Insurance and Reinsurance

Served as lead trial counsel in AXA v. AIG (S.D.N.Y.) in a jury trial that resulted in a jury verdict in AXA’s favor for $35 million in fraud and rescission damages as well as punitive damages.

Represented a significant disability insurer of the most valued NBA and NHL players with regard to dozens of claims, including the successful resolution of a $20 million dollar claim against a prominent NHL team.  

Represented a D&O insurer in an arbitration following the insurer’s denial of coverage for an investment fund’s regulatory settlement of allegations of securities manipulation.

Represented reinsurers challenging the fraudulent re-domestication of a captive insurer of one of the largest U.S. corporations from Massachusetts to Bermuda where the captive declared bankruptcy shortly after arrival. The case involved highly complex litigation in multiple fora, including in the trial courts of Massachusetts, Bermuda and London, as well as three interlocutory appeals to the highest appellate court in Massachusetts and an appeal to the House of Lords (the Privy Council) in England. After several favorable decisions in the matter, our clients obtained settlements and commutations of their purported liabilities.

Represented insurers against putative class alleging antitrust and RICO violations based on alleged “bid rigging” and the normal underwriting practices of Lloyd’s of London.

Won dismissal for a client of a $6 million claim brought under an insurance policy issued by its subsidiary insurance company.

Represent an excess CGL insurer in a multimillion dollar allocation lawsuit against the CGL insurers of the indemnitor of the client’s policyholder, arising from an engine fire that burned down a tug boat for oil rigs.

Represented a leading life, health and disability insurance company with respect to over a hundred coverage disputes across the United States (including various arbitrations and mediations), as well as prosecuting claims against its third party administrator.

Represented surety in major financial fraud litigation arising out of more than a billion dollars in performance bonds for Enron "round-trip" energy transactions. Case settled after closing arguments for a substantial discount on the bonds.

Won reinsurance arbitration award for cedent, wherein the panel awarded client $26 million in claims. Wrote and argued appeal in which Second Circuit reinstated an award of 100% of client’s attorney fees for opponent's bad faith conduct.

Secured a victory after a four-day bench trial in federal court in a restrictive covenant case brought by a large national insurance brokerage client against a former executive, with the Court, among other things, awarding $1.9 million in attorneys' fees, imposing a permanent injunction, and referring the defendant to the Office of the United States Attorney for investigation into possible perjury charges.

Prevailed in a declaratory judgment action in which the insurer refused to defend a board member for a breach of fiduciary duty claim, which was upheld on appeal, and resulted in a the insurer being ordered to provide a full defense and reimburse the board member for its attorneys’ fees and costs spent in the underlying claim.

Represented a German reinsurer in an arbitration against a U.S. insurer where the client raised breach of contract claims as well as breaches of the duty of utmost good faith. In a unanimous decision, the panel found for our client, awarding it over $15 million in compensatory damages plus 6.5% compound interest and $1 million in punitive damages. 

Represented a major Japanese reinsurer, recovering hundreds of millions of dollars from a rogue managing agent who had defrauded the client and from a large international accounting firm who audited the account, but failed to alert the client about the agent’s fraud.

Successfully represented a pool of reinsurers whose fellow pool member fronted a risk for the pool and later entered into a fraudulent commutation with the underlying cedent using a grossly inflated IBNR figure (more than $100 million more than the IBNR carried on the underlying cedent’s books at the time). The fronting pool member did not pay the commutation price but instead assigned to the underlying cedent its rights under its retrocession contract with the other pool members. Our clients arbitrated the dispute with the underlying cedent/assignee and the case settled very favorably just before the evidentiary hearing was scheduled to begin.