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February 2009 • Vol II, Issue 1 
Welcome to the Inaugural Edition of our Risk Management Newsletter!
At HospitalityLawyer.com, we are continuously striving to meet the hospitality industry's legal, safety, and security needs. With that goal in mind, we are introducing a quarterly Risk Management Newsletter. The Risk Management Newsletter will provide you with risk compliance information and solutions affecting the hosptiality industry. We hope you enjoy the first edition of HospitalityLawyer.com's Risk Management Newsletter.
Risking It All:
Getting Insurance Coverage for Intentional Acts
By David E. Wood, Anderson Kill Wood & Bender, LLP
How does a Risk Manager anticipate and insure against intentional conduct by the company and its employees? Intentionally bad acts are not covered by insurance. Most states have statutory or common law prohibitions against insuring acts undertaken intentionally, with the intent to cause harm. That is why Commercial General Liability ("CGL") policy forms exclude losses that are "expected or intended from the standpoint of the insured" and why errors and omissions, employment practices, and directors’ and officers’ liability policies have provisions excluding proven dishonest or fraudulent conduct. These inherently culpable acts do not qualify to be insured, and therefore are referred to as uninsurable.
But sometimes CGL policies do allow alleged bad actors to shift to insurers the expense of defending them -- and even the expense of paying settlements or judgments. The difference between uninsurable intentional conduct and insurable intentional conduct can be hard to identify and anticipate, creating a gap into which some losses can – unforeseeably – fall.
Hotel Security: How Much is Too Much?
By Jim Stover, Arthur J. Gallagher
Since the recent tragic events in Mumbai, the American press – briefly – investigated the state of hotel security in the United States. After being interviewed by several major publications and reading the resultant stories, it quickly became apparent that we are not ready for increased security at our hotels.
To enhance security, the following changes would probably have to be made:
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Vehicles would have to be valet parked, some distance from the building.
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Install a state-of-the-art video and electronic surveillance system to monitor the entrance to the property, the perimeter fence, and all public spaces.
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Install metal detectors and explosive sniffers at the ONLY entrance to the building.
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Teach hotel staff how to recognize unusual behaviors and how to respond to them appropriately.
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Control access to guestroom floors by requiring key cards to enter stairwells from public spaces and to operate the elevators.
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Ensure all hotel employees are well trained in emergency response.
2009 Hospitality Law Conference Best Thus Far
We just completed the 2009 Hospitality Law Conference, our seventh annual conference. Over 300 in-house counsel, private attorneys, and hospitality risk and loss prevention executives gathered to get up-to-date on pressing legal, safety, and security issues.
The first Hospitality Law Seminar for the Eastern Region, focusing on legal, safety, and security issues that impact our industry, will be held at the Pier 5 Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland on June 1-2, 2009. CLE will be awarded.
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