Dwight Hester

Dwight Hester

For years I have studied and researched risks to which boards of education are exposed. During this time I have been privileged to consult and work with forty self-funded risk management pools for boards of education, including, since its inception in 1982, managing Alabama Trust for Boards of Educations (ATBE). ATBE is a self-funded trust offering general liability/errors and omissions and automobile coverage to boards that are members of the Alabama Association of School Boards. My consulting practice has also included providing risk management advice to individual boards and school boards associations representing over 5,000 boards of education in eighteen states other than Alabama. Advice given these clients has helped them save their constituents and taxpayers millions of dollars through reducing risk exposures, developing more cost effective commercial insurance purchasing procedures, self-funding selected exposures, and reducing legal expenses.

I have managed over 9,000 board of education liability claims and consulted on many others. The experience gained managing and reviewing these claims has helped me clearly appreciate the benefits of equitable and effective litigation cost control strategies.

Along with attorney Lucy Hester Sellers, I provide management consulting services to boards of education in the following areas:

1. Governance and management of group self-funded risk management programs,
2. Management and review of self-funded liability claims, and
3. Litigation cost control.

I advise clients on the premise that there is no substitute for specialized board of education risk management experience. I measure client relationships in friendships and decades, not just years.

B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., University of Alabama
J.D., Birmingham School of Law