Counsel on Claims, Litigation, Transactions, Opinions and Compliance
The legal landscape affecting the insurance industry is constantly changing. Whether the result of technological advances and corresponding risk exposures, ever-evolving case law affecting coverage and bad faith standards, or ongoing changes to insurance regulations and their interpretation by state, federal and international courts and regulatory agencies, insurance companies must be prepared for it all.
Saul Ewing's Insurance Practice assists clients in meeting those challenges. We represent insurers, reinsurers, MGAs and MGUs, insurance producers and other insurance industry intermediaries and participants, businesses with risk-assumption and risk-transfer undertakings and InsurTech startups and insurers involved in developing and adopting new business strategies.
The firm’s insurance attorneys regularly share their insights and help our clients prepare for and manage change. We have decades of experience advising companies on developing insurance programs, drafting and defending insurance products, and representing companies in the insurance and reinsurance industry before courts, regulatory agencies, mediators, and arbitration panels nationwide. In addition, the firm’s highly experienced insurance coverage attorneys provide valuable insights and advice in representing companies facing complex questions regarding the wide range of coverage issues involving policies available in the current market, including commercial general liability, professional liability, directors and officers, cyber, crime and fidelity and other specialty lines.
Our attorneys’ experience litigating and resolving complex policy issues enable us to offer forward-thinking recommendations to partner with our clients’ business goals.
We represent insurers in high-stakes insurance and reinsurance litigation in both federal and state courts and at the trial and appellate levels, including class action and bad faith claims, and in arbitration and mediation. We also represent companies in the industry on cutting-edge regulatory matters, market conduct examinations, policy drafting and approval, mergers and acquisitions, reinsurance, coverage, cyber and InsurTech transactional matters.
When insurers want to change their organizational structure, introduce new products or address issues arising under existing ones, or expand into new markets, Saul Ewing attorneys have the knowledge and experience to support and guide them on the related legal issues.
Saul Ewing attorneys have handled these select insurance matters in the representation of:
Transactions
- Three Maryland companies that provide services in the insurance industry as brokers and third-party administrators and are part of the same corporate family—SF&C Insurance Associates, Inc., SF&C Select Benefits Communications Group, LLC, and Union Lifestyle Benefits, LLC.—in their acquisition by U.S. Retirement Partners, Inc.
- A property/casualty insurer group in an acquisition of nationally-licensed insurers domiciled in four jurisdictions; transaction involved group restructuring, including redomestications, drafting of transaction and regulatory filing documents and coordinating state regulatory filings.
- A life insurer on the corporate and regulatory aspects of acquisition and redomestication of a nationally licensed insurer whose parent was in liquidation proceedings.
- A mutual insurer on options for raising funds for growth, including conversion to a stock insurer, and drafting of transaction, regulatory filing and member information/proxy documents.
- An insurer in restructuring, including the consolidation of the books of business from multiple insurer subsidiaries into one company.
- An insurance broker in the formation of a New Jersey non-profit joint insurance fund.
- A nationally licensed insurer in a merger with a publicly traded financial services company.
- A specialty/niche property and casualty insurer in leading an internal legal audit to assist the company in positioning itself to be acquired.
- An insurer in the replacement of its $115 million secured letter of credit facility supporting its reinsurance obligations.
- An insurer group with analyzing its corporate structure and bylaws and other corporate documents to assure they reflect the most current principles of insurer corporate governance and to prepare for a possible restructuring.
- A multi-state hospital system in evaluating and structuring potential joint venture opportunities with health insurers.
Regulatory
- A health and long-term care insurer on multi-state compliance with rate increase filings, advertising, and permissible methods of cancellation and nonrenewal.
- A group of affiliated insurers in satisfying state insurer investment requirements in multiple states.
- An insurer group on cyber risk exposures and cybersecurity initiatives of the NAIC and individual state regulators.
- An insurer group in satisfying new Insurance Holding Company, Enterprise Risk, ORSA and Corporate Governance Disclosure filing requirements.
- An international insurer group with satisfying reinsurance registration requirements in various Latin American and Asian countries.
- A Medicare and Medicaid managed care organization on compliance with regulatory requirements.
- Off-shore life insurers in obtaining and coordinating legal advice in European, Asian and South American jurisdictions.
- A surplus lines insurer in revising its terrorism endorsements to comply with multistate requirements under provisions of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2015.
- A New York domestic life insurer with multi-state analyses of issues involving rebating prohibitions, fronting, and multi-state licensing.
- A property/casualty insurer group in providing advice on electronic transaction and signature laws, including the federal (E-SIGN) and state (UETA) laws and assisting in determining whether the group’s electronic application process complied with applicable electronic transaction laws in its states of operation.
- Universities in obtaining state regulatory approval for Medicaid funds to be used for student health insurance/benefit programs.
- An insurer in insurance product drafting and in satisfying state filing requirements for product approval.
- An issuer of transactional representations and warranties insurance policies in evaluating the risks of insuring particular transactions.
- A life insurance broker in connection with purported misrepresentations made to a state insurance regulatory agency.
Litigation
- An insurance and investment management corporation in winning summary judgment in a case involving a renewable and convertible term life insurance policy it administrated. .
- An insurer in ERISA litigation matters filed in mid-Atlantic region, addressing group benefit plans, disability insurance and life insurance.
- A reinsurer in a dispute with cedent concerning liability for lead paint exposure and compliance with lead paint underwriting guidelines.
- A higher education risk retention group in a West Virginia State mass litigation proceeding brought by thousands of students affected when the insured university lost its accreditation.
- A reinsurer in obtaining, after a nine-day bench trial, a judgment in favor of our client in an action against retrocessionaire for liabilities arising from worker’s compensation insurance.
- A life insurer is a dispute with its reinsurer over purported increases in yearly renewable term life insurance premium rates under a number of treaties.
- Professional liability companies nationally in declaratory judgment actions involving D&O and E&O coverages.
- Professional liability and general liability companies in “bad faith” extra-contractual actions across the country.
- A liability insurer in litigation addressing aspects of toxic tort coverage litigation, involving thousands of claims involving exposure to asbestos and benzene, and addressing allocation, trigger of coverage, settlement credits, horizontal exhaustion and the like.
- A life insurer as national counsel in a series of lawsuits relating to the sale of life insurance policies in connection with the adoption of tax-advantaged employee benefit plans.
- An insurance producer group in litigation related to the proposed Plan of Rehabilitation of a long term care insurer.
- A liability insurer in successfully defending declaratory judgment action concerning multi-million dollar claim for which coverage was sought under advertising injury coverage part.
- A reinsurer in an arbitration over post-commutation ceding commissions.