WALKER WILCOX MATOUSEK LLP has the experience and skills essential to assist clients with a wide variety of reinsurance matters. Our attorneys represent domestic and international clients in virtually all aspects of reinsurance including coverage analysis, claims and reserving evaluation, audits, arbitration, litigation and commutations.
We have dealt with many of the issues confronting reinsurers and ceding companies such as annualization of limits, aggregation and allocation of losses, late notice, treatment of loss adjustment expenses, warranties, misrepresentation, rescission, reinstatements, follow the fortunes, set-offs and recoveries, letters of credit and the scope of ECO/XPL clauses. Our attorneys audit diverse books of business encompassing casualty, property and professional liability, where we are skilled at handling the issues frequently encountered during access to records, such as confidentiality agreements.
Our broad experience ranges from treaty and facultative contracts to proportional and excess of loss, retrocessional, catastrophe and clash covers. We have dealt with a variety of claims affecting reinsurance including financial institutions, property, workers compensation, professional liability and employment practices.
Our comprehensive skills enable clients to find common ground and preserve important ongoing commercial relationships. We also understand that sometimes reinsurance disputes are unavoidable and in those situations our clients can rely upon our effective and efficient arbitration and litigation skills, particularly where knowledge of industry professionals is crucial to the selection of an arbitration panel.
As just a few examples of our broad experiences, WWM attorneys have:
• Arbitrated disputed ECO claims to a favorable conclusion.
• Successfully defended reinsurers against charges by an insolvent cedent of multi-million dollar losses allegedly resulting from unfair business practices.
• Successfully represented clients in a claim for improper cessions, resulting in an $8 million savings.
• Obtained a favorable State Supreme Court decision on late notice.
• Prevailed before the New York Court of Appeals on key issues of allocation, number of occurrences and follow the fortunes.
• Defended signatories to a clash catastrophe treaty against losses arising from the fraudulent underwriting of surety bonds valued at $160 million.
As a further testament to our experience and our client focus, we are one of two U.S. law firms serving as counsel to a reinsurance committee comprised of influential leading reinsurers from the London market. This role provides us with a unique perspective on issues confronting the global reinsurance market today, as well as insight into potential solutions. In addition, WWM is a member of ARIAS•US and we have presented at reinsurance seminars around the country and in London.
