Insurance Law

EC3, then the world - Clydes asserts insurance law on global stage

By Alex Novarese | October 19, 2011

Cast your mind back five years ago to what seems like a different era. Clyde & Co was generating not much more than half its current revenues and Holman Fenwick Willan barely scraped into the top 40 while Ince & Co just about made the top 50. Kennedys was nowhere to be seen. Corporate markets were booming, and transaction-driven law firms were really just getting into the swing of the credit boom. Little wonder that insurance-driven law firms were overlooked as the script for global law was written – the sector was associated with nothing more glamourous than brutally executed panel reviews and misconceived cross-selling (Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's lost years and Davies Arnold Cooper's 'pillars of strength' spring to mind). Apart from the startling growth Clydes was already demonstrating, powered by global expansion and a strategy that largely went over the heads of journalists such as, well, me, there was little sign of the breed's future ascendency. Step forward, and it's a very different story, with insurance and transport law firms now having led the pack consistently since the credit crunch hit four years ago.

1 minute read

Giant - will size make Clydes and Barlows the future of insurance law?

By Suzi Ring | October 19, 2011

The beginning of the end of 170 years of legal history happened on 15 March 2011, the day Barlow Lyde & Gilbert's highly-rated aviation team handed in its notice to move to Holman Fenwick Willan. Until that point, Barlows had looked as if it was finally turning the corner after nearly a decade dominated by partner departures, poor financials and management inertia to regroup around its core insurance practice, a business the firm had hopes of rapidly taking international.

1 minute read

Law Soc calls for delay to legal aid overhaul amid Djanogly allegations

By Simon Petersen | October 18, 2011

The Law Society has called for the Government's controversial legal aid reforms to be put on hold amid media scrutiny of justice minister Jonathan Djanogly's alleged links to the claims management industry. The responsibility for the regulation of claims management companies was passed from Djanogly to Justice Secretary Ken Clarke yesterday (17 October), following a review by Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell after The Guardian claimed that Djanogly could personally profit from his own legislation.

1 minute read

Beachcroft and DAC put trainee recruitment on hold as firms prepare for merger

By Suzi Ring | October 17, 2011

Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) have frozen their trainee recruitment processes indefinitely as the duo gear up to complete their merger later this month. The firms have decided to delay their usual trainee recruitment activities until a decision has been made about how recruitment will operate at the combined firm, which is set to go live on 31 October.

1 minute read

Ince recruits Barlows partner duo and opens new desk in Lloyd's building

By Simon Petersen | October 13, 2011

Ince & Co has announced plans to launch a London market desk in the Lloyd's building at the same time as strengthening its insurance and reinsurance practice with a double partner hire from Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG). The firm will open the market desk on the eighth floor of the Lloyd's building on 1 November as a workspace and a place to meet clients. Partners and associates from practices including insurance and reinsurance, political risk and marine will comes to the office every day on rotation.

1 minute read

DAC partner leaves to join recruitment consultant ahead of Beachcroft merger

By Suzi Ring | September 28, 2011

Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) insurance litigation partner Christian Kelly has left the firm to join legal recruitment consultancy Cogence Search. Kelly joined Cogence as head of insurance this month after one year at DAC. He joined the insurance specialist firm in July last year from US outfit Cozen O'Connor. The news follows Cogence's hire of intellectual property (IP) specialist and former 7 Bedford Row chief executive Peter Rouse as a senior legal recruitment consultant in June this year.

1 minute read

RBS Insurance turns to RSA to recruit new general counsel

By Simon Petersen | September 20, 2011

RBS Insurance (RBSI) has turned to RSA Insurance for its new general counsel and company secretary. RSA's group legal director, Humphrey Tomlinson, is set to join RBSI, where he will be tasked with building the Bromley-based insurer's standalone legal and secretariat functions ahead of its divestment from RBS Group.

1 minute read

RPC takes on Camerons insurance partner quartet for Bristol launch

By Suzi Ring | September 19, 2011

Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) is set to launch in Bristol with the hire of four partners from CMS Cameron McKenna, with the firm also in discussions to take on the whole of Camerons' local insurance and reinsurance group. Insurance and reinsurance partners Jeremy Barnes, Joe Bryant, Simon Chandler and Peter Mansfield are all set to join RPC in the coming months.

1 minute read

Government confirms ban on referral fees in personal injury cases

By Suzi Ring | September 8, 2011

Referral fees are to be banned in personal injury cases as part of the Government's efforts to tackle the UK's so-called 'compensation culture', the Ministry of Justice has announced. The move, confirmed today (9 September), is part of the Government's efforts to drive down civil litigation costs in the UK. It comes alongside the civil litigation reforms put forward earlier this year by Lord Justice Jackson, which were included in the recent Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (LASPO).

1 minute read

DAC Beachcroft places cross-border growth at heart of post-merger agenda

By Legal Week | September 7, 2011

Newly-merged DAC Beachcroft has put international expansion at the heart of its combined strategy, with Latin America earmarked as a key area for growth when Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper formally unite later this year. The merger, which will go live on 1 November 2011, will create a top 20 UK firm with revenue in excess of £175m and around 230 partners working across seven offices in the UK, as well as branches in Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, Spain and Mexico.

1 minute read

Daily Report Online

Judge Orders Insurance Department Ruling on Northside v. Anthem Contract Dispute

By Katheryn Hayes Tucker | April 15, 2022

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rachelle Carnesale noted Northside's breach-of-contract claims center around the meaning of "public health emergency" in a new law passed by the General Assembly to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

4 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

PFAS and PFOA Litigation and Regulation: An Emerging Insurance Coverage Battleground

By John Ellison, Jessica Kraus and Michael Merlo | April 14, 2022

As PFAS litigation continues to spur throughout product supply chains, and as new regulations go into effect to mitigate environmental and health impacts of PFAS, policyholders will increasingly turn to insurance carriers to cover losses.

8 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

NBA Team's Insurance Dispute Questions Whether COVID-19 Constitutes Physical Damage

By Aleeza Furman | April 11, 2022

The Philadelphia 76ers and the owner of its training complex are seeking declaratory judgment to reflect that COVID-19 "does not constitute direct physical loss or damage" to their property.

3 minute read

Daily Business Review

Brandes Asks Lawmakers to Back Special Session on Insurance

By Jim Turner | April 11, 2022

"I believe we can no longer wait on this issue," Sen. Jeff Brandes wrote.

4 minute read

New York Law Journal

Insurer's Potential Liability for Prejudgment Interest in Excess of Policy Limit

By Jeffrey G. Steinberg and Benjamin Zelermyer | April 8, 2022

The type of prejudgment interest involved (and the terms of the policy, if interest is part of the underlying claim) will determine whether the insurer is liable for such interest in excess of the policy limits even in the absence of bad faith.

4 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

The Regular Use Exclusion May Not Be So Regular Anymore

By Daniel E. Cummins | March 31, 2022

Recent state and federal decisions have confirmed that there has developed a split of authority in the state and federal trial and appellate courts over the validity and enforceability of the regular use exclusion.

13 minute read

New York Law Journal

Amendments to CPLR Impose New Insurance Disclosure Requirements on Defendants

By Howard B. Epstein and Theodore A. Keyes | March 29, 2022

In their Corporate Insurance Law column, Howard Epstein and Theodore Keyes discuss the new disclosure obligations imposed by the Comprehensive Insurance Disclosure Act, the modifications to the original version of the Act, which scaled back some requirements, as well as some issues and concerns posed by the new disclosure obligations.

8 minute read

Daily Business Review

South Florida Attorney Exploited 'Gaping Hole' of Multiple Entity Business to Reach $2M Settlement

By Michael A. Mora | March 22, 2022

"Because they all weren't one company, it created this gaping hole in their defense that they normally would have raised," said Ben J. Whitman, a partner at Clark, Fountain, La Vista, Prather, & Littky-Rubin.

3 minute read

Law.com

How I Made Partner: 'My Experience Taught Me How to Tackle Whatever Came Across My Desk,' Says Cindy Jordano of Cohen Ziffer Frenchman & McKenna

By Donna Carlson | Tasha Norman | March 22, 2022

"Remain open to new experiences because you don't know when they will arrive."

5 minute read

The Legal Intelligencer

John Dougherty Secures Insurance Coverage for Defense Against Extortion Charges

By Aleeza Furman | March 21, 2022

The order grants a petition for special injunction that Dougherty filed when the insurance company denied his request for coverage.

3 minute read