Reinsurance

Jorden Burt has a longstanding reputation for its knowledge of the insurance, reinsurance and financial markets and the regulatory landscapes in which they operate. Our clients accordingly turn to us regularly for our ability to apply that knowledge in high-risk litigation and arbitration settings, as well as in the structuring of innovative products. In the reinsurance arena, Jorden Burt's experience with many kinds of insurance and financial products strengthens our ability to serve the needs of our clients in reinsurance dispute resolution, reinsurance transactions, reinsurance counseling, and regulatory matters.

The following factors distinguish Jorden Burt's reinsurance practice from that of other law firms:

• Since Jorden Burt lawyers have been in the forefront of the creation and regulation of many of the innovative insurance products on the market, we understand these products, and how they work. Such knowledge makes it easier to understand how to reinsure those risks effectively and efficiently, and how to devise realistic strategies for resolving disputes relating to such products that will accomplish the business goals of our clients.
  
  
• The breadth of our practical experience permits us to structure reinsurance agreements or programs effectively, and to advise clients on the best alternatives for reinsuring risks, either through traditional reinsurance or through other facilities or structures. For example: one of our lawyers formerly served on the Board of a Bermuda reinsurer; another is a former CPA with deep knowledge of regulatory accounting; others follow the NAIC's activities relating to reinsurance; another monitors legislative and regulatory activities.
  
  
• Our deep experience in handling high stakes financial services litigation translates into cost effective arbitration and litigation capabilities and results.
  
  
• Our reinsurance lawyers provide our clients additional value through our award winning reinsurance and arbitration blog, Reinsurance Focus, which provides updates on a broad range of reinsurance matters, including significant reinsurance and alternative risk transfer transactions, reinsurance legislation and regulations, trade associations, educational programs, and scholarly articles about reinsurance, as well as important court opinions addressing reinsurance issues and the arbitration process. One of our partners is a regular contributor to Harris Martin's Reinsurance publication, and our lawyers also publish in other publications, speak at CLE programs and provide private client seminars.

Jorden Burt monitors the activities of the NAIC, and our lawyers actively follow, among other matters, the activities of the NAIC's Reinsurance Task Force. The Firm's lawyers have training and experience with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and Regulatory Accounting Principles. They regularly participate in activities of reinsurance trade associations, such as the Reinsurance Association of America, and in ARIAS. Our lawyers have worked at state insurance departments, major insurance companies, and a trade association, and served on the Boards of Directors of insurance companies.

Webinar on the Dodd-Frank Act

On July 29, 2010, the Reinsurance Industry group presented a webinar on the Dodd-Frank Act as it relates to reinsurance and nonadmitted insurance. Below are copies of the presentation materials, also available on the reinsurance blog, ReinsuranceFocus.

Slides from the Webinar

Special Focus: The Dodd-Frank Act

Final Text of the Dodd-Frank Act

Reinsurance Dispute Resolution Experience

Jorden Burt lawyers have years of experience representing industry clients in the resolution of reinsurance disputes, including arbitrations, litigation, mediation, and settlements. The depth of our knowledge regarding insurance products, insurance company operations, and governing accounting principles provides a unique and informed perspective, allowing us in the course of our legal representation to understand and address the business issues central to such disputes.

Jorden Burt's reinsurance dispute resolution experience encompasses both life/health and property/casualty business, domestically and in the London market, and many of the different participants in the reinsurance markets. We have been involved in a broad array of reinsurance disputes, having prosecuted and defended claims ranging from the validity of a single loss under a facultative certificate, to fraud and misrepresentation claims involving the potential rescission of a complex array of reinsurance agreements covering an entire book of business, to the allocation of bad faith responsibility between a cedent and its reinsurer. We also regularly work with clients in the "pre-dispute" phase, analyzing and assessing the relative merits of potential legal claims under reinsurance agreements.

A few examples of our experience:

• Life/Health Reinsurance - Jorden Burt represented a participant in hundreds of reinsurance treaties in the London Personal Accident reinsurance market, involving a series of arbitrations in the UK, and the defense of a major US arbitration in New York City involving claims exceeding $100 million. Our representation included advising on a strategic plan for managing and defending multiple arbitrations and lawsuits in this market, and representing the client in the U.S. arbitration and a related lawsuit.
  
  
• Property/Casualty - Jorden Burt has represented parties in the reinsurance of major catastrophic losses caused by hurricanes in the Southeastern United States. Catastrophe Risks - Jorden Burt has represented a major insurer of windstorm risks in resolving issues relating to the failure of a reinsurer to pay claims after it was placed in run-off.
  
  
• Reinsurance Intermediaries - The Firm has represented a reinsurance intermediary in litigation concerning the placement of reinsurance coverage for workers' compensation risks, and has represented companies asserting claims against reinsurance brokers.
  
  
• Reinsurance Fraud - The Firm has provided counseling, litigation, and arbitration services with respect to fraud in reinsurance programs involving D&O and E&O coverages.
  
  
• Lloyd's of London - Jorden Burt represented the Society of Lloyd's in litigation in United States federal courts, in which the claimants sought to have the litigation managed by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.
  
  
• Producer Owned Reinsurance Companies - We are very familiar with the structure and operation of producer owned reinsurance companies ("PORCS") and other "captive" reinsurers, including tax issues relating to such entities, and have litigated various issues relating to such entities, including issues arising as a result of the bankruptcy of the owner of such entities. Some of these reinsurers have been domiciled in non-United States jurisdictions, such as the Turks and Caicos.
  
  
• Reinsurance Claims - The Firm has represented cedents seeking to recover on reinsurance claims and has represented a reinsurer against attempts by insureds to assert claims directly against the reinsurer.

Our broad litigation practice for insurance companies contributes to our capabilities in the reinsurance area, enabling JORDEN BURT to provide services on a cost-effective basis. For example:

• JORDEN BURT has experience in litigating and arbitrating issues with respect to insurance company products, operations issues, actuarial issues, accounting practices, the acquisition of entire books of business, sales practices, bad faith, breach of contract and other claims issues.
  
  
• We have experience as counsel of record in over 300 class actions, which routinely present complex procedural, insurance, and evidentiary issues.
  
  
• We have had experience in cases involving hundreds of thousands or even millions of pages of documents and electronic data, for which we have developed a range of in-house and vendor assisted computerized litigation support. Each matter is unique, and requires a customized approach in order to provide high quality, cost-effective services to our clients.
  
  
• Several of our lawyers have written articles on electronic discovery issues, and have moderated and lectured at continuing legal education programs addressing e-discovery issues.

For more information on our Reinsurance Dispute Resolution Group, contact:

James F. Jorden - jfj@jordenusa.com or (202)965-8135

Roland C. Goss - rcg@jordenusa.com or (202)965-8148

Reinsurance Transactional and Counseling Experience

Jorden Burt lawyers have broad experience in reinsurance transactional matters. Our knowledge with respect to insurance company operations, actuarial and accounting principles, and insurance products contributes to our advice to clients on contractual and regulatory issues. Our representation of clients in litigation and arbitrations involving many of the kinds of issues that arise on the transactional side of our practice adds a valuable perspective that enables us to provide transactional counseling.

Jorden Burt's reinsurance transactional experience includes engagements in the following areas:

• Counseling - Our lawyers provide counseling with respect to purchases and sales of reinsurers, loss portfolio transfers, sales of reinsurance books of business, purchases and sales of reinsurance underwriting management companies, jumbo reinsurance issues, termination of reinsurance relationships, relationships with brokers, and the formation and operation of reinsurance auditing and run-off companies.
  
  
• Contract Structuring, Drafting, Negotiation - Our lawyers have worked with many types of reinsurance agreements, including quota share, excess of loss, and facultative agreements, including reinsurance related to workers' compensation and occupational accident risks, financial guaranty products and residual value insurance. We have similarly counseled clients in connection with agreements for retrocessional, property surplus share, and loss portfolio transfer arrangements. In the life, annuities, and health insurance areas, our lawyers regularly work with clients on the structuring and drafting of complex reinsurance arrangements. We have also assisted in contract structuring and commutations in specialized areas such as financial guaranty risks and weather cat risks. Our work with clients on matters involving intermediaries and other industry participants, such as managing general agency, reinsurance intermediary, and general underwriter agreements, rounds out our contractual counseling expertise.
  
  
• Assumption Reinsurance - Jorden Burt lawyers have handled numerous assumption transactions, including, for example, drafting agreements to position companies in advance of their sale. We have also drafted and obtained New York Insurance Department approval for an alien surplus lines insurer that transferred its business to a licensed insurer through assumption reinsurance to release its NAIC Surplus Lines Trust Fund.
  
  
• Run-offs and Commutations - Our lawyers have represented a number of reinsurers in run-off and have helped design programs to commute or otherwise minimize exposure to cedents while protecting retrocession recoverables in a number of different lines.
  
  
• Reinsurance Company Insolvencies - Jorden Burt lawyers have counseled both reinsurers and liquidators with respect to their rights and obligations in the insolvency and pre-insolvency contexts.
  
  
• Corporate Restructuring - Performing due diligence on reinsurance issues in the merger and acquisition of insurance companies.

Representative examples of the Firm's work includes:

• Counseling a reinsurer and its affiliates in complex cessions and retrocessions of life product risks involving entities operating in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Bermuda.
  
  
• Assisting in a loss portfolio transfer of medical malpractice risks from a group of medical facilities and providers to a major P&C insurer and reinsurer.
  
  
• Closing a commutation of a reinsurance treaty for a P&C insurer that sought to terminate its treaty with a large international reinsurer that had been downgraded by A.M. Best, and commuting a treaty with a group of Lloyd's Syndicates covering long-tail liabilities of a casualty insurer.
  
  
• Representing ceding and assuming companies in the structuring and documentation of complex P&C and life and health reinsurance treaties of various types, including consideration of risk transfer and related regulatory compliance issues.

We also routinely counsel insurance and reinsurance clients on regulatory matters and represent them before state insurance departments. We have been retained as special counsel to state insurance departments on various matters. For example, a Department of Insurance retained Jorden Burt in connection with the Department's consideration of a controversial acquisition involving its largest domestic medical malpractice carrier.

For more information on our Reinsurance Transactional Group, contact:

Anthony N. Cicchetti - anc@jordenusa.com or (860)392-5040

Steven Kass - sk@jordenusa.com or (305) 347-6899