Insurance: Going for brokers
US corporates are sensing an increasing reluctance among their insurers to accept their contractual responsibilities. The result is that general counsel have an important role to play in renewing insurance and ensuring they have the best cover possible. Des Cahill reports on the latest Legal Week roundtable, and what UK general counsel can learn from their Stateside counterparts
July 26, 2005 at 08:03 PM
7 minute read
General counsel will have to tool up if they are to get the insurance coverage they need in the UK and Europe. That was one of the key messages from US general counsel at the recent Legal Week roundtable on insurance litigation, held in association with Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Nicholson Graham (K&LNG).
Post-Spitzer and the AIG controversy earlier this year, there are several lessons to be learnt from across the Atlantic in "keeping brokers honest".
The current hot topic for US general counsel is directors and officers (D&O) insurance. According to Bill Trachsel, general counsel of United Technologies Corporation, in the days before the recent corporate catastrophes: "D&O was paying for nothing… Company indemnification was more important. Insurance was a pretty routine event. There was not much negotiating or much involvement from the general counsel." This is a view echoed by Tom Sager, assistant general counsel at DuPont. Company boards are now demanding "more accountability for insurance assets", he said, with the acquisition of insurance coverage becoming "increasingly complex and very adversarial".
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