Asian Institute of International Financial Law
Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
Future Challenges for Professionals and their Insurers
19 June 2024 (Wednesday), 12:30 – 1:30 PM
Academic Conference Room, 11/F Cheng Yu Tung Tower, HKU
Once upon a time, it was relatively easy to identify who, and who was not, a “professional”. As the authors of Jackson & Powell on Professional Liability put it “the occupations which are regarded as professions have four characteristics”. These were the mental rather than manual nature of professionals’ work; the moral aspects of their role; the existence of collective organisations to which professionals belonged and which oversaw their activities; and the social status which members of the professions enjoyed.
To a greater or lesser extent, each those characteristics no longer hold true. The emergence of multidisciplinary practices; the demise of traditional partnerships and the “commercialisation” of their business arrangements; the growth of statutory regulatory bodies; and the public’s disinclination to defer to their “betters” have undermined the historic conception of a “professional”.
Moreover, the growing use of AI represents a potential paradigm shift. Can a “bot” be a barrister? If not, why not? If an architect uses AI to design a building, whose design is it? The architect’s or the AI’s or the AI’s designer?
This seminar will address the changing nature of the work, obligations and regulation of professionals. It will discuss the need for professionals and their insurers to remain familiar with these changes and to address them when it comes to underwriting and claims management.
The seminar draws on the speaker’s research for his chapter ‘The Changing Landscape of Professional Liabilities’ for the forthcoming book Insurability of Emerging Risks: Law, Theory and Practice (Hart) edited by Professor Baris Soyer and Professor Özlem Gürses.
About the Speaker
Gary Meggitt, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong
Gary was admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and spent 12 years in practice with several leading UK law firms. He was also Called to the Bar in England & Wales. After leaving private practice, Gary taught at BPP Law School in London and was the Course Director of its Full-Time Bar Vocational Course (BVC). He joined the Law Faculty at HKU in 2007 and teaches civil litigation, commercial dispute resolution, professional conduct and insurance law. He is the author of Wilkinson’s Professional Conduct of Lawyers in Hong Kong (Sixth Desk Edition, LexisNexis, 2022) and Mediation and ADR Confidentiality in Hong Kong (Wildy, Simmonds & Hill Publishing, 2019). Gary is a member of the Hong Kong Law Society’s Insurance Law Committee and also serves as Convener for Head IV (Accounts & Professional Conduct) of the Overseas Lawyers Qualification Examination.
Registration is required for this in-person event. Please register ONLINE to reserve your place.
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