46 Years Helping Shape California Insurance Landscape

Robert W. Hogeboom has quietly been in the background of making and forming insurance laws and regulations for decades — and he’s seen a lot change in California’s insurance landscape in all of that time.

During his 46-year legal career, he was on the frontlines of hammering out issues and regulations with the California Department of Insurance.

Hogeboom devoted his practice to insurance regulatory, legislative and administrative matters before the CDI, handling numerous hearings involving CDI enforcement actions against insurers and producers, rate hearings and market conduct actions.

He not only represented numerous insurer and producer clients, he served as outside special counsel to a number of trade associations.

Hogeboom became a partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP in 2014 as a result of the merger of Hinshaw and the Los Angeles-based firm of Barger & Wolen LLP.

That was to be his last stop. The 73-year-old Pasadenan decided that the start of 2021 would be the begining of retirement.

A fitting sendoff to a long career was recently given to him by the Western Insurance Agents Association board of directors, which during its December 2020 meeting voted to make Hogeboom an honorary member, the first time since the group’s founding in 1947 that a person has been so honored by the association.

“We are thrilled to have Bob be our very first honorary member,” said Ken Lyon, WIAA’s chairman. “Bob’s help and assistance with insurance regulatory matters over the years has been invaluable to the WIAA board and our members. I wish him well in his retirement.”

Hogeboom’s official retirement date was on Dec. 31, 2020.

However, it could have been much later. He’d been asked by the head of his law firm to go for another five years. It was something he considered, but amid the pandemic, he made a call to the home office over the summer and promised to go until the end of year and work with partners who will eventually take his place.

“I think I was ready to do it,” Hogeboom said.

He grew up in Kansas City, Mo. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a junior in high school. He then went to Stanford University, and after graduating he went on to earn his J.D. from California Western School of Law in 1974.

Around all that schooling he took a year off to serve as assistant to the campaign manager of then Gov. Ronald Regan, a position that Dick Barger helped him get. Barger was a former insurance commissioner and a former president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Hogeboom became close with Barger, who died in 2016 at age 87, and spent the first 38 years of his career with Barger & Wolen, and the past six years with Hinshaw & Culbertson post-merger.

“We started with about 10 people,” Hogeboom said.

Barger & Wolen was focused solely on insurance, and Hogeboom focused his practice on regulatory issues and litigation. The firm grew and continued its success.

“After 20 years, we got up to almost 90 people dealing with only insurance issues,” Hogeboom said.

During his career he was involved in several influential and high-profile cases. A few of the better known legal matters he was part of include:

Globe Life and Accident ALJ Decision on Insurance Commissioner Claims Regulations; OAH No. 2011-090887 (2012)

ACIC v. Poizner, 180 Cal.App. 4th 1029 (2009)

American Liberty Bail Bonds v. Garamendi, 141 Cal.App. 4th 1044 (2006)

Automatic Funding Group v. Garamendi, 114 Cal.App. 4th 846 (2003)

National Elevator Services, Inc. v. Dept. of Industrial Relations, 136 Cal.App. 3rd 131 (1982)

Hogeboom has seen and survived numerous changes in California’s insurance regulatory history.

“Things really changed with the Department of Insurance when Prop. 103 came out in 1989,” he said.

Passed by California voters, Prop. 103 required prior approval before insurance companies can implement property/casualty insurance rates and made the post of commissioner an elected position, among other sweeping changes.

At the time it passed, the CDI had around 200 personnel.

“Within 10 years the department had gone up almost to 1,000 people,” Hogeboom said.

He said it also politicized the office of commissioner, changing the tenor of matters like rate regulations, community relations, consumer services and fraud issues. “They were really politicians and it became more difficult with the Department of Insurance in a lot of different ways,” he said.

For him, the changes meant that three-fourths of his efforts were spent working with the department to find solutions to problems.

“The other fourth were when we couldn’t find a solution and we had to deal with an administrative law judge,” Hogeboom said.

For the firm as a whole, the changes had one positive effect, if one were to look hard for the bright side.

“It kept us busy,” he said.