We are proud to announce that Taranae J. Hashemi will present Mass Catastrophe and Litigation: Mitigating Exposure Both Before and After Tragedy Strikes Through Efficient Use of Litigation Tactics, Media Presence, and Drones on March 15, 2018 at the CLM Annual Conference at the Marriott Marquis, Houston. Ms. Hashemi will explore the impact to litigation caused by natural disasters, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, and catastrophic human error yielding such events as Amtrak derailments, container ship collisions, and multi-vehicle crashes. Unfortunately, each of these incidents has occurred within the last year, garnering massive media attention, resulting in substantial public outcry and concern, and resulting in millions of dollars in settlement payments to plaintiffs, nationally. Recent natural disasters have caused insureds to incur significant costs in risk and loss mitigation. What has not been absent, however, is what insurers and counsel can do to ensure that claim management and litigation are as efficient, effective, and encompassing as possible from loss through trial. To combat this, Ms. Hashemi will address litigating massive transportation catastrophes including transportation-related responses to natural disasters, how to approach the media’s influence on public perception, when to secure experts, how and when best to collect pre-suit evidence, and, finally, explore when it is advantageous to settle a case early in litigation.