Insurance Law

Legal Week and Brook Intelligence launch insurance tracker

By Legal Week | July 16, 2013

Legal Week has teamed up with Brook Intelligence Centre to launch a quarterly sector report service covering the insurance market. The Insurance Industry Tracker is designed to help law firms keep abreast of key developments and trends within the UK insurance sector so they can spot opportunities and track the fortunes of their clients and potential clients.

1 minute read

Direct Line to launch legal services venture in partnership with Parabis

By Alex Newman | July 15, 2013

Direct Line Group (DLG) has submitted an application to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) to set up an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) in partnership with Parabis Law. DLG Legal Services - the proposed firm name - will provide DLG customers with legal advice for personal injury and non-injury claims, including debt recovery, employment and contract matters.

1 minute read

Berrymans opens second City base led by new London senior partner

By Legal Week | July 10, 2013

Berrymans Lace Mawer is to launch a second base in the City led by newly elected London senior partner Jennette Newman. The office, which will be the insurance-focused firm's tenth in total, is due to open on 2 September and will be made up of 13 partners with expertise in casualty, construction, occupational disease, regulatory, professional indemnity, product liability, property insurance and recovery.

1 minute read

CC turns to Norton Rose Fulbright for corporate insurance partner hire

By Pui-Guan Man | June 19, 2013

Clifford Chance (CC) has sealed the hire of corporate insurance partner Ashley Prebble from Norton Rose Fulbright's City arm. Prebble joined legacy Norton Rose in 2003 from Dechert's London office, before making partner at the top 10 firm in 2006. His start date at the magic circle firm is not yet known.

1 minute read

Clydes recruits partner duo to launch fourth US base in Atlanta

By Gerard Starkey | June 19, 2013

Clyde & Co has opened a new office in Atlanta, marking the firm's fourth base in the US and 33rd office worldwide. The office will be headed up by civil litigation and dispute resolution partner Bob Fisher and risk partner James Chin, both of whom join from Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi, a litigation-focused US firm based in Minneapolis.

1 minute read

DLA strikes deal with Mills & Reeve to take defendant insurance group

By Gerard Starkey | June 18, 2013

DLA Piper has sold off the remainder of its defendant insurance team after Mills & Reeve struck a deal to take the nine-strong Birmingham-based practice. The team, which is made up of partner Alan Jacobs, associate Felicity Ho, solicitor Jagjit Virdi, plus three other fee-earners and support staff, will make the move to Mills & Reeve's Colmore Row office on 1 July.

1 minute read

US trio act as Generali sells reinsurance business

By Alex Newman | June 13, 2013

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson have taken lead roles on a deal that has seen European insurance giant Generali Group sell its US life reinsurance business. French reinsurer SCOR has acquired 100% of the business in a $920m (£599m) deal that closed last week (4 June). Generali said total expected gross proceeds from the deal included a $780m (£508m) cash consideration and $140m (£91m) of collateral release. The transaction – which is subject to regulatory approval and other conditions – is part of Generali's strategy to withdraw from non-core businesses.

1 minute read

The AXA man – AXA UK's legal head on getting tough on law firm fees

By Legal Week | June 13, 2013

Edward 'Ed' Davis is slimmer than his Google images – the result, no doubt, of a recently acquired obsession with cycling. "I'm absolutely passionate about it," he admits, his eyes glazing with thoughts of country lanes or aerodynamic handle bars or whatever it is about the sport that has him hooked. The self-confessed MAMIL (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra) is fortunately wearing a suit and tie and leads the way into a chilly, white-walled meeting room, sparsely decorated with clip-framed AXA promotional posters. He apologises for the temperature and smell of fresh paint as if he is personally responsible – the first indicator that this is a company man through and through. Davis has spent the majority of his career at AXA Group, the French global insurance and asset management giant boasting 163,000 employees in 57 countries. In the UK, the core businesses of AXA Wealth, AXA PPP Healthcare, AXA Commercial and AXA Personal Insurance employ some 13,000 people nationally.

1 minute read

DAC Beachcroft overhauls board as legacy firm's senior partner retires

By Gerard Starkey | June 11, 2013

DAC Beachcroft has overhauled its management team with the addition of four partners to its board, as former Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) senior partner Danny Gowan prepares to retire from the firm. The new board members are disputes partner Nick Young in London, insurance partner Pablo Wesolowski in Madrid, Dublin head Katie da Gama and Leeds senior partner Virginia Clegg.

1 minute read

Minster Law plans further expansion after landmark takeover by insurance business BGL

By Alex Newman | June 6, 2013

Claims firm Minster Law is targeting significant growth and expansion into new areas of law following its acquisition by insurance business BGL Group – a deal that marks the largest outright takeover of a UK law firm to date. BGL – the owners of well-known insurance brands including comparethemarket.com – acquired the law firm, which last year posted revenues of £107m, for an undisclosed sum, after Minster received Solicitors Regulation Authority approval to convert to an alternative business structure (ABS). Minster is unusual among large law firms in that it works under a corporate structure, with its 840 staff in York and Wakefield comprising around 170 fee earners and just 54 qualified lawyers. It has a particular focus on road traffic accident work, as well as employment, probate, wills and conveyancing. BGL, meanwhile, has 4.6 million customers and employs more than 2,400 staff across a portfolio of brands.

1 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

Two Decades Into Opioid Crisis, Insurance Coverage Questions Only Beginning to Find Answers

By Michael Kassak and Adam Berardi | July 25, 2022

Beyond the devastating physical toll, the opioid epidemic has had severe economic consequences on the nation as well. A bipartisan congressional report issued earlier this year found that the opioid epidemic costs the United States roughly $1 trillion a year.

9 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

Calif. Federal Court Misreads General Liability Insurance's Duty to Defend

By Courtney C.T. Horrigan, Elizabeth L. Taylor and Kya R. Coletta | July 21, 2022

The California court's interpretation turns the duty to defend on its head by going beyond the words in the complaint to infer the plaintiffs' case theory, rather than construing defense coverage broadly to protect the policyholder.

7 minute read

Law.com

Citing 'Difficult Hurdle' of Predominance Requirement, Texas Appeals Court Reverses Class Certification in Life Insurance Case

By Jason Grant | July 20, 2022

"The predominance requirement prevents certification when complex and diverse individual issues would overwhelm or confuse a jury or severely compromise a party's ability to preset other viable claims or defenses," wrote the appellate panel.

5 minute read

New Jersey Law Journal

Supreme Court Says Condo Association May Pursue Insurer in Construction Defect Case, But Must Arbitrate

By Colleen Murphy | July 19, 2022

"Were we to concur with the Appellate Division that ... the arbitration clause is somehow unenforceable in Crystal Point's action, we would contravene the Direct Action Statute's plain terms," Justice Anne M. Patterson wrote.

4 minute read

Law.com

State Appellate Court Finds Company Met 'ABC Test' in Dispute Over Home Inspectors' Eligibility for Unemployment Benefits

By Allison Dunn | July 15, 2022

"To the extent that the board considered factors that did focus on control and direction in connection with the inspectors' performance of services, that analysis was flawed," Associate Justice Sabita Singh wrote on behalf of the panel. "The board cited Tiger requirements that are also regulatory requirements. For example, the board noted that inspectors had to complete a written report following each inspection, but this report is mandated by regulation. See 266 Code Mass. Reg. § 6.03 (2008). That Tiger required the inspectors to meet regulatory standards does not show Tiger's direction and control."

5 minute read

Daily Business Review

State Seeks to Scuttle Challenge to Insurance Law

By Jim Saunders | July 13, 2022

Roofing claims have been a key issue as lawmakers and other state leaders have grappled with widespread problems in the property-insurance system that have included insurers dropping customers and seeking large rate increases.

5 minute read

Legaltech News

Cyber Insurance is Experiencing Future Shock

By Barry Miller and Elisabeth Gentile, Freeman Mathis & Gary | July 12, 2022

Part of the sting of "Future Shock" is that the accelerated pace of change is not anticipated. In a world where most insureds rely on computers and networks to conduct day-to-day personal and commercial business, non-cyber adjusters must expect that they will face claims involving the use or loss of computer data and equipment.

11 minute read

Law.com

Would You Take on a Client Who Previously Sued Your Law Firm for Malpractice?

By Allison Dunn | July 11, 2022

There was a resounding "no" to the hypothetical question posed July 7 to attorneys on Reddit by one user who said they're currently facing the dilemma in real life.

4 minute read

The American Lawyer

Carriers Push Insurance Defense Lawyers Toward Greater Use of Alt Fees, Staffing

By Justin Henry | July 11, 2022

Due to their seemingly insatiable appetite for legal services, insurance carriers have developed particularly sophisticated uses of data for reducing outside legal spending.

5 minute read

Daily Business Review

Insurance Litigation Spikes 47%, Creating Demand for In-House and Outside Counsel

By Michael A. Mora | July 8, 2022

A new litigation report is a warning shot to insurers that they must increase their resources—both in-house and outside counsel—in at least two segments of the industry.

3 minute read