Spotlight Interview 14 Spotlight Interview TANIA KAZI (RICE) Partner, Alston & Bird’s Insurance Litigation & Regulation Team and Editor in Chief of Insurance Insights Tania was recently interviewed by her colleague Tiffany Powers, co-leader of Alston & Bird’s Insurance Litigation & Regulation Team. 15 Q: I know we have recently tapped you in a leadership role as our editor in chief of the Insurance Insights publication. What do you hope to bring to this publication in that role? I hope to maintain a focus on the content that will help our clients and readers the most. Part of that will entail listening and getting feedback from our readers and making sure that we’re tailoring the content to be the most helpful. Q: How do you stay updated on the latest trends and changes in insurance-related litigation? Reading Insurance Insights, of course. In all seriousness, I’d say the primary way is talking to my colleagues. I always learn so much when I talk to people who may have a different subspecialty, and I know our teams diligently track cases and trends in several areas. So I always learn a lot when I talk to people. Q: Lawyering requires a lot of balancing. One of those ways is professional versus personal. How do you balance your professional responsibilities with your personal life? I will start by saying that I got married last year and I’m very lucky to have a husband who helps me balance things. He also has a very demanding career. He is really good at being a supportive partner when we both have to work all weekend, but when we both do have time, he’s really, really good at encouraging me to get out and make the most of our downtime. Q: What hobbies or activities do you usually enjoy in that downtime? We like hiking, spending time in nature. We’ve taken up painting recently, and we’re also learning how to ski. I like doing things to remind myself that the world is bigger than my computer screen. Q: What’s one piece of advice that has stuck with you throughout your life or professional career? Remember to have fun, I think, is the most important thing. I was a competitive tennis player when I was younger and at times in that career, I would get so caught up in winning and losing. But I realized I wasn’t always having fun, and I think it could be easy as a lawyer to forget to have fun as well. So I try to remind myself of that on a day-to-day basis. I really love what I do, and I’m glad that I can continue having fun doing it. Q: If you weren’t a lawyer, what career do you think you would have pursued? I wanted to be a writer when I was younger, and I do feel lucky that I still get to do a lot of writing as part of my job. I enjoy legal writing a lot, but maybe one day I’ll still write that novel. n Q: I want to start by talking a little bit about your professional background. Can you tell us the primary areas of focus of your practice? I have experience in a wide range of litigation, but these days I’m spending a lot of time defending life insurance companies against class actions. Q: Was there something in particular that inspired you to focus on insurance-related litigation? I would say that it’s the people on our insurance team. We have fantastic people on our team who have a surprising amount of fun, and so I was really drawn in by the cohesiveness of our case teams and wanting to be a part of that. Q: Can you share any particularly rewarding experiences you’ve had representing insurers in litigation? Working with an insurance client to prepare a case for trial. Something I really enjoy about litigation is taking difficult concepts and finding a way to effectively communicate them to a court or jury. Helping our witnesses explain what an insurance company does, and even some difficult actuarial concepts, was a lot of fun. And I love helping witnesses prepare to testify at depositions or trial. I find it really rewarding to connect with all the great people that work at our clients’companies and help them successfully navigate that process. It doesn’t hurt that for some reason the insurance industry seems to attract some of the nicest people. Q: You were recently promoted to partner—a significant milestone. What aspects of that transition have been the most rewarding for you? A lot of my day-to-day work hasn’t really changed, but I have felt some changes in subtle ways that surprised me. I have always found a lot of support and friendship in my colleagues at Alston & Bird. But now that my fellow partners look at me as their legal business partner, I’ve felt kind of a different type of fellowship and support. I’ve also been given more leadership responsibilities internally, like mentoring and hiring our next generation of talent at our San Francisco office. So it’s been a lot of fun to feel like I have more of a hand in managing our business.
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