Overview
The insurance industry faces many challenges, from e-commerce, market consolidation, new competitors and changing industry regulations and oversight. With more than 90 years of experience serving the insurance industry and a global reputation for excellence, Locke Lord helps clients meet these challenges while preparing for the opportunities of tomorrow.
We represent clients ranging from publicly-traded, international insurers to family-owned insurance agencies, including traditional insurance business clients such as insurers, producers, premium finance companies, third-party administrators, managing general agencies, insurance guaranty funds and state insurance departments. We also represent other business entities in connection with their subsidiary insurance operations, including banks, leasing companies and retailers. We represent reinsurance clients across the United States, the United Kingdom, continental Europe and Asia.
In 2012, Chambers: Client's Guide to America's Leading Lawyers for Business recognized Locke Lord as being one of the leading law firms in Insurance and Reinsurance with high national and state rankings in the areas of insurance: transactional and regulatory; insurance: dispute resolution (reinsurance); dispute resolution (insurer); and insurance: dispute resolution. Chambers noted that Locke Lord "has always been an industry leader and is an excellent firm with good people". Clients from various regions rate "Locke Lord highly in terms of their ability to turn things around and meet our needs."
In addition, Locke Lord has been named a leading U.S. Firm by Who’s Who Legal in its The International Who's Who of Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyers 2010, with six Locke Lord attorneys specifically recognized for their work.
Additionally, Locke Lord was also ranked as the No. 1 law firm in the United States by Global Broker & Underwriter magazine in its 2008 legal survey in reinsurance, regulation, litigation, policy drafting, corporate work (contracts, capital and mergers and acquisitions), and alternative risk transfer and insurance linked securities. As well, three of our insurance attorneys were named in the The Legal 500 United States-2008 Edition for their work in insurance and reinsurance.
More than 50 of our lawyers devote a substantial portion of their transactional, regulatory, securities, finance and tax practices to representing the insurance industry – a commitment that ensures efficient, effective handling of numerous large acquisitions and regulatory engagements.
Locke Lord is one of the few U.S. firms with a large group of corporate attorneys with substantial experience in insurance regulation. Regulatory representation has enabled us to remain at the forefront of regulatory initiatives and issues that most concern our clients. This experience also enables us to provide enhanced value and insight into many issues associated with mergers, dispositions and acquisitions of insurance companies or their insurance-related assets and liabilities through various forms of reinsurance and the sale of renewal rights.
We have clients nationwide and our practice is international in scope. It includes both the property/casualty and life/health sides of the industry. We routinely practice before all state insurance departments. We are active in various state and federal legislative matters and routinely participate in the activities of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC).
Regulatory Services
Locke Lord’s insurance regulatory services include counseling clients on licensing/authorizing insurance companies on an admitted or surplus line basis, product evaluation and form filing, and financial examination and market conduct examination issues. Our attorneys also have extensive experience in licensing of producers, administrators and other entities (both in traditional settings and in evolving electronic distribution), affiliated and other holding company act transactions, various aspects of reinsurance (such as financial statement credit and statutory accounting issues, use of cut-through endorsements, collateral arrangements, insolvency-related risks and administrative services arrangements), investment compliance, corporate governance, insolvencies and insurance guaranty fund representation.
We quickly and efficiently analyze regulatory issues and concerns that arise in the due diligence phase of transactional opportunities, in negotiating representations, warranties, covenants and indemnities, and in evaluating structural alternatives and other issues that may color the regulatory approval process.
We have an accomplished bench of insurance regulatory lawyers in our offices across the United States. A former Acting Director of the Illinois Department of Insurance, the former Deputy Commissioner of the California Department of Insurance and the former Chief Examiner of the New York State Insurance Department add substantially to our insurance regulatory capability as non-lawyer specialists.
We assist many clients in responding to market conduct examinations and to subpoenas from state insurance departments and state attorneys general. In addition, we frequently conduct compliance reviews.
Our insurance lawyers work closely with our managed care lawyers for clients involved in the health insurance and managed care business.
We review privacy policies and procedures for compliance with the major privacy laws, with a focus on review of control structures and training programs, as well as help insurers implement the multiple layers of information security requirements simultaneously and efficiently. We have long-term experience with retention and production of e-records, particularly unstructured data such as emails, and have helped clients develop new policies and programs and investigate existing and potential controls available to enable compliance with these policies and programs.
Corporate and Transactional Services
Locke Lord’s transactional work encompasses mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, capital markets, structured finance and reinsurance transactions, matters relating to life settlements and secondary market transactions, as well as strategic investments, IT, outsourcing and e-commerce matters.
Whether representing the buyer or seller in an insurance combination, we regularly handle all corporate and regulatory aspects of the deal. With a strong and deep bench, we have been involved in some of the most significant insurance M&A transactions in the U.S. Similarly, we are flexible enough to appropriately staff and execute smaller transactions. We evaluate proposed structures and their regulatory, tax and operational ramifications and, where necessary, develop satisfactory alternatives. We can quickly and efficiently assemble a team to tackle the due diligence demands of a transaction, prepare required filings with insurance and securities regulators, and coordinate the negotiation and documentation process to achieve a successful result. If issues arise or there is ongoing work to be done following the closing, we will promptly deal with these matters to assure the benefits of the transaction are retained.
Locke Lord’s depth in capital markets and corporate finance work enables us to successfully complete all types of public and private securities offerings, tender offers, insurance-linked securitizations, surplus note and trust preferred issuances, CAT bonds, sidecars and other financing transactions. Our experience also covers novel structured finance transactions involving risks related to the life insurance, property-casualty and reinsurance businesses. In these deals, we represent issuers, sponsors, underwriters and collateral managers. Regardless of the nature of the representation, our lawyers’ understanding of the regulations affecting these transactions helps us add value to our clients’ business transactions both domestically and abroad.
We regularly handle sales of blocks of business through reinsurance arrangements and renewal rights transactions and have helped devise capital markets solutions for life insurers and reinsurers involving the risks related to closed blocks. Locke Lord is one of the few U.S. firms to have represented clients in significant demutualization transactions. We also have extensive experience in structuring joint venture marketing alliances among insurers, retailers, banks and other financial institutions.
Effective representation of clients involved with the life settlement industry requires a broad grasp of the many diverse facets of the business, which embraces state insurance regulatory issues, federal and state privacy laws, corporate and securities laws, federal and state tax issues and the need to reconcile these concerns in efficient and innovative structures.
Through our active involvement with the U.S. domestic and international organizations that develop, adopt and implement new laws and regulations, such as the NAIC, NCOIL, LISA, ELSA and the BVZL in Germany, we maintain perspective on key political and regulatory concerns and business developments affecting life settlements and other secondary market transactions.
Our experience ranges from the representation of global financial institutions to work with established industry players, both in the U.S. and abroad, to providing assistance to small start-up life settlement providers, brokers, financing entities and investors. We have structured and implemented a variety of transactions involving the mitigation of longevity risk, including swaps, hedges and other derivatives for insurers, investment funds, banks and other financial services firms.
Locke Lord routinely represents insurance companies and other financial services companies in connection with strategic investments in, and associated business arrangements with, a variety of their business partners in financial investment transactions, including traditional private placements, matters involving debt and equity funds, venture capital investments and PIPE transactions.
Life Insurance Policy Settlement and Secondary Market Securitizations Services
Counseling in the life settlement industry requires a combination of knowledge and experience with life settlement business processes – and Locke Lord has a proven track record in this segment of the insurance industry. Representation requires a broad understanding of the regulatory landscape and the administrative, privacy, taxation and securities laws involved. We combine this knowledge with real-world experience in life settlement transactions and relationships so our clients can develop and implement practical, innovative and effective solutions to real problems and issues in the life settlement industry.
Our experience is international in scope and ranges from representing small start-up life settlement providers, brokers and financing entities to representing established industry players around the globe.
Locke Lord attorneys help clients obtain licenses and undergo market conduct examinations. We are experienced at drafting privacy policies and privacy compliance programs to comply with a variety of federal and state privacy issues. We offer advice on taxation issues unique to the life settlement industry and know how to navigate multi-state insurance regulations. Locke Lord’s thorough understanding of NAIC regulations and governance gives us a big picture perspective and a firm grasp on industry trends and changes.
Our attorneys know the life settlement industry and our experience helps clients become licensed, obtain financing, complete deals and establish relationships. We regularly write and speak on industry issues for various industry groups.
Captive Insurance Services
Locke Lord’s attorneys have decades of experience in the captive insurance and alternative risk transfer areas of the insurance industry. We organize captive insurance companies and have done extensive work structuring so-called “exotic” captive insurance companies as well as cell captives.
Our experience extends to the areas of insurance regulation, taxation, securities and corporate aspects of captives. We counsel clients on capital structure, including appropriate provisions and wording for the captives’ articles of incorporation, bylaws, shareholders agreements and other related corporate documents. We help clients meet insurance regulatory, financial and investment requirements.
Recently, we represented the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico in drafting insurance and tax legislation and regulations to permit the formation and operation of exempt insurers to write non-Puerto Rico coverage (similar to Bermuda and other offshore jurisdictions).
Our attorneys have a thorough understanding of reinsurance arrangements, including collateralization requirements and financial statement credit for reinsurance obligations. Our experience also includes application of producer licensing laws and state unauthorized insurer laws, as well as securities law requirements, including SEC and blue sky registration requirements as well as anti-fraud disclosure requirements.
Financial Guarantors/Insurers
The Financial Guaranty Insurers Section serves the needs of a wide range of clients, such as state insurance departments, insurers, reinsurers, investors, hedge funds, municipalities, and others, who have been affected by the uncertainty created by the subprime mortgage crises and its effect on the nation's financial guaranty insurers. Locke Lord's Financial Guaranty Insurers Section offers clients an experienced interdisciplinary team of insurance industry regulatory, corporate and litigation attorneys to assist in mitigating the effects of and surviving this crisis. The group offers the following combination of skills to address legal issues at any stage:
Investigations/Advice
- Strategic advice and policy development
- Attorney general investigations
- Insurance commissioner investigations
- Predatory lending/regulatory investigations
- Mortgage compliance review
- Congressional legislation advice
Finance
- Bankruptcies
- Restructuring
- Workouts
Transactions
- Distressed loan repurchase
- Sale of financial institutions
- Real estate portfolio sale
Securities
- Securities-related advice and investigations
- Shareholder and hedge fund litigation
Litigation
- Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation
- White collar criminal defense
- Securities class action and derivative litigation
- Busted deal litigation
- Discrimination litigation
- Consumer class action litigation
- Insurance-related issues and litigation