Thank you to Andy Lundberg, long-time Coverage Opinions reader, retired Latham & Watkins partner and current managing director of litigation financier Burford Capital, for alerting me to the embarrassment of riches that he came upon at RIMS in Boston earlier this month.  Like all trade shows, the vendors had all manner of gimmicks to get attendees to stop at their booths.  But surely worker’s compensation insurer Applied Underwriters (Berkshire Hathaway) gets best in show with a 15’ 4.75” bobble head of its St. Bernard mascot.  As the nearby picture shows, even the 6’4” Lundberg looks Lilliputian next to this big fella.  Andy is lucky that he didn’t drown in slobber.

But “Big Dog,” as he is called [that’s clever], isn’t just a big bobble head.  He is the world’s largest, according to Guinness.  The record-keeping folks’ website says that Big Dog was introduced in 2016 at Berkshire’s shareholders show in Omaha.  Guinness says that it took 400 hours of design and physical labor to create the steel and polystyrene best friend.  And yes, he bobbles, thanks to a two-ton spring inside his head.

Andy, Latham’s one-time global co-chair of the firm’s Insurance Coverage Litigation Practice, told me that holding the pup’s leash was reminiscent of his 35 years spent as a policyholder lawyer -- bringing a carrier to heel.