Insights
The new Chambers and Partners Europe rankings have been published and BLD remains the leader in the Insurance category for Germany in 2024: Band 1 status for the firm and a special mention for five BLD lawyers.
Chambers highlights “an excellent insurance practice with a particular focus on representing the interests of large national and international insurance companies.” Service lines from D&O to product liability cases, including global product recall, and cyber insurance are all mentioned. In addition to these claims-related activities, Chambers also speaks to BLD’s excellent reputation in the fields of regulatory and contract law advice as well as product development.
Testimonials include praise for its regional coverage – “BLD is ideally positioned to handle contentious mandates” – another client calls BLD “the strongest team in Germany with market leaders in all areas”.
Five BLD lawyers were recognized for their performance – Dr. Reinhard Dallmayr, Björn Seitz, Dr. Joachim Grote, Bastian Finkel and Dr. Martin Alexander.
Congratulations to all at BLD.
#BLD #Chambers #Rankings #Insurance
We are pleased to announce 25 lawyer promotions in Australia and New Zealand, including five new partners, two special counsel and 13 senior associates, effective 1 July 2022.
In our 20th year, it is wonderful to see Wotton + Kearney continuing to grow so strongly. The promotion of new partners Cassandra Wills (Brisbane), Patrick Thompson (Sydney), Yen Seah (Melbourne), Ronnie Mok (Brisbane) and Edward Burrell (Sydney) adds to our growth story. We now have 62 partners, including Marie-Clare Elder, Claudine Watson-Kyme, Peter Leman, Caroline Laband and Misha Henaghan, who joined in January 2022.
Cassandra Wills and Patrick Thompson are the latest partners to join our General Liability team.
Cassandra specialises in public liability claims, routinely advising on coverage, liability and recovery prospects under various policies of insurance. She has extensive experience dealing with personal injury and historical abuse claims under both PIPA and the WCRA.
Patrick specialises in public sector litigation and has an extensive background in professional indemnity and public liability claims, including assisting clients to navigate the sensitivities of the abuse claims sector. He acts primarily on behalf of government entities, including police, health, ambulance and child welfare agencies.
Our Financial Lines team is also being boosted with the promotion of Yen Seah and Ronnie Mok.
Yen’s practice focuses on claims arising under directors and officers, professional indemnity, and management liability policies of insurance. She has extensive experience in acting as coverage and monitoring counsel in large-scale, high value litigation, including shareholder class actions.
Ronnie is known for his expertise in professional indemnity, management liability, and directors and officers liability. With broad industry experience, he manages large-scale disputes that often involve multiple parties and stakeholders, and complex liability and quantum issues.
Our Major Loss Property team is being further strengthened with Edward Burrell’s promotion. Edward, who previously worked in-house at a Tier 1 D&C contractor, specialises in coverage advice and claims strategies for mega-losses and other large-scale litigation in the property and construction sectors.
Congratulations also to our other promoted lawyers:
- Special Counsel – Christy Mellifont (Melbourne, Financial Lines) and Karren Mo (Melbourne, Financial Lines).
- Senior Associate – Jessica Chapman (Sydney, Financial Lines), Maddison Fairthorne (Melbourne, General Liability), Isobel Howie (Sydney, General Liability), Lily Kidman (Sydney, General Liability), Petra Kolovos (Melbourne, Financial Lines), David Lucas (Sydney, Property, Energy & Infrastructure), Julia Marchesi (Melbourne, Financial Lines), Connor Molloy (Sydney, General Liability), Sarah Sackville (Sydney, General Liability), Natalie Sinclair (Sydney, General Liability), Jeremy Thomson (Wellington, Financial Lines & General Liability), Vicki Thorpe (Melbourne, General Liability) and Kristyn Winner (Sydney, Property, Energy & Infrastructure).
- Associate – Jemma Callanan (Sydney, General Liability), Kaila Hart (Sydney, Financial Lines), Andrew Salinas (Sydney, Financial Lines), David Smith (Auckland, Financial Lines) and Louis Van Bergen (Perth, General Liability).
Wotton + Kearney has again joined forces with Liberty Specialty Markets and ANZIIF to investigate how experiences of workplace inclusion are affecting the insurance industry.
More than 400 ANZIIF members and industry participants shared their views on inclusion via the online survey to inform our Deep Dive on Inclusion Survey Report 2021.
The report is written by Dr Jennifer Whelan, Director of Psynapse Psychometrics, a leading expert on inclusion. It highlights that inclusion remains an important issue for the insurance industry, particularly given the broader work-related challenges we have all continued to face during the pandemic.
Our third annual survey also looks at the 2021 Dive In Festival theme of ‘Active Allyship and Empowerment’ and the important role we all have to play in turning our good intentions into impactful actions. This includes a practical checklist on ways we can each become an “Active Ally”.
We thank Liberty Specialty Markets, ANZIIF and everyone who completed the survey for their help to keep a spotlight on diversity and inclusion in the Australian insurance industry.
You can download a PDF of the full report here.
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, Wotton + Kearney is committing to making ‘20 Actions for 20 Years’ that will make the firm a better and more responsible business. The 20 Actions for 20 Years Project promises to create a lasting legacy for the firm in the areas that its people think are most important today – reduced inequality, climate action, mental health and wellness, and social justice.
To identify our areas of focus, we undertook a consultative process using the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Gender Equality, Reduced Inequalities, Climate Action, and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
“Once we agreed our priorities, we deliberately chose to start work on just a few short-term actions as the project is designed to evolve over a 20-year period. Our first three actions are aimed at getting our own house in order before we move on to external actions,” said David Kearney, Wotton + Kearney’s Chief Executive Partner.
The first three actions involve:
- reducing inequality and going public with the commitment – this will include signing up to the Equitable Briefing Policy and the Charter for the Advancement of Women, publishing gender-based leadership targets and agreeing a Reconciliation Action Plan,
- reducing climate impact and going public with the commitment – this will include signing up to Climate Active and publishing emissions targets, and
- auditing current activities across all four areas of focus to create a baseline from which to measure the impact of the 20 activities.
David Kearney added: “Understanding where we are now and ‘going public’ with our intentions are important because we want to be held accountable for our role in fostering equality, reducing climate impact, and improving wellbeing and social justice over time. That means we need to be able to factually report on our progress – to our people, to our clients, to industry bodies and to the communities we operate within.”
Contribution to community is a way of life at Wotton + Kearney. Over the coming years many of the 20 Actions will likely form part of the firm’s pro bono and responsible business program – Community Footprint. More information about Wotton + Kearney’s commitment to achieving positive change and sustainable growth, and being a responsible business, can be viewed in the video below.
Legalign’s Cyber team are thrilled to be speaking today at the Advisen Cyber Risk Insight Conference in London as part of the Legalign week. Julian Miller will be on the keynote panel discussing Cyber War Exclusions and Eleanor Ludlam, Kieran Doyle, Joseph Fitzgerald, Franz Konig and Anjali Das will be discussing cross-border legal perspectives for the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and US on a panel chaired by Hans Allnutt.
#BreakingTheBias – Breaking Bias through allyship
In our final Legalign Global video celebrating International Women’s Day, we hear from Celena Mayo, Ryan Howe and Scott Macoun on breaking bias through allyship, the power of mentoring and the role that men can play to create a gender equal future
#BreakingTheBias – Lawyers don’t come in one shape or form
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2022, our Legalign colleagues have once again joined together to create a series of videos to share real stories from across our network in support of this year’s theme – #BreakTheBias. In the first of three videos Caitlin Barclay, Caroline Cherry, Katja Labusga and Celena Mayo talk about their own career journeys to explain why lawyers don’t need to come in one shape or form.
#BreakingTheBias – Overcoming parental leave and career bias
In our second Legalign Global video addressing this year’s International Women’s Day theme #BreakTheBias,we hear from Brooke Johnston, Scott Macoun, Emma Ferguson, Yoora Pak and Friederike De Biasi on how their own experiences of balancing a busy career with time away as a primary caregiver is helping to overcome parental leave and career bias and set a path for others.
The JUVE Handbook of Commercial Law Firms 2021/22 underpins BLD’s position “as the insurer law firm par excellence” and reconfirms its market leadership in the specialist areas of insurance litigation and product advice as well as its excellent market position in the areas of dispute resolution (product liability & D&O) and corporate advice to insurers.
BLD captivates not only by its exceptional position in corona-related consulting through an experienced and multi-member team, to which there is hardly a counterpart in the German market. The firm is always “on the pulse of what is happening in the market” and, thanks to its many experienced partners, is in a position to guarantee a considerable density of advice on large-volume and complex central mandates in the sector. JUVE mentions, for example, the need for advice in insurance supervisory law, reinsurance business and corporate restructuring. But also in the area of product liability and D&O, BLD is so present that there is hardly any complex matter without BLD being involved.
In addition, the “market-leading practice in insurance contract law” continues to have a high need for advice in the area of company-related consulting by BLD for insurers in all lines of business, but also pension funds, public supplementary pension funds and company pension plans, among other things due to the low interest rates existing for years. The strategically important topic of digitalization has also become increasingly important regarding the previous year.
In addition, the successful expansion of international business, particularly in the area of product liability cases, is playing an increasing role. In this context, JUVE refers to the close cooperation of BLD with our partner firms of its international law firm alliance Legalign Global, foremost with DAC Beachcroft, as well as the expansion of the existing Legalign-alliance with the Canadian specialist law firm Alexander Holburn Beaudin + Lang. BLD thus succeeds in opening up new markets in North America and is also “directly mandated by companies”.
★★★★★ Insurance litigation
★★★★★ Product advice
Recommended lawyers:
- Dr. Rainer Büsken
- Bastian Finkel
- Dr. Joachim Grote
- Dr. Franz König
- Dr. Martin Schaaf,
- Björn Seitz
- Dr. Jürgen Veith
Bastian Finkel and Björn Seitz are mentioned as leading consultants for D&O cases and also in regard of dispute resolution.
★★★★ Product Liability
Recommended lawyers:
★★★ Company-related consulting for insurers
Recommended lawyers:
Dr. Joachim Grote is again mentioned as leading legal adviser in insurance supervisory law.
International law firm DAC Beachcroft has retained its position as one of the leading LatAm insurance law firms, with a set of strong results in the recently published 2022 Chambers Guide to Latin America.
The firm has retained all of its existing rankings, including its top-tier ranking for Insurance: International Counsel in recognition of its ability to handle high-level cross-border mandates involving Latin America. In Chile and Colombia the firm maintained its Band 2 status for Insurance and in Mexico retained its Band 3 status, also for Insurance.
Partners Miguel de la Fuente (Mexico) and Juan Diego Arango (Colombia) secured individual rankings for the first time as ‘Up and Coming’ lawyers. They join Andrés Amunátegui (Chile), Mark Kendall (London), Anthony Menzies (London) and Camila de la Torre (Colombia) who are all ranked as Band 2 individuals, and Duncan Strachan (London) who is ranked in Band 3.
In the feedback given to Chambers, clients commented: “DAC Beachcroft handles our day-to-day insurance mandates and I like them because I can trust in them. They are capable of spotting mistakes and telling us when we are wrong.” Furthermore, “They are always looking after their clients, which is very important to us.”
Andrés Amunátegui, Partner and Head of LatAm at DACB, said, “This year’s rankings demonstrate the collective efforts and hard work of our teams. They also reinforce the international growth plans we have in the region, as we strive to serve our clients in all the business lines and jurisdictions where they are acting.”
This year’s strong performance in Chambers follows continued international growth at DAC Beachcroft. The firm made a number of strategic hires in recent months to expand its global offering, including Pablo Guillén and Ronan McLoughlin. Pablo is one of Spain’s leading insurance litigators and joined the firm’s Madrid office as a partner in its Global Insurance practice; Ronan joined DACB as a real estate partner in Dublin.
For the 13th time in a row, the German business and financial newspaper Handelsblatt has exclusively published the annual ranking “Germany’s Best Lawyers”. The survey was carried out by the US publisher Best Lawyers, which identified the most renowned legal advisors in Germany in an extensive peer-to-peer process.
Two BLD attorneys with “a particularly outstanding reputation” were named “Attorneys of the Year”: Dr. Joachim Grote for insurance law and Jan Kordes for product liability.
In addition numerous other lawyers from BLD are represented in this year’s ranking in product liability, insurance law and conflict resolution: Dr. Martin Alexander (product liability & insurance law), Jochen Boettge (insurance law), Dr. Gabriele Bögl (insurance Law), Dr. Rainer Büsken (product liability & insurance law), Dr. Reinhard Dallmayr (insurance law), Bastian Finkel (conflict resolution & insurance law), Prof. Dr. Dirk-Carsten Günther (insurance law), Heinz Otto Höher (insurance law), Stephan Hütt (insurance law), Jan Kordes (insurance law), Joachim Krane (insurance law), Dr. Theo Langheid (former name-partner, insurance law), Ulrich Lattermann (insurance law), Thomas Mittendorf (insurance law), Bjorn Seitz (insurance law).
We are very happy about this recognition and would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone at BLD – because a success like this is always the result of great team effort!
Informed Insurance
The home of fresh thinking about key insurance topics by subject matter experts from around the world.
Thought leadership
We curate our thought leadership around the insurance topics that matter most.
Predictions
We anticipate issues and opportunities for clients and share our future-focused insights in this annual report.
Themes
Our themes highlight key issues for the insurance sector, from class actions to technology.