Off-site Archive

  July 26, 2017 LEARNING AS WE GO, AND FORGIVING OURSELVES By Judge David Langham It is an honor to blog on the platform stared by David Depaolo. I was preparing an introduction for the Florida Association of Self-Insureds (FASI) last week, when I remembered I learned of David's passing on the drive home from last year's FASI conference. I cannot believe it has been a year. Thinking about David, he was always most interested in people. As I ruminated, I remembered a trial long ago and one of my favorite clients. It is just the kind of story David would tell.  I began my career representing insurance companies. By the time I left private practice I represented almost exclusively self-insured employers. Over the course of my career I was privileged to be trusted with the interests of some of the largest employers in the world. I met a great many interesting people, and still retain fond memories of many of them. To a person, the vast majority were concerned with doing the right ...

  July 07, 2017 PIKES PEAK By: Judge David Langham I was at the Colorado Worker's Compensation conference recently, in the shadow of Pikes Peak, and memories abound. It was a whirlwind trip that involved little sleep and many hours in airports and planes. As I sat in the shadow of the Peak, I remembered my experience in the 1970s climbing that mountain. Perhaps "climbing" is a poor characterization. It is undoubtedly a mountain, but ascending this peak requires no ropes, pitons, harnesses, or other such equipment. It is perhaps more accurate to say that in the 1970s I walked up Pikes Peak, slowly. Colorado Springs, at 6035 feet, is significantly higher than 1 mile above sea level. But from that starting point, Pikes Peak juts into the atmosphere to 14,115 feet. This little "stroll" requires 13 miles of walking, and the conditions are challenging; it is steep, uneven, and always up, up, up. It is not a stroll for the faint at heart. There is also a cog railroad o...