As a premier law firm serving the legal needs of the insurance and reinsurance industries, Sonnenschein attorneys have significant experience representing clients and industry leaders worldwide in matters including contract drafting, adversarial arbitration and litigation.

Our clients’ concerns can range from relatively simple two-party disputes to complex multiparty cases involving exposure in the billions of dollars.  We bring substantive knowledge of the insurance and reinsurance industries, as well as a thorough understanding of its special capital concerns.

A global understanding of the laws and regulations that may affect your industry is critical to your success.  When providing reinsurance advice, we also help you develop procedures and draft documentation to analyze and identify risks so that you can minimize or avoid litigation altogether.

Our lawyers have resolved reinsurance arbitration and litigation cases as in-house counsel and regulators at the state and federal levels.  We know how to protect your business and can help preserve operational continuity, professional ethics and monetary resources in the event of unforeseen events by moving fluidly through complex allocation and contract issues.  We take a team approach when engaging in our clients’ affairs and leverage our collective industry and functional knowledge as well as our innovative approach to problem solving.

Our Services

Coverage Interpretation

• Our lawyers perform coverage interpretation on behalf of cedents, reinsurers and broker clients, and have represented each of the top 10 reinsurers (by premium volume) worldwide in various reinsurance coverage disputes.  We have handled more than 150 reinsurance matters with sums at issue from a few hundred thousand dollars into the billions.
   
• We provide counsel on policy interpretation, in which the underlying risks include oil and gas exploration, windstorm, transportation, medical malpractice, workers’ compensation, CGL asbestos and environmental liabilities.
   
• Sonnenschein lawyers have extensive experience drafting assumption, finite risk, quota share, facultative, pooling and financial reinsurance agreements, as well as experience in reviewing reinsurance agreements (including quota share agreements and reinsurance agreements) as part of corporate transactions involving insurance companies.

Reinsurance Arbitration, Mediation and Dispute Resolution

We represent ceding companies and reinsurers under all forms of reinsurance contracts.  We draft reinsurance agreements of all types, including treaties, facultative agreements, security agreements, trust documents, commutation agreements, cut-through endorsements and related letters of credit.  Our insurance lawyers have appeared before almost every insurance regulatory body in the U.S., and in a number of foreign jurisdictions, and have handled arbitrations that involve:

• Losses related to the operation of hazardous waste facilities
   
• Property losses due to earth movement
   
• 9/11 terrorism-related losses
   
• Workers’ compensation claims and late notice issues
   
• Asbestos-related claims
   
• Residual value insurance in the auto leasing industry
   
• Interpretation of reinsurance and assumption agreements
   
• The arbitrability of disputes over the facultative and treaty reinsurance of a Latin American pool, pursuant to the UK Arbitration Act on a program that involved both insurance and reinsurance.
   
• Major insolvencies and run-offs worldwide including those in the U.S., United Kingdom, Japan and Bermuda (we have represented both reinsurers and the insolvent estates).

Our experience ranges from corporate and regulatory to dispute resolution.  We partner with clients and help to create reinsurance entities and to craft risk management solutions.  These services include practical assistance in regulatory licensing requirements and administrative matters, including obtaining and maintaining licenses to engage in the business of insurance and reinsurance in virtually every jurisdiction in the U.S.

Sonnenschein handles workout, reorganization, insolvency and bankruptcy matters for a wide variety of insurance and reinsurance clients.  Our Insurance and Bankruptcy lawyers work together on a variety of challenges and opportunities related to insurance insolvencies in the U.S., and internationally, to:

• Provide assistance to numerous insurers and reinsurers in the negotiation and drafting of complex reinsurance agreements, finite risk reinsurance agreements, pooling agreements, treaty and assumption reinsurance agreements.
   
• Advise reinsurers in connection with various complex transactions relating to troubled insurance companies, including assistance in negotiating and drafting commutations with troubled insurers and retrocessionaires.
   
• Assist in restructuring insurance operations using various forms of reinsurance to position companies for M&A transactions.
   
• Advise insurers on various captive reinsurance issues.
   
• Assist various insurers (property & casualty and life carriers) in negotiating and drafting agreements to facilitate regulatory approval under various states’ holding company acts.

Collectively, Sonnenschein lawyers have more than 100 years of experience in providing reinsurance-related legal services to clients.  Through our extensive work for insurance clients in virtually all substantive legal areas, our lawyers have comprehensive knowledge of the reinsurance industry and a thorough understanding of reinsurers’ special concerns and needs.

Superior service in an ever-changing regulatory and insurance environment means that people receive up-to-the-minute counsel on identifying trends not only in the law but also in the marketplace.  This commitment to stay ahead of the curve enables us to produce cost-effective and efficient results.