“Ranging from no fault to strict liability, countries have taken drastically different approaches to the liability motorists face post-collision. Distinguished speakers from around the world will discuss the laws in their respective countries and offer their thoughts on which approach works best and how to better improve motor vehicle accident liability laws. Ancillary to automobile liability is the future of liability when autonomous vehicles are in accidents. For this part of the symposium, speakers will address the liability implications and insurance adjustments necessary in a future with driverless cars.”
This symposium is being held in conjunction with the World Tort Law Society’s third Biennial Meeting.
Friday, November 17, 2017
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Wake Forest University School of Law, Room 1312
CLE Credits: Approved for 4.5 Hours
To watch the Symposium Live: Please click these Links:
Session 1: Recording & Webcast – http://go.wfu.edu/z80
Session 2 & 3: Recording & Webcast – http://go.wfu.edu/pfp
This event is free and open to the public.
This event is co-sponsored by the law firms of Daggett Shuler and Wallace & Graham as well as the Provost’s Fund for Academic Excellence and the Provost Office of Global Affairs.
Registration is now Closed.
Thank you to all who attended and/or participated.
Please direct any questions to either Katie Baiocchi at [email protected] or Ashley Barton at [email protected].
Parking
A campus parking map can be found here. Reserved parking will be available for registered symposium attendees at the Winston-Salem First Church parking lot (Letter A on the map). A shuttle will run from that parking lot to the law school. Alternatively, it is only a 5-7 minute walk to the Worrell Professional Center.
Agenda
| 9:00 | Dean’s Welcome | ||
| 9:10 | Introductory Remarks | ||
| Michael D. Green | Bess and Walter Williams Distinguished Chair, Wake Forest University | ||
| 9:20 | First Session: Automobiles Tort Law and Insurance |
Moderator: Ken Oliphant | |
| Mark Geistfeld | NYU School of Law | The Regulatory Sweet Spot of Autonomous Vehicles | |
| Nora Engstrom | Stanford Law School | When Cars Crash: The Automobile’s Tort Law Legacy | |
| Kyle Logue | University of Michigan Law | Product Liability and Insurance as Regulation in the Transition to Driverless Cars | |
| Emily Frascaroli | Counsel at Ford Motor Company | The Liability Implications of Highly Automated Vehicles | |
| 11:45 | Lunch | ||
| 1:15 | Second Session: Motor Vehicle Accidents Around the World |
Moderator: Ralph Peeples, Professor of Law, Wake Forest University | |
| Ernst Karner | University of Vienna Law | A Comparative Analysis of Accident Systems | |
| Jean-Sébastien Borghetti | University of Paris | Extra-Strict Liability in France | |
| Daniel Gardner | University of Laval Law | No Fault (Pure) in Canada | |
| 2:45 | Afternoon Break | ||
| 3:00 | Third Session: Reflection From the Trenches |
Moderator: Jonathan Cardi, Executive Associate Dean for Academic Affairs & Professor of Law, Wake Forest University | |
| Don Beskind | Duke University School of Law | ||
| Dave Daggett | Daggett Shuler | ||
| Kirk Warner | Smith Anderson | ||
| Tom Karol | General Counsel – Federal at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies | ||
| 4:30 | Adjourn |
Presenter Biographies
Session 1: Automobiles Tort Law and Insurance
Mark Geistfeld
Mark Geistfeld is the Sheila Lubetsky Birnbaum Professor of Civil Litigation at New York University School of Law and a co-director of the NYU Center for Law and Economics. Professor Geistfeld primarily teaches torts, products liability, and insurance. He is a senior editor of the Journal of Tort Law and an academic contributor to Black’s Law Dictionary. As the author or co-author of four books and over 40 articles, Professor Geistfeld has extensively researched and addressed the common-law rules and legal principles related to deterrence and compensation for physical harms. Much of his work is based on the interplay between tort liability and insurance mechanisms. His most recent forthcoming work specifically addresses the liability and insurance implications of autonomous vehicles.
Nora Engstrom
Nora Freeman Engstrom’s scholarship lies at the intersection of tort law and legal ethics. Professor Engstrom is a professor of law and the Associate Dean for Curriculum at Stanford Law School, where she is recognized as the Deane F. Johnson Faculty Scholar. Her current work explores the-day-to-day operation of the tort system and particularly the tort system’s interaction with alternative compensation mechanism, such as workers’ compensation and no-fault automobile insurance. She is a co-author of a leading professional responsibility casebook, and she will shortly join Professor Mark Geistfeld and Wake Forest’s own Professor Mike Green as co-author of a leading Torts casebook. Her expert commentary has appeared in a wide array of news outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, The National Law Journal, Forbes, and the LA Times. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and an elected member of the American Legal Institute.
Kyle Logue
Kyle D. Logue is currently the Douglas A. Kahn Collegiate Professor of Law at the University of Michigan Law School, where he teaches courses in the fields of insurance, torts, tax, and law and economics. Professor Logue serves as the associate reporter for the Restatement of the Law of Liability Insurance. He has published numerous scholarly articles, and is coauthor of Insurance Law and Public Policy: Cases and Materials (3rd ed.). Professor Logue was awarded the 2013 Liberty Mutual Prize for the outstanding paper in the area of property and casualty insurance law. Before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan Law School, Professor Logue served as a law clerk to the Hon. Patrick E. Higginbotham of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and practiced law at the firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan in Atlanta, Georgia.
Emily Frascaroli
Emily Frascaroli serves as counsel for Ford Motor Company in Dearborn, Michigan. She also lectures at the University of Michigan Law School. As counsel she advises globally on automotive safety, regulatory, and product liability issues, including a focus on autonomous vehicles, mobility, and cybersecurity. Ms. Frascaroli has extensive experience handling regulatory matters with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and other governmental entities, product defect investigations, and complex product litigation cases. She serves as co-chair of the Legal and Insurance Working Group of the University of Michigan Mobility Transformation Center. She received her BS in aerospace engineering from the University of Southern California and her Masters in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan. Prior to practicing law, she worked as an engineer at both Ford and NASA.
Session 2: Motor Vehicle Accidents Around the World
Ernst Karner
A native of Austria, Ernst Karner is the Director of the Institute for European Tort Law and the Director of the European Centre of Tort and Insurance Law. He is a professor at the University of Vienna and has also served as a visiting professor at the University of Yantai, China. He is co-editor of the Journal of European Tort Law. He is a member of the World Tort Law Society and is on the Executive Committee. He has won numerous awards, including most recently the ÖVFA-Kapitalmarktpreis in 2010.
Jean-Sébastien Borghetti
Jean-Sébastien Borghetti is an internationally recognized law professor and scholar. Dr. Borghetti is currently a civil law professor at France’s biggest law faculty, Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) in Paris. Dr. Borghetti’s main fields of research are tort and contract law, with a particular interest in the intersection of the two fields. He has published multiple articles on contract and tort liability, both in France and abroad, and has authored a book on defective products’ liability. He has been a visiting professor at various universities, including Oxford and Montreal, and has been involved in the reform of French tort and contract law that is currently under way. Dr. Borghetti is also a member of the World Tort Law Society and a member of the European Group on Tort Law.
Daniel Gardner*
Daniel Gardner is the Director of Undergraduate Programs at Université Laval (Laval University) in Quebec, Canada, and is internationally known for his specialty in Civil Liability, Personal Injury, Contract, Car Insurance, and Consumer Protection Law. The two works for which he is best known are Le préjudice corporel (Personal Injury), 4th ed., 2016, and Jurisprudence commentée sur les obligations (Cases and Materials on the Law of Contracts and the Law of Torts), 12th ed., 2017 (co-authored by Maurice Tancelin). A visiting professor in several law faculties around the world (mainly in France), Mr. Gardner delivers some 20 lectures a year to a variety of audiences. He has worked as a consultant for numerous organizations in the fields of insurance, compensation, and consumer law in Québec and abroad.
Session 3: Reflection From the Trenches
Don Beskind
Donald H. Beskind is a full-time professor at Duke School of Law with more than 30 years private practice experience representing clients in car and truck wrecks, medical malpractice, business torts, and criminal cases. Professor Beskind co-founded the law firm Beskind, Rudolf & Maher in 1981 where he practiced until 1993. In 1993, he joined what became Twiggs, Beskind, Strickland & Rabenau, and practiced with that firm until 2012. Professor Beskind is also recognized by Best Lawyers in both personal injury litigation and medical malpractice law. Professor Beskind now serves in various cases as co-counsel and works as a mediator and arbitrator in complex cases. Beskind is also the co-author of North Carolina Evidentiary Foundations and Problems in Trial Advocacy. Moreover, he has ample trial training experience. Professor Beskind is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, he has served on the Board of Governors of both national and North Carolina trial lawyer organizations, and he has created numerous case files used for professional trial training programs he has conducted at U.S. law firms and in the United Kingdom. Professor Beskind currently teaches Torts, Evidence, and Trial Practice at Duke Law School.
Dave Daggett
David D. Daggett is the managing partner of Daggett Shuler, a law firm in Winston-Salem, and has practiced personal injury law since 1985. He has been awarded a spot on the “10 Best Lawyers in North Carolina” list by the American Institute of Personal Injury Attorneys since 2015. He is experienced in assisting clients with all types of injury cases, including serious injuries, wrongful death, and insurance claims. Over the years his clients have included professional runners, cyclists, and triathletes including Ironman champions. He has represented top military officers and Olympic athletes from three continents. David is a founder of Safe Sober Prom Night, Inc., a program that promotes safety and awareness among teenagers in North Carolina. Additionally, he’s a serious triathlete who has completed more than 185 triathlons, including 27 Ironman competitions. He has completed the Hawaii Ironman World Triathlon Championship eight times.
Kirk Warner
Kirk Warner is a partner at Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell, & Jernigan, LLP, located in Raleigh, North Carolina. Warner received his J.D. from Duke University in 1983. Prior to his successful career as a litigator, Warner was also a Colonel in the United States Army, and retired after 33 years of service. Currently, Warner is the head of the Firm’s Products Liability practice group, and has served as lead counsel both nationally and statewide to major automotive and consumer products manufacturers. Warner is a member of the Product Liability Advisory Council and the Commissioner for both the North Carolina Military Affairs Commission and North Carolina Equal Access to Justice Commission. Warner has published several articles in the area of military and veteran’s affairs, and has been recognized for his outstanding litigation work, specifically in the field of products liability.
Tom Karol
Tom Karol, a nationally recognized expert on a variety of insurance issues, is General Counsel – Federal for the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies’ (NAMIC) Washington D.C. office. NAMIC is the largest property/casualty insurance trade association in the country, representing 1,400 member companies and serving more than 170 million policyholders. Mr. Karol represents NAMIC in Washington D.C. on issues affecting property/casualty insurance companies and manages NAMIC’s response to federal legislation and regulations. He is the author of NAMIC’s recent white paper, “Insurance and the Evolution of Automated Driving Systems.” He has served on National Highway Traffic Safety Administration panels and is a Board Member of Advocates for Highway & Auto Safety, an alliance of groups and companies working to make roads safer. Additionally, Mr. Karol has worked directly with senior FAA officials and testified at Congressional hearings on drone issues.
