well as a copy of the Memorandum of Understanding, itself.

1990-1991: Harvey C. Koch: Harvey Koch's term as Chair of our Committee can best be remembered for two things: (1) Harvey took our Mid-Winter Meeting back to Waldorf after several years meeting at the Hyatt Regency; and (2) he developed a comprehensive Program of Work for his term from 1990 to 1991.

The Program of Work was broken down into nine categories as follows: (I) Administration; (II) Communications; @I) Liaison with ABA and various Law; (TV) national and international organizations dealing with subject matters of interest to the ABA FSLC; (V) Liaison with ABA TIPS (Tort & Insurance Practice Section) committees dealing in areas of interest to the FSLC; VI) Meetings; VII) Membership; (VIII) National Institutes; and (IX) Publications. Each category was broken down into subcategories. For example, the first category "Administration" was broken down into subcommittees such as Budget; By-Laws; Chair's Advisory Council; Committee Handbook; Committee Policy Positions; Long Range Planning; Professionalism and Ethical Guidelines; and Public Relations, to name a few.

Each subcommittee had a Chair and Vice-Chair who were responsible for the execution of the Program of Work of that particular subcommittee. It was designed to put as many of the committee's Vice Chairs and members to work as possible and it was Harvey's intention to appoint a Chair made up of a surety attorney and a Vice-Chair who was a company claim representative to head up each subcommittee. This was a huge undertaking and had never been done before, because all of these subcommittees totaled in excess of 20. Interestingly enough today, many of these subcommittees still exist and play a very important role in the FSLC.

Getting the Committee back to the Waldorf was a very worthwhile endeavor by Harvey. First of all, you should know that the Committee left the Waldorf sometime in the 80s because they had broken down elevators and other similar problems that needed attention. I believe Hugh Reynolds moved the meeting to the New York Hyatt Regency Hotel adjacent to Grand Central Station. But in 1990, Harvey became Chair of the Committee and coincidentally, was friends with the Waldorf s manager. Thus, at Harvey's request the meeting was held in the ballroom of the Waldorf to discuss about a dozen topics such as adequate seating space in the ballroom to accommodate our 800 plus members. The meeting was attended by Dick Wisner and Wanda Riddle Workman. Harvey discussed each of his topics and waited until the end of the discussion to talk about possible room rates. The hotel manager then turned to us and asked us what we thought the room rate should be. Dick Wisner responded by saying $185 per night! In response, the hotel manager replied "you got it" (obviously this was a long time ago because the current room rate is closer to $350 per night).

1991-1992: Martin J. Andrew of Denver, Colorado was Chair of the Committee during 1991-92. He was preceded in that position by his long-time partners 1-1. Gayle Weller (1973-75) and W. Robert Ward (1985-86). Always a stickler for the clock, Marty's most visible accomplishment was to refine and fully implement the divisional framework first put in place by his immediate predecessor, Harvey C. Koch. The Committee's basic organizational structure remains virtually unchanged to this day. Marty was particularly proud of his role in nominating Lynn M. Schubert as the first woman to chair the Committee during 1993-94.

Beyond his legal and administrative attributes, however, the most memorable thing about Marty was his cheerful demeanor and fun loving manner. If there was a piano around, you could always count on Marty finding it and regaling a crowd into the wee hours with his playing.

The Martin J. Andrew Award is the Committee's highest honor for lifetime achievement in Fidelity and Surety Law, and is a fitting tribute to Marty's memory and outstanding contributions to the Committee and to the Law.

1992-1993: David T. DiBiase of Los Angeles, California became the youngest Chair of the Committee when he took the gavel from Marty Andrew in August of 1992. Alas, that honor was to be fleeting, since it passed to his successor just a year later when he, in turn, handed the gavel to Lynn Schubert. Dave recalls his memorable moments with the FSLC:

(1) I’ll never forget my 4 yr old daughter at function in Colorado asking a then youngish and spry Paul Devin "Whose grandpa are you?" (Yes, Debbie and I wanted to disappear). When Paul denied being a grandpa, my daughter rejected his answer and insisted that he must be ... Paul, I'm still sorry about that!

(2) Then-there is the other Paul: Paul McNamara made it a point to talk to me and my wife, Debbie, at one of the first ABA meetings I attended. I was of course a total rookie, and I was in awe of him. As he talked to us, learned that we had a young son. Paul demanded to know whether we had bought him "The Little Train that Could." When we said we had not, he gave us a stare clearly indicating that we had failed miserably as parents. But then he smiled, and when I returned to Los Angeles, there waiting for me was none other than that book, personally autographed by Paul. Paul was the best!

(3) As a young lawyer, I wrote an opinion on a Bankers Blanket Bond claim. The client wanted a second opinion of sorts, so he invited me to come to Columbus, Ohio, to meet with John Petro, who would (I feared) drag me over the coals. After lunch, the client asked John, in front of me, what he thought of my opinion. John said it was excellent, and that he agreed with it on all counts. Afterwards, I asked John whether he wanted to talk any further about the opinion, at which point he told me that he had not read it!!! John, the gentle giant and total gentleman.

(4) Steve Ruprecht tells the story of a time when he, as a young lawyer, attended a meeting on a bond claim with Phil Kirwan. The attorneys for the obligee demanded payment, and when Phil said no, the attorney said "here, I have something for you" and handed Phil a summons and complaint. Without skipping a beat, Phil reached into his right pocket and said, "here, I have something for you too" and pull out his hand with his middle finger extended (yah, I know you can't do that anymore, but Phil did and at that time and place, it must have been priceless).

(5) In the several years after my 1991-92 tenure as Chair of the FSLC, I tried to milk that history to persuade the Waldorf to give me a suite for the cost of a regular room. That worked about 3 years, until the Waldorf brought in a new meetings person, who actually said to me after I asked for the upgrade: "Mr. DiBiase, what have you done for us lately?" My room was the size of a closet. ....

Great people; great memories and a very fulfilling career.

1993-1994: Lynn M. Schubert, the first woman to be Chair of the Committee, and also supplanting David DiBiase as the youngest person to be Chair recalls that:

Like any good memories, my memories of my year as Chair of the Committee (and before) center around people. Yes, we had great programs – who could forget the sequel to "Waiting for the Dough," "When the Feds Come Marching In," authored and directed by Paul Devin? But this committee always has great programs. They are the standard. But the people. The strength of our committee is its people: David DiBiase playing "I am Woman Hear Me Roar" when passing the gavel to the first woman Chair (since Patricia Thompson wanted to wait a few years), Dick Wisner giving me my first opportunity in the Committee, Jim Crowder and Jim Black suggesting I should be interested in Chairing the FSLC someday, Harvey Koch pushing me to the limit on Committee work with that notebook of his -setting the bar so high, my "Ex" sending the letter to all spouses as "First Spouse "and arranging the cooking demonstration and back scenes tour of the Waldorf; Phil Bruner hosting the reception at the Princeton Club, Paul Tsongas speaking at our program at the Annual Meeting the same time he announced he was running for President, Edward Gallagher leading the hiking team of the Blacks, the Haugs and the two of us at the TIPS meetings, Hugh Reynolds supporting me when I was elected to the TIPS Council .... and on and on.

One of the most unique accomplishments of the year was spearheaded by Linda Klein. Not only did we publish the first FSLC Women and Minority Directory, we held a special reception for FSLC women and minority members exclusively with surety company representatives, resulting in inclusion of women and minorities not only in committee work and leadership positions, but in obtaining surety and fidelity cases for their firms.

And then there was Marty Andrew.

men Marty approached me about a possible appointment as Chair of the prestigious FSLC, he explained to me that there were obligations that came with the honor. As with everything Marty did, he did this with grace and sincerity. Marty explained that when you were in the leadership, you needed to act as a leader and set an example. At the Mid Winter meeting, you didn't stand around outside and drink coffee during the presentations. You didn't schedule other meetings during the presentations, no matter how busy you were. You didn't show disrespect to those people who had worked so hard to prepare such quality papers and speeches, or to the committee members attending the meeting. You got there early, you sat up front, you paid attention, and you stayed until the end. These instructions epitomized Marty for me. Someone who did what you were supposed to in all instances, quietly, effectively and with modesty.

When I completely forgot to invite the traditional priest to give the invocation at the Mid Winter luncheon, Marty stepped into the breach. He gave a beautiful invocation on the spot, with no fanfare and not expecting any praise. Every Chair since my year has had to suffer through my repetition of what Marty taught me. Each has been gracious in listening, and I hope all new Chairs are as willing to allow me to pass on this little piece of Marty.

1994-1995: Phillip L. Bruner describes his memory of the Committee as follows.

I was introduced to FSLC at the Committee's 1970 Mid- Winter meeting at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City by my mentor and senior partner, B. C. Hart, Chair of the Committee in 1969 and 1970. In those days the Committee was an intimate collection of only about 100 senior surety lawyers from around the United States. The giants in the

field, in addition to B. C. Hart, were Bob Hume of New York, J. Paul McNamara of Columbus, Bob Carnahan and Ray Britt of Baltimore, Alexander Heron, Edward Gallagher Sr. and Stanley Morris of Washington DC, and a number of others. All had an interest in and found a collegial forum in which to discuss the then arcane subjects of construction suretyship and fidelity law --long before the ABA following the advice of a number of Committee-members) formed the Public Contract Law Section in 1960 and the Forum on the Construction Industry in 1975 to focus specifically on the burgeoning fields of public contracting and public and private construction. The annual meeting consisted principally of presentation of papers by members. The papers (in that time before CDs and Power Points) were presented in hard copy format and were cataloged for future reference by Dan Mungall, Jr. of Philadelphia. Much learning also occurred through collegial private exchanges between members at the meetings and afterward.

Through the 1970s and 1980s the Committee experienced phenomenal membership growth as the surety industry expanded its issuance of bonds in response to growing demand, and then hired numerous in-house claims counsel and outside lawyers to handle increasing numbers of surety and fidelity claims. Over those years the membership shot up from 100 to 700 or 800 with significant loss of the early collegial familiarity, But for those of my generation, who had established early friendships with their peers, the Committee meetings continued to be a special place for renewing friendships, and the Committee's growing activities offered opportunities to meet younger members. The Committee leadership gradually descended upon a younger generation of members-- Brady, Haug, Reynolds, Mungall, Knox, Ward, Crowder, Wisner, Koch, Black, Andrew --all exceptionally able.

By the time I was Chair in 1994-1995, the Committee's regular (counsel) and associate (consultants and non-lawyers) membership totaled around 1,200 members. The Restatement, Third of the Law of Suretyship and Guaranty had just been published. The size of the Committee required that opportunities be found for younger members lead to a restructuring of the Committee organization to include a number of "divisions" (Law, Communications/Publications, Membership, National Institutes, etc) under which there were formed numerous subcommittees. That organizational format (with annual tinkering) has remained fairly constant since that time, and lead to an active membership core that has produced top-quality publications about.

Looking back over the past 40 years, I maintain memories of the Committee's significant value in promoting professionalism in the industry and in affording opportunities for young and old to nurture friendships and business relationships with many, many individuals who were or now are industry leaders and senior counsel throughout the United States. It has been a personal privilege to participate in the life of the Committee over the past 40 years.

1995-1996: Edward G. Gallagher writes of his experience as Chair as follows:

Edward G. Gallagher of Washington, D.C., chair 1995-1996, was the Committee's first, and so far only, second-generation chair. The most notable innovation during 1995-1996 was to hold the 1996 Midwinter Meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco after 46 consecutive years in New York City.

In 1994 when I tried to negotiate a contract with the Waldorf Astoria for the 1996 meeting, I had evidence that the contract room-rates for our 2004 meeting were higher than the Waldorf's rates available to the public. I suggested letting inflation correct this inequity by not increasing the rates, and I offered to sign a contract for 1996 If the rates were the same as the 1994 rates. The Waldorf refused, and I looked at alternatives including several hotels in San Francisco. The Fairmont offered a rate for its Tower rooms that was substantially less than the Waldorf's best offer. After consulting with the Vice Chairs and with the Surety Association to be sure its Claims Advisory Committee would meet in Sun Francisco, I decided to accept the Fairmont's offer. Several West Coast companies supported the meeting by substantially increasing the number of their employees attending, and the meeting was successful. The Midwinter Meeting has returned periodically to Sun Francisco.

The luncheon speaker was Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. He had addressed the Committee once before and was a known commodity and very entertaining. To me, the highlight of the substantive program was a demonstration by the United States Secret Service of the creation of false identification and counterfeit checks using a personal computer and printer. This was an early warning of the "desk top published" checks that have become a staple of check fraud.

Though Ed mentions that his father was Chair of the FSLC, he doesn't mention that he attended those meetings as a teenager and that he and Larry Moelmann, the current "Chair-Elect Designee" hung out together during those meetings. There are probably some good stories which some future historian may try to ferret out!

Ed also does not mention how hard he worked to make the meeting in San Francisco a success and what a risk he took in departing from the "safe" choice of New York. We all have much to thank Ed for daring to take the chance. He not only opened up the meeting to persons on the West coast who would not otherwise had an opportunity to attend a FSLC meeting, but he also set the precedent for moving to another venue which forced the New York Hotels to return to the bargaining table in earnest.

1996-1997: Duncan L. Clore. Duncan Clore advises:

Back in 1996, we did not yet have the level of staff support from TIPS which we have since come to enjoy. That would not come for a couple more years due to the efforts of the Wisner Commission.

I was very fortunate, however to have been ably guided and assisted during my year by two outstanding leaders of the Committee: Edward Gallagher, who preceded me as chair and who showed me the ropes and most of the pitfalls, and by Paul Devin, my chair-elect.

I remember 1996-97 as a very busy year within the FSLC. In October 1996 we co-sponsored a national program with the Forum and Public Contracts, followed in November 1996, with a successful two-day program in Philadelphia on the Commercial Crime Policy.

The Committee returned to New York at the Waldorf for its Mid- Winter meeting in 1997. My negotiations with the Waldorf Astoria had been much easier than Edward Gallagher's as the Committee had demonstrated by going to San Francisco that the FSLC was willing to elsewhere if it didn't get a reasonable contract.

The Midwinter meeting in January 1997 was very successful with fidelity and surety programs focused on ADR and over 800 attendees. In April 1997, a two-day program entitled Bond Defaults III was presented in Atlanta, followed by a program at the ABA Annual meeting on Salvage by the Surety, The program materials for both the Commercial Crime Policy and Bond Defaults programs were published as books by the Committee.

A chair owes a successful year mostly to the efforts of others and my year was no exception.

1997-1998: Paul R. Devin, as previously mentioned Paul came into leadership at a critical time in the life of the Committee. Paul states as follows:

I am happy to add my fading recollections of my year as Chair from I997 to 1998. This was the year of conflict with TIPS.

It seemed to me that there were various incidents leading up to the "crisis" which reflected a lack of support for our Committee and its activities and a lack of staff dedicated to our. Committee. On the other side was a desire to take advantage of the revenue our Committee produced through its programs and publications.

The "crisis" was triggered by the confluence of our Mid-winter Meeting being held in San Francisco and the TIPS Mid- Winter Meeting being held in Nashville, Tennessee, and the decision to have the person(s) who was normally assigned to our meeting required to attend the TIPS meeting. This would have meant we had no one from TIPS with us on the day of our program. As it turned out, Janet Hummons, a recent arrival at TIPS, was present and did a terrific job for us. (There is a long letter from me to the TIPS council which explained all this as well as a presentation I made to the TIPS Council at their meeting at Torrey Pines in San Diego the following year). [Eds. Note Wanda Workman reports that Denise of the TIPS staff came to the meeting and set up the meeting but then had to leave to attend the TIPS meeting. A temporary was left to provide staff. That' "temporary" was none other than Janet Hummons!]

At the Vice Chairs meeting in San Francisco, I explained what-happened and it was voted to form a committee to consider the appropriate next step (Dick Wisner (Chaired this committee. All options were on the table, from withdrawing from the ABA, forming a Forum, joining a new Section to doing nothing. In the end, a compromise with TIPS was achieved allowing us to accumulate a certain amount of money to be used by our Committee, receive from TIPS a staff member panda Workman) dedicated to our Committee, its programs and publications, and the freedom to adjust the tuition for our programs as we saw fit among the groups who attended.

This compromise was not achieved for nearly a year after I served as Chair. It was a difficult period, but it established for our Committee a certain amount of independence which sewed us well over the next ten years.

Next to that difficult crisis, my memories are quite positive. Our members were supportive of the process, committed to the work of the Committee, generous with their time and resources, and proud of the accomplishments of our Committee over a long period of time.

Being Chair of the FSLC was a source of professional pride for me and continues to be such to this day.

Despite the overarching crisis during his year, Paul managed to move forward with successful programs in the true tradition of the Committee. Paul also instituted a very meaningful award by establishing the Martin J. Andrew Award for Lifetime Achievement in Fidelity & Surety Law, bestowing it upon B. C. Hart as the first recipient.

1998-1999: Patricia H. Thompson

The things that really stand out for me are: Dan Mungall receiving the Marty Andrew Award, the excellent speech by and standing ovation for my Midwinter Luncheon Speaker, Jesse McCrary, the fact that we negotiated our deal with TIPS (concerning issues bravely raised by my predecessor, Paul Devin), which deal included our budget arrangement and the super bonus of having Wanda Workman as our designated staff person (I forget her title); and finally, the great, interactive spring program (the first for our committee) at Hilton Head, planned by Deb Griffith and Ken Givens.

Patricia's year was filled with many excellent programs starting in the fall in Philadelphia, continuing into the Mid-Winter in New York, an excellent Surety Claims Workshop in Hilton Head in the spring and concluding with the Annual Meeting in Atlanta. All in all, over 100 speakers participated in her programs. One would never know that all this took place during a year, as mentioned above by Paul Devin, during significant conflict with TIPS concerning the relationship. Through it all, Patricia remained above the fray and allowed the "Wisner Commission" to do its work which ultimately led an excellent resolution of the disputed issues which she executed on behalf of the Committee. Patricia doesn’t mention the how she provided the impetus for the Women's group by inviting the women of the Committee to the Chair's suite for tea. The 'Committee has much to thank Patricia for her calm leadership during this time of crisis.

Despite the crisis and the fine programs, the highlight of the year was as Patricia outlined above, the inspirational message brought to the Committee by Jesse McCreary. As he said, "The lives of the unborn will be affected by what you do today. Our motto, the pursuit of justice, will be forever," and finally his final comments to us:

Isn't it strange that kings and queens, clowns that caper in sawdust rings, and common people like you and me are builders for eternity? For unto each of us is given a bag of tools, a shapeless mask, and a book of rules, and each American lawyer must decide whether he or she will become a stumbling block or a stepping stone. Isn't that strange? – Jesse J McCrary, Jr.

1999-2000: H. Bruce Shreves

In any event, I really did have one of the memorable years as Chair-Elect and Chair. As you recall, I was appointed Chair-Elect Designate at the annual meeting in 1998 in San Francisco, which was the beginning of the turmoil between Fidelity & Surety and the ABA. Paul Devin was then the Chair, and Patricia Thompson was the Chair- Elect. We had had some bad experiences with ABA/TIPS, especially with regard to a previous meeting in, I believe, La Jolla, and there was a real concern about the type of support that FSLC was getting, especially in light of the fact that we were by far the largest and most productive committee in TIPS.

During that period of time, the Wisner Commission was founded, and I sat in on all those meetings, including the meeting in Chicago, with representatives of the Fidelity & Surety Committee and the ABA/TIPS.

My strong preference then, as always, was to stay in the ABA. I felt that we would have lost a great deal of credibility as an independent organization by splitting off and forming our own committee or group, and I made it my task, whenever possible, to try to encourage us to maintain that partnership.

One of the results of the Wisner Commission was to give Fidelity & Surety its own manager. To that end, I flew to Miami and spent a day with Patricia Thompson interviewing Wanda Workman and we eventually decided to hire her as our manager, and I was the first Chair to have Wanda as my Fidelity h Surety Manager. It worked out extremely well. I remember driving back to the airport in Miami with Wanda after the interview, and telling her that if this arrangement did not work out, we would get a lot of grief from Ed Gallagher and the others who felt it was a mistake to continue the partnership with the ABA. Fortunately it did work out, and has continued to work out over the past ten years and I couldn't be happier.

My year as Chair was a great deal of fun. My annual meeting was in Sun Francisco, we had a program on the Law of Performance Bonds, which was a book end to the Law of Payment Bonds which we had in San Francisco two years earlier. The Fidelity program dealt with the FNBL v. Lustig case, which I thought was extremely well done, with video and deposition clips as part of the program. I also recall that we made a bunch of money at all of our programs, I think over $100,000 at the mid-year program. Those were the days!

I thought we had some other excellent programs. The Spring meeting was a joint meeting with the Surety Association of America, and Ed, I and Lynn Schubert worked together on that for a year and I thought had a great program on the update of the Law of Suretyship, which again was a very financially successful program. The Annual meeting in July 2000, was split between New York and London. The New York program was chaired by our now future Chair, David Krebs, and Roger Sauer coordinated our London program, which was held at the Lloyds building.

All in all, it was great fun and our counterpart in TIPS, Rich Turbin of Honolulu, could not have been more supportive of FSLC.

During this year the FSLC published three important books covering fidelity and surety topics, published a news quarterly digesting all important fidelity and surety cases and articles presented, and has, to date, conducted six full days of CLE programming, with three more programs to be presented at the Annual Meeting in New York and London on fidelity and surety topics. The Committee also began the process of updating a topical index of fidelity and surety articles and began exploring the possibility of producing CD-ROM compilations of fidelity and surety articles presented over the past two decades. 'The programs presented during the year were designed to attract a wide range of practitioners, from the novice to the most sophisticated in the areas of fidelity and surety law. Receptions were held at each of its programs to allow attendees to network and to form the relationships which promote continued participation in the Committee. All of the programs were well attended, and the publications were of the highest quality. Through its highly informative newsletter and web page, the Committee continued to promote its programs to both active and inactive members of the Committee. The highly active membership division which planned and conducted activities in connection with the CLE programs which were designed to promote networking opportunities to attract membership and increase interest in future CLE projects. Thus, the Committee moved full speed ahead during the year.

With the TIPS relationship resolved, the Committee moved into the new millennia and decade with vigor and expanded programs and entered into new relationships with other organizations (i.e. Fall program in coordination with the Fidelity Law Association) and re-examined existing relations such as the Joint meeting with the Forum Committee and gradually de-emphasized programs at the ABA Annual Meeting. The Women's Involvement Committee, Young Professionals and the UPBEAT (diversity) committees all brought new ideas and focus to the Committee and its programs. Further, new formats were used and all in all, the Committee sparked with new life. The sheer number of programs and publications prevents them from being listed without subjecting the reader to the boredom of reading a telephone book. Suffice it to say, the Committee continues to produce, year in and year out, a large volume of quality publications and programs which are of great service to and a valuable resource to the companies, practitioners and the courts.

2000-2001: Armen Shahinian recalls his year as follows:

I was Chair of the ABA TIPS Fidelity and Surety Law Committee in the year 2000-2001. That year, we held our Fall Meetings in Philadelphia on October 25-26, 2000 attended by approximately 130 members, and presented the program "Managing & Litigating the Complex Surety Case" which was chaired by Philip L. Bruner. (This program 'was a repeat of a program originally presented, I believe in La Jolla, CA in 1998. In my judgment, it was an outstanding program and deserved to be repeated on the East Coast to provide broader exposure for the outstanding program and accompanying book.)

The Midwinter Meeting was held at the Waldorf Astoria in New York from January 24 to 26, 2001 with approximately 830 attendees. It kicked off with a joint program between the ABA TIPS FSLC and the Forum on the Construction Industry entitled "Beyond the Four Corners: Implied Terms, Liabilities and Defenses in Construction Contracting." That joint Thursday program was co-chaired by Patrick O'Connor of Faegre & Benson and James Mercier of The Hartford.

The Friday morning surety program presented the new publication "The Law of Miscellaneous and Commercial Surety Bonds" and was co-chaired by co-editors Todd Kazlow of The St. Paul Companies and Bruce King of Carlton Fields.

The Friday afternoon fidelity program at the Midwinter Meeting was entitled "Fidelity Coverage in the Age of E-Commerce "and was co-chaired by Thomas Schaufelberger and Timothy Sukel of Progressive Casualty Insurance Co.

The Spring 2001 Meeting, attended by approximately 140 members of the FSLC, was held May 9 to 12, 2001 at the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina and consisted of a series of case studies. Co-chairs of this program were Kenneth Givens of Fidelity & Deposit Company of Maryland and Michael J. Sugar, Jr. of Forcon International Corp. Both Fidelity and surety case studies were presented The surety case study co-chairs were Bradford R. Carver of Cetrulo & Capone, Michael Jankowski of Horizon Business Resources, Inc., Richard S. Wisner of Dyer, Mann & Berens, LLP, and W Glenn Speicher of Zurich North America. The fidelity case study chairs were Gary J. Valeriano of Anderson, McPharland & Connors, Lisa Block of CNA Financial, Michael J. Keeley of Strasburger & Price LLP, and Bonnie Lynn Messina of The St. Paul Companies. The Grove Park Inn was a marvelous venue and the program included a dinner and tour of the magnificent Biltmore Estate nearby.

The Fidelity and Surety Law Committee was also active in presenting programs at the ABA Annual Meeting held in Chicago, IL. On August 5, 2001, the FSLC co- sponsored a program with the Business Torts Committee entitled "Use and Misuse of Checks as a Basis for Claims on Fidelity and Financial Institute Bonds." Co-chairs of that program were Deborah Griffin of Peabody & Arnold and Dolores Purr of Zurich North America. The program was followed by a reception at the LaStrada Restaurant at the top of the Dora1 Plaza Hotel. On Monday, August 6, 2001, the FSLC presented the program book Law of Probate Bonds. Co-chairs and co-editors of the book were Jeffrey Frank of Alber & Crafton and William Downing of Western Surety Co.

The foundation and organizational structure of the Fidelity and Surety Law Committee was firmly in place and "running on all cylinders" by the time I became Chair of the FSLC. Division chairs were active in planning potential programs to be held in the future, and attendance at and support for programs was strong by virtue of the reputation which had been developed by the FSLC and its leadership for presenting outstanding programs and publishing wonderful books.

2001-2002: George J. Bachrach

My year as FSLC Chair, from August of 2001 to August of 2002, was, for the most part, tranquil, as the prior issues between TIPS and the FSLC were resolved by the FSLC Chairs before I became FSLC Chair, and the subsequent issues with the Forum did not occur until after my year. In fact, my mantra was "Don't Derail the FSLC Train” of excellent programs, publications and participation. The most significant external event occurred on September 11, 2001 with the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. This led to several telephone calls to me about whether the FSLC should hold its January, 2002 Mid- Winter Meeting in New York. I never hesitated on that decision, and the FSLC, as a group, went to the Waldorf Astoria to support the City of New York in January of 2002.

Prior to becoming FSLC Chair, I was a 1991 original member of the FSLC Law Division. In that role, I proposed a number of FSLC programs to be presented, two of which were never grabbed by prior FSLC Chairs. Eventually, I stopped recommending those programs because, in the event I eventually became a FSLC Chair, I wanted to put them on myself. Those programs became the January 25, 2002 Mid- Winter Surety Program entitled "The Surety's Indemnity Agreement - Law and Practice" (along with the book of the same name) and the 2002 FSLC Spring Program in New Orleans, Louisiana entitled "Takeover by the Surety." I was very happy with results of both programs, and especially the Surety Indemnity Agreement book (since revised and expanded to become THE SURETY'S INDEMNITY AGREEMENT - LAW AND PRACTICE 2nd ED. and presented at the 2008 FSLC Spring Meeting in Kansas City) and both the program presentations and the breakout sessions for the "Takeover by the Surety" program.

Probably my biggest disappointment during my year as FSLC Chair was my lack of time needed to address certain structural and other administrative issues within the FSLC. Specifically, I wanted to link the efforts of the FSLC Membership Division, the FSLC Law Division and the FSLC Communications Division, among others, to provide a means for attracting new FSLC members, making opportunities available for all FSLC members to participate in FSLC activities, and expanding the ways that the FSLC could communicate with its members on substantive, business, networking and personal matters. Towards the end of my year as FSLC Chair, I attended a TIPS Spring Meeting where the outgoing Chairs were encouraged to remain active and involved with their respective Committees. Taking that suggestion to heart, I may have become the "Jimmy Carter" of the FSLC by performing more and better service after my year rather than during my year as FSLC Chair. Specifically, I became a Co-Chair of the FSLC Membership Division in order to help stimulate an increase in the FSLC membership and participation in FSLC activities by FSLC members. This led to the Surety and Fidelity Company Membership Policy and other initiatives undertaken along with my Co-Chairs of the FSLC Membership Division.

One hazard of my Membership Division activity was either my volunteering to create or my inability to avoid putting together (I can't remember) the FSLC Directories of FSLC members for 2004, 2006, and 2008, all of which required an enormous amount of effort and which could not have been done without the incredibly able and willing assistance of Wanda Workman. As difficult and time consuming a job as it was, the process allowed me to reach out and communicate with all of the FSLC members, many of whom I did not know personally, but all of whom appreciated the effort that we put into the FSLC Directories to get them up to date and accurate.

Finally, for the benefit of the FSLC, I stayed involved in TIPS by becoming a member of the TIPS Publications Editorial Board (now known as the TIPS Book Publication Board), which oversees the publication of all of the FSLC books through ABA Publishing. During my time on the TIPS Publications Editorial Board (August of 2002 to the present), almost every single important surety and fidelity book previously published by the FSLC has been expanded and reproduced in a new edition, and new publications have been created. By the end of 201 0, the FSLC library of publications will be completely up to date.

All that said, I think my most lasting memory of working in the FSLC, whether it was prior to, during, or after my role as FSLC Chair, is the fact that I asked a large number of FSLC members to perform an enormous amount of work and spend an incredible number of hours on a voluntary basis for the good of the FSLC and the surety and fidelity industry, and I cannot remember one time when anyone refused my request for assistance. That is an impressive history of and testament to the FSLC members ' willingness to work for the good of the whole group and/or their inability, which I share, to say "no."

2002-2003: T. Scott Leo wrote of his concerning his year the following:

I was privileged to serve as chair of the FSLC during the year that Enron collapsed along with several commercial surety underwriters. Enron, by the way, is Latin for pig entrails. Since 2002, I've heard the expression used as a metaphor for subjects much more vile and repulsive than pig entrails. It was a challenging year for the surety industry and an opportunity for lawyers to see if the refined language of the Restatement of Suretyship might somewhere contain principles that might save some of their clients' bacon. Having served as an adviser to the Restatement, I knew that until there was a reliable translation of the Restatement, the book would probably serve us best as a paper weight. I prefer to understand the principles I profess, which is why I profess so little, and use the Restatement as a paper weight, I guess my year was a year of transition. And when someone in an organization says it is in transition, it usually means it is not much fun either.

Notwithstanding the travails and transition of the surety industry, and my preoccupation with the preparing and participating in the trial involving probably the largest dollar exposure to date in that industry, the FSLC managed to have some fun. I was greatly helped by the minds of those far more prescient than mine, among them my friends and mentors Dick Wisner and Paul Devin, who were instrumental in changing the level of support for the Committee from TIPS, to enable someone like me, who became chair during the busiest year of his career, from going crazy, becoming despondent and getting divorced. Well, at least my wife Chris is still with me. One out of three isn't all bad. I did take to heart Bruce Shreve 's encouraging words to me: "This Committee is so well run, even you can't screw it up." Bruce always underestimated me.

During my year as chair, the Committee adopted a policy of permitting company personnel who were members of the Committee to attend our meetings without paying registration fees--an experiment still under review today. Our fall meeting in Washington D.C., chaired by Gary Valeriano and Lisa Block, unfortunately took place while the snipers were still on the prowl in that city. Our attendance numbers reflected our members have some fear of random ambush, notwithstanding the support of many of them for Vice President Cheney. And our spring meeting in Chicago in May of 200.3, chaired by Mike Franks and Vince Fasano and others, was a success in terms of attendance and content and was only marred by a Cubs game that validated that team's reputation.

During the mid-winter meeting at the Waldorf; it was my privilege to give the Marty Andrew award to John Petro, who had the courage to give a speech once to one of our groups that for me led to an epiphany. To paraphrase the entire substance of his talk, John said that there were only six cases that mean anything in our industry in a given year, at least a dozen papers on each of the cases and innumerable presentations about each of them, that he was late for his plane and that he would be quiet and sit down now.

Notwithstanding Scott's depreciating comments above, the Committee, under his leadership put on a full schedule of programs. In October 2002, the FSLC co-sponsored a two-day fidelity program with the Fidelity Law Association in Washington, D.C. The first day entailed the presentation of papers and the second day included workshops.

In January 2003, the FSLC held its Mid-Winter Meeting in New York City. The meeting included leadership meetings on the first day, including a Membership Subcommittee luncheon, a Minorities Involvement Subcommittee meeting, a Women's Involvement Subcommittee meeting, a Young Professionals Subcommittee meeting, an Associates Involvement Subcommittee meeting, a Fidelity and Surety News (Digest) editorial board meeting, a Law Division meeting, a Publications Division meeting, and the Vice-Chair Leadership meeting with a Vice-Chairs/Leadership reception thereafter. The second day was the joint all-day program with the ABA's Forum on the Construction Industry. The Minority Involvement, Women's Involvement, Young Professionals Involvement Subcommittees held a joint reception to which Surety Company personnel were invited. This reception was followed by the FSLC reception. On Friday morning, the Women's Involvement Subcommittee held a breakfast program for their members. The FSLC surety and fidelity programs were held in the morning and afternoon, respectively.

In April 2003, the FSLC held its two-day Spring Surety program in Chicago. The first day involved presentations and the second day involved workshops. On the first day, the Women's Involvement Subcommittee held a women-only luncheon co- sponsored by a number of firms at which four prominent fidelity and surety lawyers provided their insight with respect to women's issues and ABA involvement, law firm leadership, surety company leadership, and client development.

The Membership Subcommittee proposed a number of new initiatives including (1) procedures for welcoming first-time attendees to FSLC programs, and (2) instituting a program by which surety and company employees who are members of the ABA and TIPS/FSLC may attend certain FSLC programs without charge.

The Law Division began the process of revamping and reorganizing to provide, as one of its goals, contributions to the FSLC Newsletter.

The Fidelity and Surety News changed its name to The Fidelity and Surety Digest and was redesigned.

FSLC did not participate in an educational program at the 2003 Annual Programs. However, there was a business meeting where Scott passed off the gavel to Marilyn Klinger.

2003-2004: Marilyn Klinger

In my year, I went out on a limb and did something very different for my Mid-Winter program. I combined surety and fidelity, in a sense, and had eight 45-minute vignettes, where our committee members acted out various claims scenarios. They were hilarious. We had a "stage manager" for each vignette with one giant screen videoing the participants and the other showing their PowerPoints, which were themselves, very creative. We had one of our members dress in drag and another dress as and do an Elvis Presley number. I am particularly proud of the fact that by the time of the last vignette at 5:00ish on Friday evening, there were hundreds of people still in the room and, at the back of the room, there were about 40 people standing and watching. Of course, we had door prizes at the very end to incentivize some people to stay.

I also brought the meeting back to San Francisco, where we had not been in three or so years. As my luncheon speaker, I had Ron Tutor of Tutor Saliba speak.

My year was the year of participation, not writing. Indeed, other than the obligatory TIPS Surety and Fidelity Survey, only the fidelity program provided a new book...

I did outreach for the "spring" meeting in the sense that we had three meetings, all on the same subject, Surety Back to Basics in Connecticut, Chicago, and Seattle--the highest population of surety personnel in the country. We gave away a number of already published books at each program

So, if you add up the Mid-Winter meeting, the Fidelity Program, and the three Back to Basics programs, we had almost 100 people do presentations over the entire year. Finally, I awarded the Martin J, Andrew Award to James A. Black, Jr.

2004-2005: Samuel J. Arena, Jr.

In terms of summing up my year and my experiences as Chair of the FSLC, I do not believe that I can say it any better than how I described our committee for an article that I wrote for The Brief in 2005, titled “Fidelity and Surety Law Committee: The Right

Mix”. What I wrote from my experiences then holds true today. In that article, I described the FSLC serves as &national resource for fidelity and surety law practitioners, company claim professionals, and accountants, engineers and consultants who work with attorneys and claim professional in responding to fidelity and surety claims. By providing opportunities for its members to stay abreast of current developments in fidelity and surety law and claim handling practices, while at the same time providing opportunities for networking, social interaction, and professional growth, I stated that I thought that the FSLC has found "the right mix" of legal, business, and social activities for its members. As a result of our group having found "the right mix, we consistently have been one of the most active and successful committees in TIPS, if not the entire ABA.

What I believe makes our committee different from other committees is the fact that we also have "the right mix" of people from throughout the country willing to give their time and talents to support committee activities. As the Committee Chair, I never had to go hunting for "volunteers" because there was always someone there to pitch in and get done whatever had to be done. After agreeing to serve as Committee Chair and learning a bit more of what was expected of me as Chair, I quickly learned that the job was much larger than one person and that if my year was not to be the first unsuccessful year in the history of Committee (something I think that all Chairs worry about), I would need a lot of help. My only regret as Chair is that I did not have more assignments to provide to the many individuals who volunteered to assist me in my responsibilities as Chair.

In the 2004-05 year, we continued the FSLC's well-known tradition of fine CLE programs. CLE programs for the 2004-05 year began in the Fall of2004 with our traditional Fall Fidelity Program. The Fall Fidelity Program that year was a comprehensive one-and-one-half day program in Boston, Massachusetts, on the Commercial Crime Policy. The program, which set an attendance record for the Fall was held in conjunction with the Fidelity Law Association's Annual Meeting and Program, and involved over 50 speakers and authors. The FSLC debuted its publication of The Commercial Crime Policy, Second Edition at this program. The program was co-chaired, and the book co-edited, by John Tomaine and Randy Marmour. This book was one of three books published in the 2004-05 FSLC year.

Our Mid-Winter Meeting returned to the east coast and New York's Waldorf Astoria in January 2005. After a day of leadership and business meetings, the mid-winter CLE programs began with our Thursday joint program with the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, "Are You Covered? Insured Products for Construction Projects." Bob Carney co-chaired the program and served as the FSLC’s representative on that program. The Friday morning surety program, "Suretyship Defenses: Theory and Practice," was co-chaired by Tracey Haley and Scott Leo. The written materials for the surety program was the Restatement of Suretyship and Guarantee: A Translation for the Practitioner. Our Friday afternoon fidelity program "Check Fraud Claims -The Whole Kite and Kaboodle "was co-chaired by Joe Perry and Adam Friedman. The surety and fidelity programs each began with a state-of-the-industry presentation that provided our membership with a look at the markets, loss ratios, trends and industry concerns over the past year, followed by brief summaries of the key recent court decisions. I had hoped that this "state-of-the industry" report would become an annual tradition, but somehow it just did not catch on.

The highlight for me of the Mid- Winter Meeting was to see my friend and FSLC Past Chair, Paul Devin, receive the Marty Andrew Award. I was introduced to Paul at my very first FSLC Mid-Winter Meeting by Dan Mungal and was pleased to see Paul recognized for his service to the industry and our profession.

The FSLC's Spring Surety Program was held in Sun Antonio, Texas, in May, 2005, in conjunction with our Spring Vice-Chairs and Leadership Meetings. The Spring program, "Managing Contract Bond Defaults" was co-chaired by Rich Towle, Duncan Clore, and Mike Sugar, and featured a faculty of experienced surety lawyers, claims professional and consultants who examined through a series of panel presentations and workshops the surety's options upon default of its performance bond principal. The course materials for this one-and-one-half day program was the revised and updated Bond Default Manual, Third Edition. As mentioned above, that was our third book publication during my year as chair. One book for each of our CLE meetings.

To sum up, I truly believe that the success of any organization begins with its members. The FSLC has been successful through the efforts of its members and because it has found "the right mix" of legal, business, and social activities for its members. The type of people our committee attracts and the opportunities available to our members truly are "the right mix."

2005-2006: Michael J. Jankowski

Let me start by saying that the FSLC puts on great programs... .. however, from the time I started going to FSLC events in the late 1980s my short attention span was always challenged by programs that consisted of one talking head after another speaking AT a large assembly of people in a large, usually poorly ventilated room. Let's face it, there are only a limited number of people in the committee that can successfully engage a large crowd with their topic always thought, ''we have to get people more involved, more engaged, more invested in each program." Also, I favored the practical program over the scholarly.

In the late 90s we started doing some workshop programs and small group presentations. So, when it was my turn to be Chair I was determined to run programs that emphasized the practical and relied, as much as possible, on the small group, case study, breakout type of format. For the fall and spring meetings this was fairly easy to accomplish. However, I am most proud of the fact that during my year as Chair we were able to take that idea and use it at the mid winter meeting in NY; I think we had almost 900 registrants that year. During the course of the day on Friday we moved those people all over the hotel. We offered 8 different sessions. The format did not proceed without problems and the Waldorf was probably not the best venue for this experiment but at the end of the day, at the last series of sessions, there were still about 500-600 people in the various meeting rooms. It was a blast and the feedback was mostly positive.

One of the other things I wanted to accomplish at the mid winter was to revive the Friday luncheon. The year I was name designate for the Chair position I sat on the stage at the Waldorf to see Paul Devin get the Marty Andrew award and to listen to a Federal Judge talk about the state of the court system. In the ballroom there were about 250 people in attendance. Frankly, it was embarrassing. So, for 2006 I paid for a speaker, I got prizes for a post lunch raffle, I let everyone know in advance that Dick would be receiving the Marty Andrew award and I asked some groups to refrain from having their traditional offsite lunches on Friday. Well, we sold out the Starlight Roof ballroom. Over 600 showed. It was a great event fulfilling my goal that it be the largest social event of the year for our industry. Subsequent lunches have built on that success. But where are the raffle prizes!!!!

We also published 7 or 8 books during my year as Chair. That has to be a record.

Of course, on the negative side, the rift with the Forum came to a head during my year as Chair. I appointed a committee of Patricia Thompson, Scott Leo and Wayne Walton to see if the fence could be mended.

Anyway, I hope this is what you are looking for. One of the great aspects of appointing a new Chair every year is that someone new is always putting their stamp on the FSLC. We all bring different strengths and talents to the table. It would be boring and ultimately deadly if we just did the same thing the same way every year. Each new Chair sets the tone for their year and the membership continues to respond positively to our efforts.

2006-2007: Michael Keeley. Mike Keeley's retrospective is as follows:

I have vivid memories of my early years as a member of the Fidelity & Surety Law Committee. One thing that struck me so clearly then, and that has stayed with me until this day, is how many enormously talented people there are in our Committee. As a result, I was not only honored but also humbled when I was eventually asked to mind the Committee baton. While I have a lot of great memories of my time as Chair-Elect and Chair, my fondest memories are of the terrific people I was able to work with, too many to name them all.

Iassumed my year as Chair would proceed like clockwork, or at least that's what was suggested to me. And, the programs did indeed go well, for the most part, but that's as much a reflection on the excellent work of my program chairs and the ABA staff (in particular Wanda Workman and Janet Hummons) as anything I did Cole Kain and Lana Glovach did a great job in the Fall, when the Annotated Financial Institution Bond program went off like clockwork in Washington, DC. I know I drove Janet Hummons crazy planning for our big "Dinner with the Pandas" event at the National Zoo, but I loved every minute of dealing with her.

Seth Mills and Bill Bogaert did truly phenomenal jobs in putting together, and just as importantly, keeping together the Mid- Winter program in San Francisco, "Preparing for Trial of the Complex Fidelity and Surety Case." We spent a ton of time together trying to select someone “famous” to begin the program, as well as a "big name” for lunch. Somehow Bill and Seth were able to entice Robert Shapiro, then one of the most sought after and best known criminal defense attorneys in America, to be our lead off speaker in discussing the importance of developing the theme of the case for trial. I cannot tell you how far my chin dropped when we were holding a last minute planning meeting in San Francisco the Tuesday before Shapiro was to speak on Friday when Shapiro office called to say he was sick, and he would still be sick three days later on Friday and thus had to cancel. I still remember Bill calming me down and telling me, "Not to worry, we'll figure it out," and that's exactly what they did, Peter Haley, Mark Game1 and Jim Black did a terrific job turning their 1 hour session on preparing the claim professional for deposition and trial into a 1 K hour session, easily making up for Shapiro 's absence. Lesson learned.

My good friend Peter Haley was able to arrange for the legendary and colorful former two-term Mayor of San Francisco and political power broker, Willie Brown, to be our luncheon speaker. Willie arrived early for the noon luncheon and the first words out of his mouth were that he had to leave by 12:30, even though he wasn't supposed to start speaking until about then. So, Bill and Seth went to each of the breakout sessions to let everyone know we had to end the morning session early and go straight to lunch. No one complained, and Willie was terrific, and hilarious, in discussing the politics of the day, including how Hilary was clearly going to win the election and be our first female President. He missed on that one, but otherwise was incredible.

For the spring, we went to what I described in our brochure as Heaven on Earth, Santa Fe, New Mexico. My nervousness about attendance turned out to be misplaced, and Tracey Haley and Phil Bruner arranged for a great program on Managing and Litigating the Complex Surety Case. We had a fun reception on Wednesday at the Inn at Laredo, and our Thursday dinner was a cookout under the stars on a bluff outside of town where we sipped margaritas and wine to a great sunset and were enthralled by Native American entertainment.

The programs were the easy and fun part. The more difficult times involved several issues of great importance to the Committee, including sponsorship issues being pushed by TIPS, registration fees for company employees, and various membership issues. However, the most difficult issue for me, and I know most of our leadership, involved the changing nature of our relationship with the Forum on the Construction Industry. My file on this issue is literally six inches thick, including three separate correspondence files and a separate file of drafts, notes, and other miscellaneous items.

The issue in its simplest form (and this was far from a simple issue) was whether we would continue holding a joint program with the Forum at our Annual Mid- Winter Meeting. The sub-issues driving the main one were many, including control over programming and speakers, the process for the selection of the host hotel, the amount of registration fees, the sharing of expenses and profits, and too many others to name.

Two of our Committee’s greatest Ambassadors, Patricia Thompson and Wayne

Walton, were appointed as liaisons to interact with the Forum, and they did an excellent job. Numerous telephone calls and meetings were held amongst our own leadership as well as with the leaders of the Forum in an effort to resolve our differences. There was no shortage of strong opinions as the Committee's leadership debated the many questions ad nauseam.

Ultimately, a lengthy discussion, followed by a vote, was taken amongst our leadership in Santa Fe at our Spring program. It was unanimously decided-with one abstention as I recall to cancel our agreement with the Forum. Ultimately, it was our conclusion that our two groups had grown apart and that our Committee's singular focus on educating the industry was no longer compatible with the Forum's goals. As a result, it was decided that we would begin holding a two-day Mid- Winter program, making sure we have plenty of construction education for our members who normally would attend the joint program. Seth Mills did a terrific job this year with our first stand-alone Thursday program, and as I write this piece, I have just learned that, despite the tumbling economy, Seth's program was financially successful, a concern we had going it on our own.

Notwithstanding some of the troubling issues we faced during my tenure, I would not trade my time as Chair of the FSLC for anything. It truly was one of the highlights of my career.

2007-2008: Tracey Haley

After a 19 year hiatus, 2007-2008 marked the year the FSLC Chairship returned to a company person. Some in the membership saw this as a long overdue step, some merely thought it confirmed that we really had reached the "bottom of the barrel" in our efforts to find Chairs. By the end of the year, both groups could probably find ample support for their position.

Our Fall fidelity meeting explored the many issues involving loan losses and we introduced a new publication to add to our long list of excellent FSLC publications." Loan Loss Coverage Under Financial Institution Bonds" was edited by Gilbert Schroeder of Clausen Miller and John Tomaine of Chubb, who also served as program co-chairs. The meeting was held in conjunction with the Fidelity Law Association's Annual Meeting and, for the first time in FLA history, the meeting was not in the northeast in late October/early November but rather, in sunny Orlando, Florida.

Our UPBEAT diversity committee and our YPS branched out and invited minority law students from local FL law schools to our opening reception and were very pleasantly surprised by the great turn out and the students' interest in our practice area. The women in the committee also sponsored a "Chocolate Fountain" reception on Thursday afternoon, a welcome departure from the usual early morning networking breakfast that have become a cornerstone of our committee. And in keeping with the more relaxed 'family" attitude of Orlando, we expanded the social events to include family members of all ages -including a kid's game of piñata following the dinner and DJ on Thursday night. We also introduced a committee philanthropy project in Orlando. We asked attendees to support a local women's shelter by donating various items. Our members and attendees responded in a tremendous way and we were able to deliver an entire van full of needed supplies to the shelter on Friday afternoon.

Our Mid- Winter Meeting was in New York, NY, but we departed from the Waldorf- Astoria Hotel tradition and instead went to the New York Sheraton.

Our joint program with the Forum on the Construction Industry ushered in another first for the FSLC – our first program with more than 1,000 attendees! Our Thursday program dealt with the new AL4 contract documents being released the next month and the Friday program, Chaired by David Krebs of Krebs, Farley and Pelliteri, split the fidelity and surety practitioners into separate groups and focused on jury persuasion for each area of practice. Our committee women were hard at work; hosting both a Thursday afternoon tea with over 75 women and a networking breakfast on Friday morning. And we continued our efforts in support of a local women's shelter, resulting in an astounding number of donations. We also spotlighted women in the construction industry at an UPBEAT breakfast on Friday morning, with a key note speech from Professional Women in Construction President, Lenore Janis. Our large Thursday night cocktail reception was hosted by UPBEAT and had a "Giving Back" theme that featured a slideshow of our members' various philanthropic efforts throughout the year. And the YPS poker night was, as usual, a very popular late night event for all those with the skill and energy to stay till the last hand was dealt. Our Friday luncheon was attended by over 600people and was 'standing room only for a panel discussion by 6 surety company presidents- one from Travelers, Zurich, Liberty Mutual, Safeco, Chubb and Great American. The success of the luncheon, however, necessitated the moving of the Marty Andrew Award presentation to Bernie Balkin of Gilliland & Hayes of Kansas City to the following year's Mid- Winter Meeting -a bit of a delay, but well worth the wait.

George Bachrach of Whiteford Taylor & Preston and Wanda Workman with the ABA spent most of their fall and winter compiling, verifying, proofing and printing our FSLC Directory. We had tabs and advertising space, for the first time, and it was an idea described by one member as "divinely inspired" and by another as "the devil's work." The outcome was a marvelous bright purple Directory -and a source of (another) lively Committee debate.

Our Spring surety program featured a completely reworked and updated, "The Surety's Indemnity Agreement: Law and Practice.” George Bachrach of Whiteford Taylor & Preston and Marilyn Klinger of Sedgwick Detert edited the monumental work and my name was added when no other company person was interested in the 3 year book project. The program was in Kansas City (another first) and will long be remembered for both the outstanding program and the Thursday night social event at the Jazz Museum and the Negro Baseball League Hall of Fame. The evening would not have been complete without the local BBQ dinner -and the "Marching Cobras" band that startled the crowd by marching down the street and right into our reception and dinner. Our women's shelter philanthropy continued in Kansas City, as did the women's networking breakfast and the YPS late night on the town traditions.

Throw in a couple of CLE teleconferences, 4 TIPS leadership meetings, 2 Vice Chair meetings and that about sums up the year. And if asked the question, "What made your year as Chair different from every other Chair's year?" I would answer that I was the first Chair to have a baby a month into their year as FSLC Chair. I feel confident I will hold this distinguished place in our history for many years to come.

All I forgot to add was that we were given TIPS' Overall Excellence Award for all our Membership efforts. Very cool! Thanks for helping to make that happen!

2008-2009: E.A. "Seth" Mills, Jr.

I have had the benefit of reading much of our Committee's history. It's quite a story, filled with lots of lore, interesting people and events. During my year as Chair, we were presented with some great "opportunities to succeed." There were two significant changes which had occurred as my year was just beginning. These two events directed much of our Committee's subsequent planning, efforts and outcomes. First, we embarked on a two day Mid- Winter Program without the Forum on the Construction Industry. It was the first time this had ever been done and was also the first time that we had not sponsored a joint Thursday program with the Forum since at least 1982. Second, we had the unfortunate luck of beginning the year with the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Of course none of us envisioned when our meetings and events were being planned three years ago, that we would face the tough economic times that currently exist. While we, like everyone else, experienced a drop-off in our attendance at National Programs, our members rallied to the Committee's aid. I was required to place several difficult calls to key members and ask them to do more to help us. To the person they all said yes! Our meetings went forward and were very successful.

We began the year with a terrific fall fidelity program in Baltimore. In light of the issues I referenced above, we decided to return to a traditional site and again held the meeting in conjunction with the Fidelity Law Association's Annual Meeting. We drew about 225 attendees. Duncan Clore served as both the Program Chair, and as the Editor of our new book, "Financial Institution Bonds, Third Edition." The book formed the centerpiece of the fall program. We also kicked off our year-long public service project at this meeting. It was our desire to do something that could truly "make a difference" that we could all be proud of for years to come. I decided that we should engage in an Organ and Tissue Donor Drive. The goal was to get new donors to sign up and the effort was successful. As the year progressed through each of our meetings more and more new donors were added and we ultimately added enough new donors to impact over 500 people's lives in the future. This is probably the accomplishment of which I am most proud. Many thanks to TIPS, which gave the Committee a small, grant to off-set the cost of the project and to its Co-chairs Donna Malcomb and Bill Bogaert.

We rolled into our traditional Mid- Winter meeting spot at the Waldorf Astoria in New York. While our numbers were down somewhat from the previous high of the prior year, we held our own. The program received rave reviews as we focused on "Public Private Partnerships, Co-Suretyship and Co-Insurance: Managing Risk Within Joint Ventures in Construction, Surety and Fidelity" and had a mix of construction, surety and fidelity topics. We had great speakers, some governmental dignitaries and two tremendous co-program chairs in Mike Pipkin and Scott Schmookler. They delivered what many have said was our finest program ever. Because of the ever tightening budget, I will also remember the decision to cut some costs by moving the Friday luncheon to a smaller room that could only accommodate about 350 people. We had Craig Donohue Visited in 2008 by Forbes as one of American S Best CEOs) who was sewing as the Chair of CME Group (NY Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and Chicago Board of Trade) as our luncheon speaker. I was very worried that we would run out of seating and requested that the Past Chairs and Senior Committee Leadership stand in the, back of the room to ensure everyone else got a seat first. While there were a few tense moments, everyone eventually was seated. I counted and saw only three empty seats in; the entire room. I had dodged another bullet! Because of her terrific "President S Panel" luncheon last year, Tracey Haley had missed out on the opportunity to name a Marty Andrew Award winner for lifetime achievement in our industry. She got the opportunity at my Mid-Winter and named Bernie Balkin of Kansas City. What a great pick.

Our Spring Surety program in La Jolla, California is about one month away as I write this history. It will roll out yet another new book for the industry entitled: "The Law of Performance Bonds, Second Edition." Our program chair is Larry Mohlemann and he, together with Kevin Lybeck and Matt Horowitz are Co-editors of the new book. The book is over 1,000 pages in length and promises to be one of those desk references we will all want close to our side. It is at this meeting that I have asked for our Committee to celebrate its 75th Anniversary by "taking a look back" at who we are and how we have evolved over time. Jim Black and Dick Wisner are the Co-Chairs of this effort and will be our luncheon speakers at the meeting on Thursday. Both are stalwarts of this Committee as Past Chairs. They have had fun with this project and I am looking forward to a great and funny luncheon presentation. Because I don 't want to spoil all the fun, I will not take this opportunity to publically name here the person I have chosen as this year's Marty Andrew Award winner. I will say, however, that no one has ever worked harder to make this committee a success.

For those who want to spoil Seth's surprise, they may look at the Appendix where we list the Martin J. Andrew Award winners! Since for the purposes of this presentation, we are reinstituting the "McNamara Rule" prohibiting the distribution of papers prior to the presentation, there is "no harm, no foul!" This paper also marks another "first" for the Committee. This will be the first paper distributed by posting on the Committee's website and as an attachment to an email. Another example of Seth's leadership, making us "green" and saving money to boot!

The Committee has had a terrific 75 years of service to the law and industry. Even as this is being written, the Committee continues to move forward into the future. In an eye blink, someone will be writing about the Centennial of the FSLC. There is no doubt that the next twenty-five years will be even more filled with the activities and programs of this Committee and it will continue to be the premier Committee of the Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section.

Even now we are looking forward to Seth Mills' remaining programs and the upcoming programs of David Krebs the latter part of this year and beginning of the next. Additionally, Larry Moelmann's programs are already being worked on.

In the last twenty-five years the Committee has come a long way from the days when Jim Crowder started moving the Committee's planning ahead to coordinate with the TIPS schedule.

Harvey Koch and Marty Andrew moved us into a structure that allows, nay demands, the full participation by the members of the Committee. It is this participation that makes the Committee unique and successful.

We are fully confident, as this decade ends and we move into the last twenty-five years of the Committee's first century that led by David Krebs, Chair-Elect Larry Moelmann, Chair-Elect Designee and our Young Professionals, UPBEAT and ACE sub- committees, we will continue to move ahead and find new ways to involve, serve and benefit our membership and the law.

Dick and Jim, eds.

E.A. "Seth" Mills, Jr., 2008-2009 Chair

We have enjoyed a great 75 years! Our committee is extremely strong and is consistently regarded as the best in TIPS and perhaps the best in the entire ABA. This recognition is the product of great vision, leadership and the dedication of many, many people over the years. It is also the product not just of the leadership, but also of the rank and file members who have volunteered and given so much of their time to write and publish articles, papers, newsletters and books. They have volunteered, spoken and served in virtually every imaginable capacity.

The committee has also been a place where we could exchange ideas, learn, grow and build great personal friendships that have spanned entire careers. Indeed, it is bigger than all of us. It marches on, with a great cadre of the next group of leaders always being trained. Just as Phil Brunner tapped Marianne Susong and me to start a "Young Lawyers" section in 1994, young leaders of the FSLC are today being given the opportunities and responsibilities to make us all better.

We will certainly face challenges in the future and our industry will continue to change. We must and will adapt to these ever changing conditions to keep ourselves relevant to our core constituencies. It has been this over-arching desire to blend private counsel, consultants and fidelity and surety company representatives into a cohesive group seeking to help establish and define the law concerning fidelity, surety and related insurance products. Our members have thus contributed greatly to this field of the law. It has benefited our company members by providing learned counsel, developing the law as it relates to their products and helping them both understand and manage their exposure, rights and responsibilities. As we move forward toward our 100~anniversary, I am confident that our future leaders will be thoroughly prepared and cognizant of the awesome privilege and responsibility it is to lead this fine group. Perhaps, the key to their success may just lie in glancing back at our past.