Where We Are

The WCS Surety Group is very active in the surety industry.  In this section you can see where we are, where we’ve been and where we’re going.  If you’re going where we are going be sure to say hello.

Recent Presentations:

June 2021: Cynthia Rodgers-Waire and Thomas Moran presented on ““What Surety Claims Practitioners Need to Know about the False Claims Act” at the Surety Claims Institute meeting.

September 2021: Cynthia Rodgers-Waire presented in a webinar for ENR on Insurable Risks in the Post-Pandemic Era.

September 2021: Michael Stover and Cynthia Rodgers-Waire gave a presentation with Will Pearce from Arch Insurance Company on Surety Claims in Bankruptcy at the Virtual Northeast Fidelity & Surety Claims Association Conference.

October 2021: Michael Stover gave a presentation on “Surety Issues On A Troubled Project” to all the underwriters of a top 10 surety company.

May 2022: Thomas Moran presented on “False Claims Act Concerns for Sureties – What you Need to Know” at Eastern Bond Claims.

May 2022: George Bachrach, Mike Stover and Nina Durante of Liberty Mutual Surety co-authored Chapter 20 of The Law of Commercial Surety and Miscellaneous Bonds, 3d Ed. (2022) entitled The Commercial Surety’s Collateral in the Principal’s Bankruptcy Case.  Mike Stover and Nina Durante presented the subject at the 2022 FSLC Spring Meeting in Hilton Head, S.C.

September 2022: Cynthia Rodgers-Waire gave a presentation at the Construction Financial Management Association (CFMA) Mid Atlantic in Cambridge, MD related to current trends in the surety industry with Mike Saba of Guardian Group, Kieran O’Connor of Beacon Consulting Group, and Kerry Wortzel and John Coyne of Travelers Bond and Specialty Insurance.

January 2023: George Bachrach was an editor of The Surety’s Indemnity Agreement: Law and Practice, 3d Ed. (2023). Cynthia Rodgers-Waire was an author of one of the chapters and presented at the ABA FSLC Mid-Winter Meeting in Washington, DC speaking on the topic “Bells & Whistles:  the Modern General Agreement of Indemnity” with Tiffany Schaak of Liberty Mutual Surety and Ryan DeLaune of Clark Hill.

May 2023: Richard Pledger and Thomas Moran gave a presentation called “You Want What?! Addressing Claims in Excess of the Penal Limit” at the 23rd Annual Eastern Bond Claims Review. Richard also moderated on a panel which included Tracy McKenna from Liberty Mutual, Sheri Whelpley from Travelers, Katie Soer from MDD, Michael Saba from Guardian Group and Tom Moran from WCS.

June 2023: Richard Pledger attended the Surety Claims Institute (SCI) Annual Meeting in Cambridge, Maryland. He presented a paper he wrote entitled “The Surety’s True North:  Navigating Indemnitors’ Affirmative Claims and Defenses in Relations to the Surety’s rights of Indemnity.” He was also part of a panel, including panelists Joel Beach from Arch and W. Alan Torrance of  Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote, P.C.

September 2023: Thomas Moran from WCS presented on “U.S. ex rel. Scollick v. Narula: Sureties and the False Claims Act” at the Pearlman Conference in Seattle, WA.

September 2023: WCS was a proud event sponsor of the Northeast Fidelity & Surety Claims Conference in Atlantic City, New Jersey. WCS partners Michael Stover, Richard Pledger, Cynthia Rodgers-Waire and Thomas Moran attended the conference. Thomas Moran presented on “Questioning Authority:  A Surety Practitioner’s Primer on the Supremacy Clause and Federal Enclaves.”

Upcoming Presentations:

January 25-26, 2024: Cynthia Rodgers-Waire will be attending the ABA TIPS Midwinter program in New Orleans, LA. She co-wrote a chapter of an ABA-published book, The Construction Project: Phases • People • Terms • Paperwork • Processes (2d Ed.), which will be provided to each attendee. Ms. Rodgers-Waire will also be speaking at the construction program during the Thursday afternoon session of the conference.  Her co-panelists are David Kotnik, Westfield Insurance, Dennis O’Neill, Beacon Consulting Group, and Ron Boyle, Boyle Consulting. Thomas Moran and Richard Pledger will also be speaking during the morning session and will be playing “Construction Jeopardy.”

September 20-22, 2024: Cynthia Rodgers-Waire will be speaking at the Northeast Fidelity & Surety Claims Conference in Atlantic City, NJ.

Upcoming Meetings & Conferences We Will Be Attending:

January 25 – 26, 2024: ABA TIPS Midwinter Program, New Orleans, LA

  • Attending from WCS: Richard Pledger, Tom Moran, Cindy Rodgers-Waire and George Bachrach.

February 21, 2024: PSCA Luncheon, Philadelphia, PA

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover

April 17, 2024: PSCA Luncheon, Philadelphia, PA

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover

April 24-25, 2024: 35th Annual Southern Surety & Fidelity Claims Conference, Clearwater, FL

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover

May 23 – 24, 2024: ABA TIPS Spring Surety Program, La Jolla, CA

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover

June 19-21, 2024: Surety Claims Institute (SCI) Annual Meeting, Colorado Springs, CO

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover and Cynthia Rodgers-Waire

July 30, 2024: PSCA Social Gathering at Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover

September 18, 2024: PSCA Luncheon, Philadelphia, PA

  • Attending from WCS: Mike Stover

September 20-22, 2024: Northeast Fidelity & Surety Claims Conference, Atlantic City, NJ

  • WCS is a proud sponsor