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Ken Kasdan and Barry Vaughan of Kasdan Simonds Weber & Vaughan Law Firm Slated To Speak At West Coast Casualty's 18th Annual Construction Defect Seminar

Anaheim-- Ken Kasdan, Senior & Managing Partner, and Barry Vaughan, Partner, of the Kasdan Simonds Weber & Vaughan law firm, are scheduled to be key speakers at the West Coast Casualty’s 18th Annual Construction Defect Seminar to be held May 12-13 at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim. Mr. Kasdan is a member of a panel titled “Where Do We Go From Here?” and Mr. Vaughan’s panel is “Important Court Decisions Impacting Construction Defect Claims.” West Coast Casualty’s Construction Defect Seminar is the largest seminar of its kind worldwide, focusing on all of the elements of the prosecution, defense, coverage, and technologies of construction defect claims and litigation. The seminar host will provide speakers and attendees access to the electronic IML interactive device, IML Audience Response Systems (ARS) and specifically the Message Manager texting function. This technology will allow real-time interaction among attendees and speakers to get the audience involved as well as for feedback purposes.

Mr. Kasdan’s panel will be held May 13 from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Given their more than 20 years of construction defect claims and litigation across the country, this group of presenters (mediators, counsel, and claims representatives) is uniquely situated, given their diverse backgrounds and experience in the construction defect community, to respond to a series of questions about the state of the industry from insurance products to pending legislation.

This session will emphasize insurance coverage relating to the rights, obligations, duties, and limitations of coverage owed to a policyholder in construction defect cases. This session will be devoted to both prior experiences as well as where the construction defect community is headed regarding the prosecution, defense, and coverage aspect of these claims. Actuarials, underwriters, managing general agents, independent insurance brokers, retail agents, and insurance adjusters will find this session very important as the information provided will assist these insurance professionals in evaluating the need for coverage, further insurance products, and the impacts on their policyholder coverage

Along with being a seminar panel member, Mr. Kasdan is on the Board of Directors of the Construction Defect Community Charitable Foundations, which is the designated charity of West Coast Casualty’s 2011Construction Defect Seminar.

Mr. Vaughan’s panel will be held 8:40 a.m.-9:30 a.m. May 13 and will be devoted to an explanation of highly publicized and most recent Appellate and Supreme Court decisions that impact members of the construction defect community. It will address liability, damage, indemnity, coverage, defense, additional insured, and other important issues which have an impact on construction defect cases. The session will cover insurance related issues including the claims adjuster’s responsibilities in handling and adjusting construction defect cases as a result of judicial decisions impacting these cases. This session may have some relevant importance to actuarials, underwriters, managing general agents, and independent insurance brokers and agents as the information provided within this session may have some impact on how coverage is written in the future and will assist these insurance professionals in evaluating the impact on their policyholders’ avenue of available coverage.

KEN KASDAN, SENIOR & MANAGING PARTNER

Ken Kasdan is one of the nation’s leading construction defect attorneys and has been managing partner of the Kasdan Simonds firm, which he established, for more than 25 years. He earned his law degree from the State University of New York, at Buffalo, and his Bachelor of Arts degree, cum laude, from Bernard M. Baruch College of the City University of New York. Ken was admitted to the California State Bar in 1976, and is licensed to practice before the U.S. District Court, Central District of California. He is also admitted to the Arizona State Bar. Ken is a member of the American Bar Association (Member: Business Law Section); Committee on Commercial Financial Services; Subcommittee on Interest and Usury, Creditor Rights; Litigation Section; Construction Industry Forum Committee); State Bar Association of California; Orange County Bar Association (Member: Business Litigation Section); Orange County Trial Lawyers Association; Judge Pro Tem, Orange County Superior Court; the Orange County Superior Court Judicial Arbitration Panel; and the Maricopa County Bar Association.

BARRY VAUGHAN, PARTNER

Barry Vaughan has been a partner of Kasdan Simonds Weber & Vaughan since 2001. He earned his law degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where he was on Law Review, after receiving his undergraduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Colorado. Barry was admitted to the California State Bar in 1987, and is licensed to practice before all state and federal courts in California and Colorado, and before the United States Supreme Court. Barry is a member of the American Bar Association (Member: Litigation Section); State Bar Association of California (Member: Litigation Section); Orange County Bar Association (Member: Construction Defect Section); and San Bernardino County Bar Association.

The Kasdan Simonds Weber & Vaughan law firm has offices in Irvine and Walnut Creek, CA and Phoenix, AZ. The firm represents plaintiffs in major construction defect litigation. For more detailed information on the firm, visit www.kasdansimonds.com.