By Larry Jones
November 3, 2003

At a fall meeting of the Real Estate Roundtable, Harvard law professor Arthur Miller moderated a roundtable discussion on tort reform in Washington (DC) October 24. The discussion involved Conference Trustee Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy along with a stellar group of experts on the topic including Senators Jeff Session (AL) and John Sununu (NH), former Congressman and California State Attorney General Dan Lungren, plaintiffs' attorney John Coale, and US Chamber of Commerce Executive Vice President Stanton D. Anderson.

Miller engaged Malloy and other panelists in a terrorism simulation exercise which involved an attack on an office building in Los Angeles, at a shopping mall in Stamford and at a hotel in New York. The purpose of the exercise was to highlight the key planning, logistical, legal and policy issues associated with a terrorist attack from start to finish. In general, panelists agreed that property owners should address human concerns first by doing all they can to protect and save the lives of individuals on their property. It was pointed out that questions of liability involving injury and the loss of life will most often require investigators to examine both the precautions taken before an attack and the steps taken afterwards to protect individuals.

The Real Estate Roundtable is a national organization comprised of the 80 largest developers in the United States. The group is concerned about the real estate industry's exposure to an increasing number of lawsuits and is working with a coalition of business interests to advance tort reform legislation.