INTERVIEW: Robert H. ‘Skip’ Myers, Jr.
From: NRRA, September 18, 2019

NRRA to Present Skip Myers With the 2019 Karen Cutts Achievement Award at this Year’s National Conference

Robert H. “Skip” Myers, Jr., has been involved with NRRA for three decades — and as our general counsel for the past 17 years. We hope to see you at the NRRA National Conference (October 2 to 4 in Chicago), so we can all thank him for his many contributions to the association and the RRG industry!

INTERVIEW:

Robert H. ‘Skip’ Myers, Jr., General Counsel
of the National Risk Retention Association

By Lenny Giteck

For 17 years, Robert H. “Skip” Myers, Jr., has been general counsel of the National Risk Retention Association — meaning he has advised NRRA about all manner of insurance-related legal issues. In addition, he’s been a prolific, in-demand writer and speaker on the subject of insurance. He has received many accolades and awards during his long career as an attorney.

Now 71, Skip is managing partner of the law firm of Morris, Manning & Martin’s Washington, D.C. office. A graduate of Princeton University and the University of Virginia Law School, his practice specializes in financial services, regulatory issues, and corporate issues. He represents a variety of insurance entities, trade associations, and other corporations.

At the 2019 NRRA National Conference — to be held October 2-4 in Chicago — Skip will be presented with the Karen Cutts Achievement Award, given annually to “an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the risk retention group and purchasing group liability insurance industry.”

A longtime significant player in the RRG industry, Karen Cutts was the founder of The Risk Retention Reporter and a figure much beloved by her professional colleagues. Tragically, she passed away from cancer in 2010.

We recently spoke with Skip about the RRG industry, his decades-long association with NRRA, and his receiving the Karen Cutts Achievement Award:

You became involved with NRRA — at least on an unofficial basis — in 1987, about a year after Congress passed the Liability Risk Retention Act (LRRA). How did that relationship come about?

Back in the day, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) was a client of mine. Ironically, in those days I was working for the states on the opposite side of the fence of people who wanted to put together risk retention groups.

One of the very early RRGs was the National Home Insurance Company, and I was also their legal counsel. They were quite involved with NRRA, and that was my introduction to the association.

It was at a time of crisis in the liability insurance industry. What do you remember about the crisis?

It took place because there wasn’t a lot of insurance available for liability insurers; as a result, insurance prices rose dramatically, and availability plummeted. That had a terrible impact on businesses, municipalities, healthcare providers, and so forth. They either couldn’t get insurance at all, or if they could get insurance it was not affordable.

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