An introduction into the mechanics of disputes funding and how disputes funders interact with the insurance market, followed by some real-life examples of funding resolutions and forecasts for future trends.
Fiona Heyes
Fiona is the Head of Litigation at Augusta and leads the team undertaking diligence on cases prior to investment and the monitoring of those cases to eventual resolution. She is also chair of Augusta’s investment committee as well as being responsible for communications with investors. In her personal capacity, Fiona has worked on a wide variety of cases including investor state arbitrations, breach of contract disputes, professional negligence claims and large multi-party claims.
Prior to joining Augusta, Fiona was a Partner at Plexus Law and before that she was a Partner at Pinsent Masons for many years specialising in a wide range of commercial disputes with particular expertise in professional indemnity claims.
Sean McGuiness
Sean is an Investment Manager specialising in high value international arbitration and cross-border litigation, with a particular focus on the energy and natural resources and financial services sectors. He is responsible for identifying claims and developing funding structures for general commercial disputes. Sean’s focus on commercial disputes in energy and natural resources and financial services Enables Augusta to address the particular risks, commercial challenges and complex issues faced by clients operating in these sectors globally.
Prior to joining Augusta, Sean worked in the international dispute resolution team at DLA Piper. Sean worked on a wide variety of claims involving parties across the globe
Come and meet other young insurance professionals over drinks and canapés by joining the BILA YP Committee for their summer social networking event.
The evening will be a great opportunity to meet (in person!) other young professionals working in insurance law both across the market and in private practice.
In this seminar Nick Bird looks at the key developments in professional indemnity insurance for solicitors including a review of the MTC, observations on the key issues affecting the market, and the latest case law affecting policy terms.
Always Look on The Bright Side of Life – an overview of the life insurance sector
- What is life insurance and how does it differ from indemnity insurance
- Insurable interest
- Assignment
- Use of Life Insurance as an investment tool
- Use of Life Insurance in tax affairs
- Presentation of the Risk
- Common coverage disputes
Manoj Vaghela is a partner in Charles Russell Speechlys’ Litigation Dispute Resolution team. He specialises in handling complex and high value disputes, often with an international element and usually involving insurance.
He has led and managed teams of lawyers from various countries on complex multi-party and multi-jurisdictional insurance and reinsurance disputes arising out of Life Insurance, Business Interruption Insurance, Bermuda Form Insurance, Clinical Trials, Cyber Liability, Construction All Risks, Professional Liability, Management Liability, D&O, Commercial Crime, Trade Credit and Product Recall.
Manoj specialises in shareholder disputes and is a specialist on product safety. He has worked with a consortium of leading academics and research scientists on the GUIDEnano project for the European Union investigating the safety aspects of nanotechnology.
The session will focus on:
The reinsurance of captive and fronting insurers give rise to complex legal issues. These include duties of fair presentation of the risk to the captive/front and to the reinsurer, the operation of cut-through clauses, and the impact on the reinsurance of the original insured’s and insurer’s obligations under the direct insurance. The lecture will address these and other issues.
Peter MacDonald Eggers QC is a barrister practising at 7 King’s Bench Walk in London specialising in all aspects of commercial law, with a particular emphasis on insurance and reinsurance. Peter practised as a solicitor before being called to the Bar by the Middle Temple in 1999. He was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 2011. He is co-author of Good Faith and Insurance Contracts and Carver on Charterparties, author of Deceit: The Lie of the Law and The Vitiation of Contractual Consent, and a Contributing Editor of Chitty on Contracts. He teaches at University College London and King’s College London. Peter is a Deputy Judge of the High Court and sits as an arbitrator. Peter has most recently appeared as counsel in Enemalta v Standard Club Asia, Axis Corporate Capital v ABSA Group, Aegean Baltic Bank v Renzlor Shipping, Generali Italia v Pelagic Fisheries and Aspen Underwriting v Credit Europe. Peter is currently Chair of BILA.
Colin Edelman QC and Andrew Burns QC in conversation about some of the new cases and issues covered in the 2021 edition of their book.
- Reinsurance aggregation
- What are the new lessons still being learned from WTC 9/11 claims?
- What are some of the reinsurance issues which arises from Covid claims and the Arch judgment?
- Reinsurance allocation
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- Equitas v MMI – the court’s approach to spiking of reinsurance claims
- Whether a duty of good faith should be implied into reinsurance policies
- Teal v Berkeley – exhaustion of policies using principles of contractual construction and commerciality
Colin Edelman QC is widely recognised as the pre-eminent insurance and reinsurance silk in the UK, rated as a star individual by the directories and winning Silk of the Year on numerous occasions. He specialises in high value complex commercial disputes and has appeared in most of the leading insurance cases in the Supreme Court in recent years. He acts and advises in high profile matters affecting the London and international insurance markets, including disputes arising out of most of the major natural disasters and financial collapses of the last decade. He sat as a deputy High Court Judge for a number of years, is a highly respected arbitrator and is Chairman of the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund.
Andrew Burns QC is Head of Chambers at Devereux Chambers, specialising in insurance and reinsurance, employment law and injunctions. Andrew acts for a range of insurers and policyholders in coverage disputes and policy interpretation points. He specialises in employers’ liability (appearing in the Employers’ Liability Policy Trigger Litigation and Redman v Zurich) and issues arising from PHI and other employment related insurance. He has long experience in aggregation disputes appearing in Simmonds v Gammell and Countrywide v Marshall.
The Law of Reinsurance (OUP, 3rd Edition, 2021) is a specialist and focussed text on reinsurance law, uncluttered by repetition of general insurance principles. It offers comprehensive but concise coverage of issues from definition and purpose to types of reinsurance and analysis of controversial and undecided issues. The new edition considers the impact of the Insurance Act 2015 on reinsurance litigation and arbitration – particularly reinsurance non-disclosure, warranties and remedies. It discusses reinsurance spiking and allocation to policy years, ascertainment of loss, aggregation and the duty of good faith in exercising a reinsurer’s discretion.
The Law of Reinsurance, 3rd edition book can be purchased using the following link which includes an applied discount.
The Law of Reinsurance, 3rd Edition – Colin Edelman, QC and Andrew Burns QC
Martin Moore QC will examine the current state of the law on Part VII insurance business transfers following the Court of Appeal judgment plus a few observations on possible future trends.
Described in Chambers and Partners as “An adviser of the highest quality on company matters, who is regularly instructed on some of the largest and most complicated takeovers and transactions”/
Martin is a leading Silk for company law litigation and advice, corporate finance, financial services and insolvency.
He has particular expertise in large-scale, complex corporate transactions and reorganisations (including takeovers and mergers), schemes of arrangement, and schemes for the transfer of insurance, and banking business (Part VII transfers).
Professor Green was appointed as Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common law on 01 January 2020. She was previously Professor of Private Law at the University of Bristol. Prior to that, she was Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Oxford, and, before that, a lecturer at the University of Birmingham from 2001 – 2010. Before embarking on her academic career, she was a software consultant at Accenture.
Professor Green has written about a variety of issues including virtual currencies, blockchain issues surrounding intermediated securities, smart contracts, sale of goods law as applicable to digitised assets, and wage theft.
Andrew McGahey and David Strahan of Kennedys (Dublin) will provide an overview of the key features of the Consumer Insurance Contracts Act 2019, the implications of its phased commencement during 2020 and 2021 and how it compares to consumer insurance law in England and Wales. Andrew and David will also briefly touch upon other upcoming legislative reforms that will impact Insurers in Ireland, including new judicial guidelines on the quantification of damages for personal injury.
Andrew joined Kennedys in January 2018 from an international law firm in London where he was a partner. Andrew heads Kennedys’ Dublin office and is the Regional Manager Partner for Kennedys’ European offices. He holds practising certificates in both Ireland and England & Wales and has over 20 years’ experience of advising insurers on policy coverage issues and defending third party claims. He has substantial experience of advising insurers and insureds on claims involving directors’ and officers’ liability, financial institutions and professionals. He has recently been heavily involved in advising insurers and reinsurers on COVID-19 business interruption claims. Andrew is a recognised individual in the Legal 500 and is described as “first rate” and “an excellent negotiator” who “always gives measured and astute advice”.
David joined Kennedys in 2019 from a leading Irish firm. He provides strategic advice to the insurance and reinsurance sector, with a particular focus on policy interpretation and coverage, indemnity issues and liability defence claims. He acts for major insurers and self-insureds across all lines of business. David also has considerable experience managing large-scale commercial disputes before the Irish Commercial Court and arbitrations under the International Chamber of Commerce Rules. He also represents life insurance companies in hearings before the Financial Services Ombudsman. David is recognised in the 2019 edition of the Legal 500, Insurance (Ireland) and the 2020 edition of Chambers, Insurance: Dispute Resolution (Ireland).
Brendan McGurk, Barrister at Monckton Chambers
Brendan is a barrister at Monckton Chambers in London, specialising in both commercial and public law. He is the co-author of Professional Indemnity Insurance Law, the leading practitioners’ text on the subject, and the sole author of Data Profiling and Insurance Law, published by Hart in 2019. Brendan practices in commercial law, commercial arbitration and insurance. He also acts in data disputes and regularly advises on data issues that arise in a commercial context. He is also a member of the Attorney General’s A panel of counsel and is regularly instructed in high profile judicial review claims against central government departments. Brendan is also an affiliate lecturer in competition law at Cambridge University.