A little bit of Hollywood as well as heated debate will be key features at The Professional Liability Underwriting Society?s (PLUS) ?Bermuda Perspective? this May.

This is the third annual PLUS Bermuda Perspective Symposium and if early registration is any sign of things to come, event organisers expect to draw some 300 delegates which will continue PLUS as the largest insurance conference in Bermuda.

The Hollywood draw is Senator Fred Thompson who authored the Watergate memoir At That Point in Time and has appeared in 18 motion pictures including The Hunt for Red October and Die Hard II. He currently plays a conservative district attorney on Law & Order and was recently named a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington think tank. In his first campaign for public office, he was elected by the people of Tennessee in 1994 to the remaining two years of an un-expired Senate term. When he was returned for a full term in 1996, he received more votes than any previous candidate for any office in Tennessee history.

The senator is regarded as a very humorous speaker who has a knack for telling stories about Hollywood and politics. His address is also expected to touch on Bermuda specific issues since he is still very much part of the Washington scene.

In 2005, Thompson was appointed by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist to the US-China Economic & Security Review Commission. In July 2005, President Bush appointed Thompson to oversee his nominee to the Supreme Court after Sandra Day O?Connor?s resignation.

Heated debate is expected in at least some of the seven sessions scheduled over May 1 and 2 and are aimed at tackling the most substantive issues facing Bermuda and the professional liability market as a whole.

Event chair and senior vice president at Allied World Assurance Company, David Bell, said in its third year the symposium aims to reflect the changed dynamics in the excess marketplace.

The first session will see Three Generations of Bermuda Company Leaders ? Michael Butt, chairman of Axis Speciality Limited, Kenneth J. LeStrange, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Brian Duperreault, CEO of ACE Limited, Donald Kramer, chairman of the board and CEO of Ariel Reinsurance and Brian O?Hara, president and CEO of XL Capital Ltd. ? debate the present and future outlook for Bermuda insurers.

?These aren?t folks that toe the company line. There has been a lot of candid discussion,? said Mr. Bell who expects the session to open to a crowded room.

The second panel looks at ?Informed Answers Regarding the Role of Bermuda D&O Capacity?. Stephen Sanford, managing director, Aon Financial Services Group, will moderate the panel made up of Bermuda carriers and the brokers who place the business.

Mr. Bell expects a good discussion on how the D&O marketplace has changed in terms of rates and how companies deploy their capacity.

?This is going to be the panel where you will fin specific strategies for how carriers are planning to cope of their take of the marketplace for the balance of 2006,? he said.

Another session will focus on the question ?Is E&O the Next D&O? The Lawyers E&O Loss Trends Tell the Story?. This panel will look at the trend ? recently seen in the case of US futures broker Refco ? where secondary actors are at front and centre stage.

The panel is moderated by Elizabeth Pitrof, Attorney, Kerns, Pitrof, Frost & Pearlman, L.L.C.

The first session on May 2 takes a unique angle as it delves into the significant increase and frequency of mega securities claim as they relate to excess players.

It features Wayne Borgeest, Partner, of New York firm Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan and John Lenzen, Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary, ACE Bermuda Insurance Ltd. as well as Arthur Abbey, Senior Partner, Abbey Gardy, Dan A. Bailey, Member, Bailey Cavalieri and William S. Lerach, Chairman, Lerach Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins LLP.

A panel made up solely of insurance buyers will talk about the pros and cons of buying professional liability insurance in Bermuda. Moderator J. Gary Meggs, Director-Risk Management, of Atlanta-based Southern Company Inc. will oversee a panel of insurance buyers from Sprint Nextel Corporation, Aetna, Inc., Delta Air Lines, Inc. and, Bank of America Corporation.

Mr. Bell noted that the panellist will really be able to talk about their own experiences and their own perceptions about doing business in the Bermuda marketplace.

?The stage is set for some very candid, sometimes flattering, perhaps sometimes unflattering feedback, but they can take these issues head on and they won?t get filtered out through the niceties of a moderator who really wants it to be more of Bermuda advertisement which this panel I suspect certainly will not be,? said Mr. Bell.

Gatekeepers IIBermuda?s Place in the New Order is a continuation on last year?s panel and will look at how the emergence of several new brokerage shops, and ample domestic capacity has impacted the way Bermuda is accessed and what it means for the future. It is moderated by Ariel Re?s co-president Mark Herman.

?The panel has a perspective from every angle and what people will see is the perceptions of Bermuda and doing business with Bermuda is going to differ depending on what perspective they represent,? Mr. Bell said.

The symposium ends with an investigation of Bermuda?s market appeal as carriers talk about capacity, losses, and the future state of the Island?s professional liability market.

Organisers are offering a different take on this panel where the carriers are the panellists with co-moderators,

Joshua Lane, Senior Vice President, Willis Bermuda Ltd. and Iain W. MacLeod, Managing Director, Marsh Global Markets Bermuda.

?They are going to be coming at the carriers from a broker?s perspective so you?ll see energy there that might not have been in past,? said Mr. Bell.