When I left private practice more than a quarter century ago, my friend, a trial court judge said: “why would you want to spend the rest of your life watching paint dry?” Now he comes to me for advice on insurance issues. (snicker)

Well, I can testify with great certainty that working with insurance policies and the claims that involve disputes about coverage are far from boring—but that is just the opinion of this self-avowed insurance geek.

If you’re thinking about being a coverage lawyer, the best way that I can imagine starting is honestly the way that I did it, which is to join an insurance company. I was fortunate because I had done defense work for the carrier I joined and I knew their values and their philosophy, which was very insured-friendly. It was a mutual insurance company and I have to say that in my experience, the mutual insurance carriers are much more inclined to take care of their customers—although I have seen a few stock insurance companies also operate with the same type of consideration for their insureds.

There is no better way to immerse yourself in all kinds of policy forms and endorsements and to see the way that insurance companies operate. Hopefully, you will be fortunate to find a carrier that operates more like my former employer, which operated under 10 core values that were emphasized and incorporated into how we conducted our business. I plan to discuss insurers in general in a later blog and to provide more information about the different types, differing philosophies, and different selling models.

Even if you only work for an insurance company for a few years, the learning curve will be steep and you will come away with what I believe to be an advantage in litigation, which is an understanding of insurance coverage, how policies are correctly analyzed, and obviously how to navigate various coverage issues.

If you don’t want to take that route, there are several other resources from which you can learn the basics of insurance agreements. I believe there are some Kaplan courses that will teach you in a very rudimentary fashion all about many types of policies. Once you have mastered the basic concepts, my best recommendation is that you work to obtain your Chartered Property Casualty Underwriting certification (CPCU).

There are about eight courses (lawyers are excused from one because the subject is law) so basically you are doing seven courses, and you will get a broad overview of insurance—both personal and commercial. You will also learn about other insurance concepts including financial aspects, regulation, reinsurance, etc.