Archives: Services

Our experience includes advising on all major coverage issues such as the definitions of insured event triggers, pre-inception circumstances and other policy exclusions and conditions, causation, “Loss” definitions, and policy validity questions regarding nondisclosure and misrepresentation. In addition, we assist with the adjustment of covered first party loss, particularly in high-value claims. Increasingly, we defend insureds against recall and financial loss claims brought by customers and other downstream parties, and we pursue recovery actions against suppliers and other responsible third parties.

Our product recall team has expertise in dealing with claims involving all major product sectors, including food and beverage, automotive systems and components, toys, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and industrial machinery. We have an in-depth understanding of regulatory regimes relating to different product sectors, and advise on domestic and overseas product safety regulations and enforcement where relevant to liability or coverage.

We have experience of assisting on matters involving many foreign jurisdictions, including New York and other US states, Canadian provinces, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Finland, Mexico, Chile, India and others. We are highly experienced in applying US recall coverage case law, including when instructed directly by US insurers. In many cases, we can help negotiate settlements without having to engage local counsel, or we can help engage and monitor the best local counsel where assistance is required.

In addition, we provide a variety of other related services. including advice on supply chain contract terms and risk registers, incident prevention and preparedness, and coverage workshops to stress-test policy wordings in various loss scenarios.

We appreciate that, in addition to facing claims from clients and other third parties, regulated professionals can be subject to wide-ranging and complex investigations by regulating bodies and that these investigations can have far-reaching consequences.

We assist professionals across many disciplines with regulatory issues. In particular, we handle:

• Matters arising out of the Financial Conduct Authority’s (FCA) use of its supervisory, investigatory and enforcement powers, including drafting submissions, liaising with investigators, attending FCA interviews and dealing with the Regulatory Decisions Committee (RDC) and appeals to the Upper Tribunal;
• Investigations, supervisory and disciplinary action undertaken against member firms by other regulatory bodies, including:
  • the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA);
  • the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW);
  • the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS);
  • the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA);
  • the Architects Registration Board (ARB); and
  • the Bar Standards Board (BRB).

We have experience in the following sectors:

• Accountants and actuaries
• Barristers
• Brokers
• Construction and engineering professionals
• Educational institutions
• Emerging professions
• Financial institutions and independent financial advisers
• Solicitors
• Surveyors and property professionals
• Miscellaneous professions

Each case demands both early assessment and agreement on approach, time spent and cost. We work in partnership with our clients to ensure objectives are met and practical solutions found, while continually seeking to optimise the claim outcome, add value and operate cost-effectively.

Frequent communication with the client and early assessments of cost and indemnity reserves is crucial to help them: manage and predict financial exposure across their portfolios of claims and advise reinsurers accordingly; assist in pricing work and in dealing with specific risk renewals; and decide on a resolution strategy throughout the life of a claim.

Our lawyers have unrivalled expertise advising insurers on construction related Health & Safety matters under various insurance policies.

We advise insurers, insureds both the entity and/or its directors/employees on all aspects of an investigation by the Police, HSE or other enforcing authority and represent clients throughout all stages of an investigation and / or prosecution and on civil claims that may arise from the incident.

With our years of experience advising insurers and their insureds in the construction industry, the technical construction issues that surround an incident are well understood beyond the pure regulatory aspects of Health and Safety.

Our services offer advice on coverage issues relating to H&S claims, on Health & Safety legislation and regulations, what to do after an adverse site inspection, an incident on site, attendance and representation at Coroner’s Inquests, regulatory offences, interviews both voluntary and under caution, hearings, sentencing and plea bargaining and extends to advising and handling the civil claims that may arise.

We also advise on the ongoing commercial position of clients and advise on contractual commitments to a project and involvement in any remedial issues following an incident on site to try to prevent or minimise any civil claims that may arise out of a health and safety issue.

We have expertise, representing all the different stakeholders, in the most serious of offences, including corporate manslaughter and gross negligence manslaughter as well as a variety of matters involving health and safety and fire safety breaches.

We are particularly well known for our awareness of the emotional impact these incidents can have on individuals and are often instructed for the necessary care that we give to these matters.

Combining an in-depth understanding of the environmental industry with commercial awareness and legal expertise, we advise our clients on their environmental compliance obligations and risks, assisting them in minimising and managing their legal issues.

This requires knowledge of the regulatory framework in which our clients operate and an understanding of its commercial needs. Our environmental law expertise covers:

• Environmental disputes
• Environmental and insurance coverage
• Regulatory investigations and enforcement
• Environmental risk management
• Environmental compliance
• Water law
• Climate change
• Resource and waste management
• Warranty and indemnity
• Global claims

Our experience includes advising on claims and disputes relating to a variety of pollution and contamination matters and defending clients in respect of environmental prosecutions and regulatory investigations. We have also defended clients in respect of environmental prosecutions brought by the Environment Agency and Local Authorities.

Our team has been instructed on environmental group actions defending claims for losses and damages arising from contamination, odour nuisance and other environmental factors.

Our insurance team also advises on policy wording and coverage issues arising from the full range of environmental policies and extension wording including EIL, Contractors Pollution and Operational Insurance.

D&O

We are instructed by Directors, Officers, Trustees, Companies and their Insurers across the financial, commercial and non-profit sectors in the defence of claims relating to all aspects of D&O exposures including derivative actions, third party and insolvency related claims, regulatory actions, including for director disqualification, from the FCA, ICO, FRC, Environment Agency, HSE, Charity Commission and outside director liability issues and Investigation extension cover.

Many of instructions received involve advising insurers on the extent of policy coverage (including in relation to usual policy enhancements including Corporate Liability, Employment Practices Liability, Pension Trustee Liability and Crime) and then either defending the claims in the UK or operating as monitoring counsel in foreign jurisdictions such as the USA, Channel Islands, Australia, the Netherlands and Belgium.

We are also conscious of the potential for conflicts between various Insureds and the demands on Insured management time that such claims bring and the reputational aspects for the individuals and their company.

Financial Institutions

We advise on a wide range of FI related issues for various Insureds ranging from the smaller wealth management groups, IFAs, through middle ranking private equity groups, Fund and Hedge fund entities on and off-shore, stockbrokers, prime and sub-prime lending institutions, right up to the largest and well known financial institutions. We also have extensive experience of dealing with the Financial Ombudsman Service and The Pensions Regulator.

Crime

We advise on various commercial and financial institution crime losses (UK and international) including first and third party frauds, lending frauds, trading frauds and various methods of payment process frauds.

We advise Insurers on coverage issues across all these practice areas. We are very experienced in dealing with complex insurance issues such as unfair presentation, attribution of knowledge, notification of circumstances and allocation of claims between insurers and reinsurers, double insurance, unfair personal profit, effect of criminal acts and dishonesty and Third Parties (Rights Against Insurers) Act issues.

As Insurance lawyers dealing with coverage issues is part and parcel of our business. We are proud to be the sole panel coverage firm for a number of insurers and Lloyd’s syndicates.

We appreciate the importance to both insurers and policyholders of determining coverage as early as possible following a notification being made. Our team of specialists is well versed in all types of coverage disputes.

Many of the coverage disputes that we handle involve construction, professional and financial risks but our expertise is such that we are now instructed on large disputes across all classes of business, including engineering, public liability, political risk, trade credit and property.

We regularly advise both primary and excess layer insurers and also act for cedants in large reinsurance disputes. We also advise on and regularly draft policy wordings for insurers. We have drafted many new wordings to comply with the Insurance Act 2015 and act on an agreed fee basis to draft bespoke wordings or review those prepared by in-house wordings technicians.

To complement our legal services we provide a bespoke, delegated authority claims handling service to a growing number of leading insurers in the Lloyd’s, London, Irish and international insurance markets.

We offer a range of attractive pricing solutions and can work on either a scheme-by-scheme basis, or across the client’s entire indemnity portfolio. Every notification is closely examined against related documentation to ensure that the matter is covered and meets the terms and conditions provided.

Our bespoke claims management software, which gives clients secure and remote 24/7 access, enables us to provide market leading Management Information (MI). This can be used to monitor clients’ exposures as well as our performance and delivers accurate, timely and cost-effective reporting.

Overseen by our claims manager, our claims handlers continually confer with our solicitors to ensure high quality output and their advice on strategy and reserves is always set out clearly and concisely.