Advanced Reinsurance Contract Wordings

Course overview

Reinsurance industry practices have changed in recent years, placing more and more emphasis and importance on reinsurance contract wordings. If companies want to avoid lengthy and expensive disputes, they must develop clear and thorough reinsurance agreements.

This one-day concise seminar has been developed by popular demand as the ideal follow-on for our two-day highly successful Reinsurance Contract Wordings and Disputes programme. Building on the skills and knowledge offered by our step-by-step guide to the world of reinsurance wordings, this new seminar focuses on the latest legal developments, up-to-the-minute issues and advanced drafting skills that will ensure watertight contracts.

Why you should attend this seminar?

During one intensive day, you will:

LEARN about how to make contract provisions for emerging risks
GET UP-TO-DATE with developments in applicable law, including the new Rome 1 Regulation
FIND out more about protecting against credit risk via contractual terms
HEAR about the role of notice and information clauses
MASTER the latest developments in property and catastrophe clauses
GAIN knowledge of the interplay between entire agreement and arbitration clauses
UNDERSTAND the implications of recent judgments involving follow clauses
LEARN how to be prepared for reinsurance disputes

Who should attend?

Wordings technicians
Reinsurance technicians
Claims managers
Wordings specialists
In-house lawyers
Lawyers in private practice
Anyone who is involved in the drafting or implementation of reinsurance wordings

Programme

Contracting for emerging risks

How to use reinsurance contract wordings to anticipate emerging risks
Limiting unknown exposures
Emerging and developing regulations and case law
Drafting techniques to mitigate risk
Variability in exclusion

The law applicable to reinsurance contracts – Latest developments

Common law rules
European developments: The Rome 1 Regulation
Incorporation of choice of law clauses into reinsurance contracts
Back-to-back cover
Situation of the risk in insurance cases
Reinsurance/Non-large risks outside the EU
Large risks

Notice and information clauses

Reporting and notice clauses
Access to records clauses
Late notice issues
Confidentiality

Key points to drafting watertight clauses

Common and variable provisions
Exclusions and write-backs
Definitions
Policy interpretation and legal risks

Developments in property and casualty clauses

Europe: Economic and trade sanctions – Risks and exclusions
Wording Issues for emerging and developing markets
Clauses broadening cedants’ rights
Additional observations and developments

The interplay between entire agreement and arbitration clauses

Reliance on evidence of placement and negotiation
Drafting the reinsurance contract to include representations and warranties
Limiting the use of placing information

Follow wordings – Issues, options and effective drafting

Arbitration awards, and English/foreign judgments
Settlements – How to draft wide or narrow clauses
“without prejudice” and “ex-gratia” settlements
Businesslike steps and the burden of proof
Dealing with commutations

Being prepared for reinsurance disputes: Wordings and their role in dispute resolution

Arbitration – Is it the preferred dispute resolution method?
Mandatory negotiation and/or mediation
Selection of panel members
Disclosure and evidentiary matters

The expert faculty

Chair

Simon Kilgour is a partner at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain where he leads the reinsurance practice and acts for domestic and overseas insurers and reinsurers on complex, high value or non-standard coverage disputes or market issues. His work is mainly international and includes advising on wordings, inspections, inwards and outwards coverage disputes and collections. He was named as one of the leading reinsurance lawyers in Europe in an international survey of in-house counsel by Bermuda: Re magazine and recommended as ‘the top of [his] field’ in Intelligent Insurer’s survey of in-house counsel.

Expert presenters

Todd Corey is Senior Counsel of Reinsurance at Endurance, a Bermudian-based insurance and reinsurance company with operations throughout Europe, Asia, Bermuda and America. Todd is a dual qualified English solicitor and New York lawyer with more than 11 years practicing in Europe and America. Todd works directly with the Endurance Worldwide Reinsurance business units to advise on complex contract wording issues, regulatory issues, business acquisitions and claims disputes. When he was in private practice, Todd represented several global insurers, reinsurers and other companies at arbitrations and before the courts in England and the U.S.

Christopher Foster is a partner in the London office of Herbert Smith in the insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration group, and a solicitor advocate. He is experienced in policy drafting (both direct and reinsurance), commutations, portfolio transfers and the insurance aspects of corporate transactions generally. He has successfully challenged both solvent schemes and a Part VII transfer. He spent a period of time on secondment to one of the world’s leading brokers and has acted on a variety of brokers’ errors and omissions disputes.

Professor Robert Merkin is a Professor of Commercial Law at Southampton University and a consultant at Norton Rose. He has written many books on a variety of subjects but is best know for his books and articles on insurance, reinsurance and related matters. His works include Butler and Merkin on Reinsurance Law (which won the inaugural British Insurance Law Association price in 1986), Colinvaux and Merkin’s Insurance Contract Law, The Law of Motor Insurance (with Jeremy Stuart Smith QC) and Arbitration Law. Professor Merkin is a member of the presidential council of AIDA and serves as secretary to the AIDA reinsurance working party. He is a past member of the Law Society’s Insurance Law sub-committee and of the executive committee of the British Insurance Law Association.

Nick Miles is special counsel to Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP. He is an insurance and reinsurance lawyer specialising in a broad range of contentious matters, reorganisations and regulatory matters. He represents insurers and reinsurers in complex, multi-jurisdictional litigation and arbitration, often concerning captive structures, alternative risk transfer products, and long-tail exposure such as asbestos pollution and health risks. He has also handled arbitration proceedings on behalf of monoline insurers relating to ISDA credit default swaps. He frequently works as co-counsel with Sedgwick’s Bermuda office, Sedgwick-Chudleigh, on restructurings and insolvencies. Recent cases have concerned rights of redeeming former investors in Bermuda hedge funds and advice to a retrocessionaire of an insolvent Bermuda life reinsurer.

Susannah Wakefield is a partner in the London office of Taylor Wessing in insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration. She brings her unique background and experience in (re)insurance dispute work, having practiced for many years in New York and Bermuda as well as in London. Susie has advised Bermuda, U.S., and London Market insurers and reinsurers in litigation in federal and state courts in New York, in the Supreme Court of Bermuda, in the High Court and in arbitration. She has represented clients in complex, multi-million dollar disputes, including cases with substantive international and multi-jurisdictional aspects. Susie advises on a range of (re)insurance matters, including insurers/reinsurers on complex policy wording reviews, claims involving allegations of fraud, misrepresentation and non-disclosure and much more.