Litigation and Dispute Resolution
We are premier insurance and reinsurance litigators and trial lawyers, representing insurers and reinsurers and defending insureds in their most significant and complex trials, arbitrations, mediations and regulatory hearings across the US and the globe.
Coverage and Claims Litigation
We regularly represent insurance carriers in first and third-party litigation involving:
- Advertising injury
- Insurance insolvency and solvent schemes
- Aviation, hull and liability claims
- Allegations of death claims
- Improper insurance sales/mis-selling practices
- Viatical claims
- Regulatory investigations
- Data privacy and cybersecurity
- Market conduct examinations
- Commercial auto
- Product pricing violations
- Construction defect
- Breaches of contract and bad faith actions
- Employment practices liability
- International premium fraud and third-world
country issues
- Products liability defense
- Trade secrets defense
- Withdrawal from gray markets
- Environmental claims
- Unfair claims practices
- Antitrust actions
- Unfair and deceptive business practices
- Suits between health insurers and providers
- Broker compensation practices
- Disability or regulatory issues arising out of
personnel policies
- D&O liability
- ERISA
- International coverage disputes
- Employment liability
- Court appointed umpires for property damage
and catastrophic loss claims
- Shareholder class actions
- Defense against governmental actions
- Title insurance claims
Contingent Liability and Bad Faith Litigation
We are national and regional contingent liability and bad faith insurance counsel to some of the world’s premier insurance carriers in the US. Our primary areas of focus include:
- Coverage opinions
- Counsel on policy issues
- Pre-suit negotiations and resolution
Reinsurance
We are globally recognized as counsel of choice to handle the most complex, sophisticated and contentious reinsurance disputes in court or in arbitration disputes. We have handled disputes across the range of insurance and reinsurance matters, including:
- P&C reinsurance agreements
- Facultative reinsurance contracts
- Life, health and long-term care reinsurance
agreements
- Retrocessional agreements
- Stop loss and loss portfolio transfer
agreements
- Variable annuity reinsurance agreements
- Managing general agent and related agreements
- Broker and Intermediary agreements
Defending Insureds: D&O Liability and Securities and Shareholder Litigation
We are D&O panel counsel for some of the world’s premier insurance companies in the US and Europe in their insured’s most significant, bet-the-company class action and individual securities and shareholder lawsuits, involving:
- Market manipulation
- Accounting irregularities
- Anti-money laundering
- Securities fraud and
misrepresentation claims
- Insider trading
- Anticorruption and US Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA)
laws
- Financial fraud
- Shareholder derivative claims
- Trustee adversary proceedings
- Mergers, acquisitions and
takeover litigation
- Failed company claims
- Anti-terrorist financing laws
- FDIC litigation
- Insurance company liquidation
- Improper disclosure litigation
- Broker-dealer/market regulation
- Mismanagement, breach of fiduciary duty and related torts
Defending Insureds: Products and Environmental Liability
We are panel counsel for some of the world’s largest insurance companies in representing their insureds in a variety of massive products liability and environmental liability claims.
Defending Insureds: Employment, ERISA, E&O Liability
We are panel counsel for some of the world’s largest insurance companies in representing their insureds in a variety of labor and employment class action litigation and high-stakes claims around the globe, including:
- Wage and hour
- ERISA
- Workers compensation
- Professional liability and errors and omissions (E&O)
liability
- Discrimination and harassment
Antitrust and Competition
We counsel, defend and advocate on behalf of insurance and reinsurance companies on all aspects of antitrust and competition law in Europe and the US, including:
- Workers compensation
- P&C, including agricultural-related insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Vision insurance
- Insurance brokers
- Terrorism insurance
Regulatory Compliance
We advise insurers, reinsurers, producers and other regulated businesses and their investors and principals before insurance regulatory agencies around the world, covering such issues as:
- Acquisition and disposition transactions and applications
- Licensure
- All manner of hearings before and disputes with regulators
- Admittance to additional jurisdictions
- Compliance advice and programs
- Formation and licensing of new businesses
- Product and pricing filings and approvals
- Holding company system and affiliate transactions
- Investigations and multistate examinations
- RICO (sales practices) investigations
- Financial and market conduct examinations
- Supervisory enforcement
Public Policy and Legislative Counsel
We provide insurers, managed care organizations, employers, employer groups and trade associations with a range of legislative and public policy services at the state and federal levels in the US, as well as in front of legislative bodies and regulatory authorities around the globe, including the European Commission and the government of Saudi Arabia.
Corporate and Transactional Work
We work closely with insurance industry clients around the globe to identify and act on new business and market opportunities, including:
- Company formation, structuring and corporate governance
- Mergers, acquisitions and dispositions
- Liquidations, rehabilitations and solvent and insolvent run-offs
- Demutualization and privatization
- Capital markets transactions
- Captives and self-insurance
- Catastrophic risk pools and financing
- Health insurance, managed care, social insurance programs and prescription programs
Real Estate Investments and Development
We provide insurance companies with all aspects of real estate investment and development counsel, globally, to realize their long-term income-producing real estate investments and leverage tax incentive programs. Our focus includes:
- Low-income housing and historic rehabilitation tax credit practices in the US
- Structuring and documenting qualified equity investments in, for instance, certification of Community Development Entities (CDEs) and advising on debt-leveraged equity investments made by multiple investors and lenders
- Combining New Market Tax Credits (state and federal), historic tax credits and other traditional public finance techniques
- Land and property development, construction and management
Data Privacy and Cybersecurity Insurance
We work with insurers and their insureds in the US, Europe and Asia Pacific on evolving regulations and issues relating to cybersecurity, data breach and privacy coverage issues, risk mitigation, investigations and litigation, including high-profile coverage disputes, D&O exposure and consumer litigation as a result of cyberterrorism, phishing scams, disgruntled employees, natural disasters or regulatory non-compliance and violations. We actively monitor cybersecurity legal developments as directed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and US state regulators, European Data Privacy Directive (EDPD) and the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).
We aggressively respond to breaches through the use of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to obtain injunctive and other relief. We not only litigate such claims, but also advise our insurance and reinsurance clients on risk assessment and policy or treaty wording. Members of our team work closely with the US Department of Homeland Security, US Federal Communications Commission and European Commission.
Title Insurance
In the US, we have significant experience representing the title insurance industry, insured purchasers and lenders in all aspects of title insurance coverage and related title claims litigation. We routinely represent title insurance underwriters in analyzing lien priorities, clearing titles to conform to the insurance coverage and prosecuting claims of agent defalcations or agent error. When needed, we have litigators at hand with an impressive track record of recovery for underwriters and reconciling issues related to breach of contract, bad faith, denial of coverage, breach of implied covenant of good faith, fraud and tortious interference, breach of fiduciary relationship, conversion and negligence, preference, fraudulent conveyance and “deepening insolvency,” as well as handling civil and criminal investigations.
Life Insurance
In the US, we represent many of the country’s leading life insurance companies in all types of litigation, including coverage disputes, premium finance, vicarious liability, suitability and 1035 replacements. Clients turn to us for novel and complex issues, such as fraudulent death cases, where our global footprint allows coordinated investigation and litigation in third-world countries and obtaining admissible evidence for use in US courts. We have represented life insurance clients in multistate regulatory and parallel state attorneys general investigations in diverse matters ranging from compliance, sales practice and marketing, to vanishing premiums and industrial life-related issues. We work with our clients in establishing nationwide claims and liability settlement programs.
Maritime, Transportation and Logistics Insurance
We are one of a few global law firms with market-leading lawyers dedicated to the global maritime, transportation and logistics industry and who have extensive experience in related insurance products. This rare combination of global footprint and industry skill gives insurance clients a significant advantage in terms of “one-stop-shop” client service efficiencies and expertise for all product lines. With maritime lawyers based in London and New York, the world’s two principal maritime markets, and lawyers across Asia Pacific, including Hong Kong and Singapore, and in Latin America, we have significant experience and familiarity with maritime regulators and customs to effectively represent our insurance clients’ interests in all parts of the world. Our expertise includes advice and litigation in the full range of marine insurance coverage, such as P&I, hull and machinery, increased value and excess liabilities, loss of hire, marine cargo, pollution liability, charter’s liability, marine bumbershoot, marine general liability, commercial general liability, stevedore, terminal operator’s and wharfinger’s legal liability, builder’s risk and ship repairer’s legal liability, war risk and disputes with marine insurance brokers.
Health Insurance
We represent leading US-based health insurers in US and non-US health insurance laws. In the US, historic federal and state legislative reforms are requiring health insurers to remodel their businesses, stimulating growth and consolidation for efficiencies, and subjecting them to sharply increased exposures to governmental enforcement, penalties and private civil liabilities. We represent health insurance clients in navigating sweeping changes in governing statutes and regulations and advocating on their behalf in legislative and regulatory arenas in the formulation of new or amended laws and rules. We also help clients address market expansion and diversification initiatives, including acquisitions and de novo market entry, and help them address disputes with provider networks, including terminated providers. We guide clients on competition and antitrust compliance and defend clients on purported violations, and aggressively defend clients in False Claims Act law suits, including qui tam actions and related internal investigations, as well as lawsuits claiming wrongful benefits denial and alleged.
