Insurance

For decades, Squire Sanders has represented a broad spectrum of major participants in the insurance industry, and we have an in-depth understanding of the legal and commercial issues affecting the sector. Our clients include:

Property and casualty companies Life insurers Health insurers Excess carriers and reinsurers Holding companies and affiliates

Commercial brokers Specialized carriers Claims administrators Premium finance lenders Corporate insureds

Global Solutions

Our insurance practice offers global coverage. Many of our clients are multinational organizations, and like them, we have offices in all the key financial jurisdictions. We are therefore well positioned to advise you, wherever your business is located.

Services

We provide both comprehensive services and highly focused work in technical areas for insurance businesses, their affiliates and those doing business with them. We understand the importance of adding value and tailor our services to meet our clients’ needs. Our lawyers routinely handle:

Capital formation and structuring Captives and self-insurance Catastrophic risk pools and financings Class action and other insurance litigation Company formations, transactions and corporate governance Complex insurance coverage litigation Defense of commercial insureds Demutualization Global insurance matters

Health insurance, managed care, social insurance programs and prescription plans Legislative and public policy advocacy Liquidations, rehabilitations and solvent and insolvent run-offs Mis-selling of insurance products Regulatory licensing, approvals and compliance Regulatory investigations, examinations and disciplinary process Reinsurance transactions and disputes

We provide a full range of commercial legal services for participants in the insurance industry including advice on property and employment issues, commercial contracts, insurance product distribution, outsourcing and pensions issues.

Litigation and Dispute Resolution

We have defended numerous insurers in class actions based on alleged improper sales practices or product pricing violations, antitrust actions, disputes with insured parties over coverage issues and suits between health insurers and providers. We frequently act for policyholders in claims and suits brought against them and covered under directors and officers liability polices, as well as in claims where defense or coverage is provided under environmental, employment practices, professional indemnity, cyber liability or general commercial liability policies. We also represent insurers in coverage disputes with certain policyholders or in disagreements with other insurers as to available coverage and proper allocations. On the other side of the fence, we represent corporate insureds in the resolution of coverage disputes with their insurers across the full range of commercial policies.

In addition, we regularly provide general commercial litigation services to organizations in the insurance sector. This includes bringing and defending warranty and indemnity claims resulting from corporate transactions, defending claims brought by former agents and employees, and pursuing litigation against professional advisers.

We also handle supervisory inquiries and formal investigations and enforcement actions brought by insurance regulators in the United States, the UK and elsewhere, as well as by US state attorneys general. Litigating successfully with regulators demands thorough familiarity with the applicable substantive legal system, the administrative law of the jurisdiction and contemporary adversarial techniques. It is also vital to have a sensitive appreciation of how best to preserve, so far as possible, a productive relationship with regulators over the longer term after a dispute has been resolved and despite the frequent uncertainty of outcomes. We help clients succeed in these challenging circumstances and prepare for the looming prospect of increasingly stringent and complex regulation and scrutiny.

Transactional and Corporate Work

We work hand-in-hand with insurance industry clients to identify new business and market opportunities and to develop and implement business plans. Whether a client needs to form and license a new company or plan for or conduct a merger, acquisition, sale, reorganization, demutualization or capital markets transaction, we proceed as partners.

We act as transactional counsel for the purchase and sale of insurers, holding companies, brokers and other intermediaries, subsidiaries, other affiliates and operational lines or blocks of business. Our engagements may encompass comprehensive work for a major transaction or focus on specialized services suited to the needs of a particular client. We have considerable experience performing appropriate due diligence and identifying and resolving key issues in these transactions, especially on the risk management side. We are also active in structuring and forming alternative risk-transfer mechanisms including the establishment of captive insurers. We are often called on to handle regulatory filings and obtain timely approvals in connection with these transactions.


Regulatory Compliance

We advise insurers, reinsurers, producers and other regulated businesses and their investors and principals before insurance regulatory agencies in many jurisdictions. These engagements have run the full gamut of the agencies’ authorities and powers, including:

Acquisition and disposition transactions and applications All manner of hearings before and disputes with regulators Admittance to additional jurisdictions Compliance advice and programs

Formation and licensing of new businesses Product and pricing filings and approvals Holding company system and affiliate transactions Investigations and multi-state examinations

These projects often call for a mix of regulatory, corporate and transactional skills, credibility with regulatory officials, and an appreciation of administrative procedures, both explicit and informal.

Legislative Counsel
We provide insurers, managed care organizations, employers, employer groups and trade associations with the full range of legislative and public policy services at the local, national and global levels. We draft insurance-related legislation and provide counsel in the legislative process in various jurisdictions around the world.