The State Bar Association of North Dakota Fall 2013 Gavel Magazine | Page 13

ogy, policyholder expectations regarding
customer service and a general business
model that has evolved over a quarter
century. ALPS has done a fantastic job of
staying ahead of the curve, and is regularly
out front as the innovation thought leader.
What hasn’t changed is the hallmark of
the ALPS value proposition. We are a “by
lawyers, for lawyers” professional liability
carrier committed to making the legal profession better through risk management
and stable risk transfer. From the beginning when Bob Minto and his colleagues
started this company, ALPS made a
commitment to provide the broadest
coverage in the marketplace at a reasonable price. ALPS made a promise to our
policyholders that if you have a claim it
will be handled honestly, promptly and
professionally. Those values are the same
today as in 1988, and will be the same for
many years to come.

As a non-lawyer, how do you view the
challenges and opportunities facing the
legal community of today?
New issues in the legal community are
constantly emerging. At ALPS, we have the
good fortune to have longstanding affiliations and endorsements from more state
and local bar associations than any other
insurance carrier. As a non-lawyer myself,
these relationships are truly valuable for
me to gain a better understanding of what
today’s lawyers are grappling with and to
be able to offer real solutions.
For example, right now, we have law
school students emerging with significant
debt and fewer opportunities. With less
“big firm” options they are increasingly
hanging a solo shingle. On the flip side we
have our baby boomer lawyers reaching
retirement age. As they leave the practice
of law, with them goes some of our most
experienced and knowledgeable legal prac-

titioners. ALPS is responding by launching
ALPSLegalMatch.com, a new tool that will
pair “new” lawyers with soon-to-be retiring lawyers. This tool will help retiring lawyers identify a successor. It will help new
lawyers find a practice, and will partner
them with a mentor during the transition. The result: for ALPS we have our best
lawyers training our newest lawyers, which
make the new lawyers a better risk for us to
insure. For retiring lawyers, they will have
a succession plan using a process that allows them to pick the right person without
months of painstaking diligence. For the
new lawyer, nothing takes the place of experience and this provides an opportunity
to work with someone and gain the benefit
of that experience…as well as potentially
take over a practice.
I view this challenge and others like it as
opportunities, and there are plenty of both
on the horizon.

David Bell, ALPS President & CEO
In May of 2012 David Bell came to ALPS from Allied World Assurance Company (AWAC), a global insurance company founded in the
wake of 9/11 by AIF, Chubb and Goldman Sachs. Bell served as the company’s Senior Vice President and Global Professional Lines Manager before becoming COO, a role in which he served for four years in AWAC’s Bermuda offices.
Bell brings extensive knowledge and experience in the insurance industry to ALPS. He began his professional career with The Chubb Corporation as Underwriting Manager-Executive Protection/Assistant Vice President specializing in a number of product lines including public
and private D&O insurance and EPL. Bell moved on within Chubb to serve as the Florida Legislative Liaison for the company.
Concurrently Bell emerged as a resource for the ever-changing D&O industry. He penned several articles on industry trends including
“The Ups & Downs (Mostly Downs) of the D&O Rate Cycle,” in The Professional Liability Underwriting Society Journal, and “Probing The
D&O Market,”PriceWaterhouseCoopers Bermuda InsuranceQuarterly.
Bell’s diverse knowledge ranging from underwriting to government relations to being a founding executive of a global insurance corporation serve ALPS Corporation well.
A University of Montana graduate, Bell now serves on the Board of Directors for The Maureen & Mike Mansfield Center, an organization
dedicated to promoting a better understanding of U.S. and Asia relations. The Center was founded in the spirit of Montana Senator and
former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Mike Mansfield (1903-2001).
Bell also founded and serves on the Board of Grateful Nation, a Montana-based organization founded in 2007 that provides college education for the children of Montana soldiers killed in active duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Montana has the highest number of soldiers killed
in action per capita and the state has been the blueprint for the Grateful Nation program with a vision to expand into more states throughout the country.

The Gavel Fall 2013

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