Insurance

We have substantial experience advising issuers and investors, sellers and purchasers, and other insurance industry participants and disruptors in a wide range of complex business transactions, including seed and startup investments, growth equity investments, control investments, joint ventures, mergers & acquisitions, and other strategic transactions.

We are very familiar with the unique issues raised by these transactions and how these transactions are structured, including those involving surplus notes, structured notes, and preferred and common equity.

For these transactions, our clients have ranged from carriers, brokers, and reinsurers to insureds, startups, and insurtechs. We have a particular focus on representing fund sponsors and other financial institutions in their insurance related investment involving startup capital and accelerators, and M&A activities.

Our transaction lawyers collaborate closely with our regulatory team and other specialists to provide a full range of support. They also work hand in hand with our private equity and investment funds teams which are some of the largest and most comprehensive in the United States and growing rapidly in Europe and Asia.

We also have significant experience representing state insurance regulators and insurance companies in state court insurance rehabilitation and liquidation proceedings and restructuring transactions. Additionally, our team has substantial experience with restructuring work in the financial guaranty insurance arena.

Contacts: Christopher Pizzo, Laura Hodges Taylor, and Ranan Well

Our team has substantial expertise across a variety of insurance regulatory areas and lines of business, including state licensing requirements for those involved in the sale of insurance products or companies partnering with insurance companies in product development. We regularly advise clients on these regulatory issues in connection with transactions, product development, compliance programs, and regulatory examinations and investigations.

In addition to state regulatory expertise, we have experience on SEC and FINRA requirements for the development and sale of insurance products that are securities, including variable annuity contracts and other securities products. We also assist insurance companies on the development of products exempt from federal securities law registration requirements, including stable value contracts, retirement plan contracts, private placement products, and fixed rate contracts.

Contact: Christopher Pizzo

We partner with insurers, reinsurers, innovators, and investors on the legal and regulatory challenges associated with creating, marketing, distributing, and investing in innovative insurance products, companies, and alternative ventures. For more details, visit our Insurtech practice page.

Contacts: Christopher Pizzo and Laura Hodges Taylor

We have experience counseling insured entities (including management and boards of directors) on a wide variety of matters. This includes advising on: 

• Management and professional liability insurance
• Securing competitive renewal terms and premiums on existing coverages
• Purchasing coverage or extended claim reporting options for M&A, IPOs, and other transactions
• Performing insurance and litigation due diligence on M&A targets

We also provide proactive risk management advice, including on the creation and implementation of appropriate internal procedures and other best practices covering issues such as conflicts of interest, board fiduciary duties, insider trading liability, document retention and cyber and data privacy policies. And we help clients prepare and deliver board presentations and employee training sessions on risk management and corporate governance. For more details, visit our Risk Management & Insurance page. 

Contacts: Carl Metzger, Ai Tajima, and Brian Mukherjee

Our insurance-focused litigators counsel the world’s largest insurance carriers, brokerages, public and private companies, private equity and venture capital firms, and non-profit and educational institutions on all aspects of high stakes litigation, as well as advise both public and private insured entities on a wide variety of insurance coverage matters.

Our team includes experienced business litigators and trial lawyers with extensive expertise in insurance matters. Our team has successfully defended insurers and reinsurers and their affiliates in state and federal courts and in arbitration on such diverse matters as insurance coverage disputes, market timing, Fair Housing Act cases, and employment and class action litigation.

With respect to insurance coverage disputes in particular, we handle a wide array of such disputes, including those related to:

• Reps & warranties
• “Bad faith” claims
• Multidistrict managed care
• Fair housing
• Sales of insurance lines
• Market timing
• Insurance & annuity products
• D&O and E&O insurance

Contacts: Carl Metzger and Joe Rockers