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The second anniversary of the historic out-of-pocket payments by the independent directors of WorldCom and Enron is a good time to re-examine conventional wisdom.

On Friday, December 16, 2005, House and Senate negotiators completed a deal to extend the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act (TRIA) through 2007. TRIA, passed by Congress in November 2002, created a three-year program in which the federal government would share in the cost of a foreign terrorist attack that produced at least $5 million in insured losses, was deemed a "certified act" by certain government officials, and met certain other requirements.

The director and officer liability insurance industry was as surprised as everyone else by the recent options backdating scandal. D&O carriers had never previously considered improper option accounting, and therefore few, if any, D&O policies contained explicit provisions addressing options backdating.

The recent options backdating scandal has been instructive on a number of fronts.

There is little doubt that many of us are applauding the changes of the recent workers comp reform and its positive effect on the California business community. Be aware however, California Workers Compensation Applicant Attorneys are now increasingly turning their attention toward employment exposures that they have historically ignored.