INSURANCE POLICYHOLDER DISPUTES

Among our areas of expertise are:

• Professional indemnity
• Directors and officers liability insurance (D&O)
• Employers' liability
• Product liability
• Crime
• Property
• Trade credit and political risk
• Automotive and energy

Our team also has significant experience handling Bermuda Form arbitration disputes.

More information on our team's achievements and expertise can be found below. Alternatively, please get in touch with us directly.

Contentious work

We have extensive experience of mediation, arbitration and litigation, including complex, international, multiparty coverage disputes. We add real value to our clients here as our team comprises specialist insurance lawyers who understand the market.

Advisory work

We deliver expert advice across a range of topics, including on:

• The scope of the duty of disclosure
• The drafting and interpretation of policy wordings
• The consequences of breaches of policy terms
• Claims notification and claims control provisions
• Relationships with brokers
• Insurers' rights of inspection
• The effect of insurance covenants in commercial agreements

Captives

This includes guidance and advice on the start-up, regulation and run-off of captive insurance companies.

Policy reviews

We carry out detailed reviews of policy wordings and insurance programmes for our clients, in order to improve coverage and identify potential gaps.

We have:

• Successfully acted for a FTSE 100 global pharmaceutical company in significant Bermuda Form arbitrations. These covered claims of over $2 billion, against numerous European and Bermudian insurers regarding the scope and extent of product liability coverage for third party claims arising from the alleged side effects of the company's products
• Acted for a major supermarket in a £27 million D&O claim
• Provided coverage advice to an American baby food manufacturer on recovery for "accidental product contamination" following a product recall
• Represented Rathbone Brothers Plc (Rathbones) and an individual trustee/former employee of a Rathbones subsidiary in English Commercial Court and Court of Appeal proceedings. These surrounded a claim under the excess layer of Rathbones' 2008/09 civil liability insurance programme ([2013] EWHC 3457 (Comm) and [2014] EWCA Civ 1464)
• Acting for a FTSE 100 bank in a multimillion-pound arbitration against a number of insurers under a construction all risks and third party liability insurance policy surrounding defects to its flagship corporate headquarters