LMICK Minute

To Our Policyholders:

Summer is around the corner and there are more and more signs of life returning to a new normal. Here at LMICK, we are in the midst of a busy spring and early summer CLE season and preparing for an office move and our annual meeting. We are looking forward to some opportunities to see our insureds and other lawyers across the Commonwealth in person this fall. In the interim, here are a few important reminders and announcements from LMICK . . .

To Our Policyholders:

Happy Spring! The Spring season represents a time of rejuvenation, renewal and growth after a long and cold winter. We at LMICK are hoping that each of you are experiencing a revitalization and transformation of sorts this Spring season, both personally and professionally. We are cautiously optimistic that the hardest days of the pandemic are behind us. So, enjoy the warmer weather and looser COVID-19 restrictions, but stay healthy and well.

We have a number of items to bring to your attention, many of which are happening this Spring or early Summer.

To Our Policyholders:

2020 is in the rear-view mirror – thank goodness. Whether 2021 is going to be appreciably better and get us back to “normal” remains to be seen. There certainly seems to be the beginnings of movement in the right direction. Your law offices may have been shuttered for much of the past year as we all transitioned to remote work because of the pandemic. Hopefully, you can now resume working from your office, have all your staff back at their posts, and welcome guests and visitors back into your workplace once again. Certainly, it feels like the dawn of a new phase of practice – perhaps a hybrid of in person and remote client meetings, court appearances, depositions, mediations, trials, etc. with more and more in person activities on the horizon.

From a risk management perspective, we at LMICK see this time as an opportunity for a little law practice spring cleaning. We recommend that you take stock of your clients, case load and case management practices and position your practice for some better days ahead. If you’ve been lucky enough to have had a busy, successful and profitable practice since March 2020, your practice management strategies can still benefit from a check-up. Below are a few tips and best practices to help you steer clear of claims in 2021 and beyond.

To Our Policyholders:

Happy New Year! The LMICK Board of Directors and staff wish you happiness, peace, success, prosperity, and good health as we embark upon another year. We appreciate having you as an insured and look forward to serving your professional liability insurance needs throughout the year.

With 2020 in the rear-view mirror, we were enjoying the process of brainstorming the many topics that we could raise and discuss in this first LMICK Minute of 2021. However, as we learned of the multiple lawyer suicides that have occurred since late December, it became abundantly clear what the focus of this LMICK Minute must be. First and foremost, we extend our condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those members of the bar that we’ve lost.

We often talk of attorney mental health and wellbeing as a legal malpractice risk factor. We will certainly speak in those terms again, but for the purposes of this communication, we simply want to convey our sorrow for the tragic loss of life, of fellow attorneys, of remarkable talent and of lost potential. Additionally, we want to make sure you are aware of the resources that are available to Kentucky attorneys who are struggling. Finally, we ask you to get trained to identify the behaviors of someone in need, to reach out to your attorney brethren and sistren and offer your care and concern.

To Our Policyholders:

2020 – what a ride! While the year is not yet over, it is hard not to start looking ahead to 2021 with hopes for an effective vaccine, the opportunity to see family and friends, and the freedom to resume our professional lives, including fully reopening our offices, going to court and meeting with clients and colleagues. The year has been difficult to be sure, but as a company we know that we have a lot for which to be thankful. That gratitude begins with you - our policyholders.

Here at LMICK, we have spent this past year pivoting, adapting and becoming stronger because of the hard work required in a challenging time. We have gotten creative and stepped outside of our comfort zones, - all with the best interests of our insureds in mind. Beyond that we’ve attempted to serve not only our legal communities, but also the communities across the Commonwealth in which our insureds live.

To our Policyholders:

Do you remember back in March of this year thinking that we’d shut down our lives for 2 or 3 weeks and then get back to normal? Yet, here we are 7 months later and we find ourselves grappling with a new normal as the Covid-19 virus continues to sicken our family and friends, disrupt schools, impact law practices and other businesses, and stir anxiety for what the fall and winter will bring. We hope you, your family and your work colleagues are healthy and that you’ve adapted to this new normal, personally and professionally, as much as possible. Here at Lawyers Mutual, we remain committed to serving you and meeting your professional liability insurance needs.

As we push into the final quarter of the year and brace ourselves for what lies ahead, we wanted to raise a few issues with you for your consideration. Specifically, we want to ensure that you are aware of the following: 1) potential tax implications associated with the receipt of a PPP loan and out of state remote work; 2) best practices for those darn virtual meetings and presentations that seem to be here to stay; 3) changes the U.S. Postal Service has implemented around its signature services procedures; and 4) an important tool to better manage your clients’ expectation during a pandemic. Finally, we want to announce a free presentation to LMICK insureds coming in January of 2021 that you won’t want to miss.

Lawyers Mutual Insureds,

On July, 23, 2020, the Kentucky Justice Association (KJA) is presenting the “Trial Lawyers Implicit Bias Zoom Program” featuring speaker Pastor Edward L. Palmer, Sr. The program runs from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and costs only $50.00, for all attendees (KJA members or non KJA members), for 3 hours of continuing legal education credit – a great bargain. Your registration fee will go to support one of two charities that you designate when you register. Detailed information about the program and a link to the registration page can be found below for your convenience.

We are proud to be the exclusive sponsor of this important presentation being offered at a critical time in our nation’s history. Like you, we’ve been watching what is going on in our country and around the world and wondering what this moment of social unrest demands of us – of LMICK – of lawyers.

To our Policyholders,

First and foremost, we hope that you and your families are healthy and that you are managing well, personally and professionally, during the ongoing pandemic and social unrest. Please accept our sincere thanks and appreciation for your continued confidence in, and support of, Lawyers Mutual of Kentucky (“LMICK”). We are proud to have you as insureds.

We are preparing for our first ever virtual Annual Meeting which will be held on Saturday, June 20, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. EDT. Limited space is available for in-person attendance at our office located at 323 West Main Street, Suite 600, Louisville, KY 40202. Anyone planning to attend in person MUST notify us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. by Thursday, June 18, 2020. Due to space constraints, social distancing requirements and healthy-at-work guidelines, the staff must be prepared to receive you into our office. Zoom participation is also available and we strongly encourage you to join us in that manner.

To our Policyholders,

In accordance with the Governor’s May 8, 2020 Order for phase 1 reopenings, including professional service offices (See Executive Order 2020-323), we began a phased reopening of LMICK’s offices on May 11, 2020. Since March 23rd, we’d been working mostly remotely with in-office activity only as absolutely necessary. Since May 11th, however, there has been LMICK staff in the office every day, but some remote work continues. Like you, we are working, homeschooling children, taking care of non-school age children without available daycares and trying to keep ourselves and our families healthy and well. Yet, we remain committed to serving your needs and moving back to a more normal work environment.

To our Policyholders,

First and foremost, we hope you and your loved ones are well and that you’ve settled into a new normal that is sustaining you professionally and personally. The LMICK staff continues to work remotely, but we are responding to all of your needs from assisting with a new claim to processing a renewal application to arranging for electronic premium payments. There may be a slight delay in our ability to address your inquiries, so please be patient and follow up if you haven’t heard from us within 48 hours for electronic inquiries. It will take us longer to handle your communications sent via “snail” mail.

We have received a number of questions about whether statutes of limitation are extended and whether notarization can be done remotely during these most unusual of circumstances in which you are practicing law. The purpose of this communication is to provide you some information in that regard that may be useful to you in your practice.