Well, now—I have now managed to catch up a bit on the stuff I was supposed to be doing yesterday instead of gadding about and associating with the brainiac crowd, so now you must endure a long-winded recap of stuff. Lucky you, eh?

Anyway, as mentioned several times, I had a professional liability seminar yesterday morning over at the conference room of the SEC Headquarters, (which, if you live around here, you know has nothing to do with the Securities and Exchange Commission and EVERYTHING to do with the real important thing—football). This is done to help fulfill my continuing education requirements for my architecture registration here in Alabama—in 1993, we were the second in the nation to require continuing ed (Iowa was first in 1979), and are required to do 12 hours a year. This was not popular when it began; architectural firms usually work on a pretty slim margin, especially those who work in a small practice or are sole proprietors, and so any time spent not being billed cuts deep. Most have come around now, though, and most find it valuable. I know I do, given that what I do now is pretty far afield from what’s normal in the profession.

Believe it or not, the professional liability talks are pretty interesting, if for no other reason than it makes everyone feel so much smarter. In a way, it’s sort of like reading about Darwin Award nominees—it’s amazing how many people, regardless of their profession, don’t seem to ever consider the thought that they could get sued for something, especially since court proceedings are now America’s number one spectator sport. It’s hard to figure out how some people manage to get any sort of work. Of course, the stupid ones don’t last long, but it’s darned difficult for even the smart ones to stay out of the line of fire.

Some people might say that it’s all the lawyers’ fault, but despite calls to take Shakespeare up on his suggestion, a better solution is to find yourself a good one. Also when it comes down to it, common sense should tell anyone a few things—do your homework about the task and the client, be clear ahead of time what you’re supposed to do and how to do it, document everything, keep good records, respond quickly to problems, communicate consistently and in a timely manner, observe mutual respect for everyone involved in the process—more or less the sorts of things you should do, no matter what.

The insurance guy who handled the lecture was good—you could tell he had seen a lot, and his biggest problem was architects who would ask him to review a contract. He would suggest wording changes or even recommend not signing the contract, then he would be informed that the work was already underway or even complete. Poor guy, each story would be punctuated by a heavy sigh. But he kept it entertaining and informative, although he needed some help with metaphors. A couple of them actually made me take notes, one being that insurers didn’t like to take all of the risk on a large project or “put all their marbles in one basket.” Yeah, I hate it when that happens. Before the World Trade Center attack, he said that a lot of insurers figured they had done a pretty good job of insulating themselves from loss and were “sitting there fat and happy in glass houses.” I just hope they had the curtain drawn. Another good one was that due to premium increases, some firms where trying to economize by “cutting some edges” to save money in other parts of the practice. Golly, I hope they don’t make it all the way to the corners!

Well, I’ve got to go to lunch, so later this afternoon you will get to read my take on the Gene Corley World Trade Center discussion. Great lecture, and despite what you may think, the WTC buildings performed exceedingly well given the catastrophic nature of what happened.

posted by Terry at 11:13:00 AM