The members of the insurance practice at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP have strong and diverse backgrounds as insurance regulatory officials, in-house counsel to major insurance holding companies and long-time counsel to insurance and reinsurance companies in complex transactions and disputes. Our corporate experience ranges from insurance-related mergers and acquisitions (hostile and negotiated) to rehabilitations and liquidations of troubled companies. Our litigators are known for highly successful representation in sophisticated insurance cases ranging from sales practices and alleged “bad faith” claims to individual and class action cases. Our public policy lawyers frequently work with industry trade associations, legislators, and various executive and administrative departments and agencies as advocates for the insurance industry.
Complex Insurance Litigation
Over the past five years, our insurance lawyers have defended more than 150 cases brought against insurers alleging breach of the duty of good faith and fair dealing, violations of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and Insurance Code, and fraud. The exposure of the insurers in those cases ranged from several million dollars to approximately $1.5 billion.
The firm also represents a number of insurers as plaintiffs in lawsuits against various agencies of the federal government over the shifting of certain government health costs to private insurers and in nationwide actions brought against individuals and corporations accused of committing insurance fraud.
In addition, our insurance team handles class action litigation across the nation relating to “vanishing premium” and market conduct claims. We have also handled cases involving variable annuities, securities, diminution in value, market timing, OEM parts, fundamental coverage disputes and other issues of critical importance to the insurance industry.
Securities Litigation
Akin Gump’s securities litigation group is one of the premier practices in the country. Our national team of highly trained and qualified advocates boasts extensive experience in representing life insurers in complex, high-exposure securities disputes. In combination with our white collar defense practice, Akin Gump offers clients a nationwide civil, criminal and regulatory defense powerhouse across the spectrum of securities litigation.
Our securities litigators have had significant experience trying securities cases, both as lawyers in private practice and, in many instances, as prosecutors for the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Justice and U.S. attorney’s offices prior to joining Akin Gump. Our team’s outstanding reputation reaches from regional enforcement offices to federal courts to international insurance carriers.
As the securities environment becomes more challenging due to increased enforcement, more private class actions and higher settlement costs, the Akin Gump team rises to the occasion. Our success rate on early motions to dismiss is better than twice the national average. And our track record of achieving settlements that are less than half the national average can prove to be a company’s lifeline.*
Sales Practice, Bad Faith and Class Action Litigation
We are the nationwide coordinating counsel for one of the largest insurance sellers in the United States, handling various cases pending throughout the country, including suits alleging bad faith denial of disability and employee benefit claims, and class action lawsuits alleging misrepresentation in the marketing and sale of life insurance and variable annuity products.
We represent a worldwide insurance and diversified financial services association in diverse insurance matters, including class actions and individual cases alleging sales practices violations, first-party bad-faith claims for extra-contractual damages, fraud by vendors who repeatedly submit inflated or fabricated insurance claims, and two state court class action lawsuits alleging violations of insurance code.
Race-Conscious Underwriting Litigation
We advise clients, litigate cases and lecture before insurance industry organizations on a wide range of underwriting discrimination issues, including redlining, credit scoring, claims payment practices and de facto discrimination.
Corporate, Securities, Finance and Tax Matters
The firm maintains an active business practice counseling insurance companies and related entities in all aspects of corporate, securities, finance, real estate, investment and tax matters. Ours is a global practice, with Akin Gump’s U.S., London and Brussels offices jointly serving the needs of international clients.
Asset-Backed Securities and Structured Finance
Our lawyers have participated in more than 100 public asset-backed securities transactions and numerous private transactions in the United States and foreign markets. Our structured finance clients include investment banks and Fortune 500 companies. Such structures may involve securitization of assets or an arrangement individually developed for a client to implement a particular strategy.
Financial Restructuring
Akin Gump is a market leader in the representation of informal bondholder committees and official committees of unsecured creditors, with particular experience representing insurance companies in their capacity as holders of publicly and privately placed notes.
We also are actively engaged in the rehabilitation of insurance enterprises and the representation of creditor committees in several insurance holding company bankruptcies and restructurings.
Investment Funds
Our investment funds clients benefit from the diverse disciplines of our insurance team, including partnership, banking, finance and real estate lawyers, as well as members of the prestigious American College of Investment Counsel.
We represent clients in every segment of the private funds industry, including hedge funds, some of the largest and oldest privately held investment management firms, private equity funds, asset management groups of major investment banks, fund managers, distressed funds, real estate funds and institutional investors.
Taxation
We frequently draw on Akin Gump’s full-service tax practice for thorough analysis and innovative solutions involving domestic and foreign transactions. Areas in which our tax lawyers employ their collective experience to serve client needs include—
- tax planning for both the creation and operation of domestic and offshore insurance companies
- state and federal taxation of insurance company operations
- tax consequences of corporate and securities transactions
- tax treaties with foreign jurisdictions relating to or affecting insurance operations
- foreign corporations — creation, transfer of assets, operating rules with respect to income and investments designed to minimize U.S. taxation exposure.
Insurance Regulatory Matters
Our insurance group includes former regulatory officials from state and federal agencies, insurance tax practitioners at the state and federal levels, and lawyers qualified in regulatory and corporate matters in the United Kingdom and European Union. We assist in designing and managing transactions and market strategies throughout the United States, both as deal leaders and in collaboration with legal teams providing combined services.
Insurance Contracts and Coverage
Our lawyers play a pivotal role in the delivery of risk management tools to the marketplace through—
- development and regulatory approval of insurance products, including traditional insurance policies and innovative financial and investment-related services
- complex insurance rate proceedings that involve preparation of the rate filing, presentation of the filing to the regulator and defense of the filing in any subsequent administrative proceedings.
We have led complex London-based arbitration of coverage and asset security issues for a major international industrial concern.
Reinsurance
Akin Gump actively engages in litigation, arbitration and counseling on behalf of clients involved in all manner of reinsurance and insurance insolvency disputes. Over the years, we have litigated and arbitrated dozens of reinsurance cases, several of which were against insolvent insurers or reinsurers in the United States, Bermuda and London.
In addition to litigation/arbitration, we frequently counsel our clients as to their rights under various reinsurance agreements. These reports involve complex, unsettled issues, such as the recoverability of declaratory judgment expenses under various treaties and agreements. Likewise, we analyze cedents’ rights to allocate loss payments arising out of environmental pollution and lead paint claims based on the number of occurrences and to cede proportionately such loss payments to all of the reinsurance policies in force during each year primary coverage was triggered.
On the reinsurer side, we have analyzed and reported to our clients on numerous topics, including:
- whether a certain excess of loss treaty could be rescinded for material misrepresentations and omissions
- whether a cedent’s managing general agent exceeded its underwriting authority
- whether a reinsurer was bound to follow a court-ordered $1 million loss settlement made on account of an underlying policy having limits of $250,000.
Legislative Matters
We actively monitor and influence state, federal and international legislative proceedings impacting the insurance industry, working on a frequent basis with industry trade associations, legislative members and staff, and various executive and administrative departments and agencies.
We are committed to achieving our clients’ goals, whether we staff their agendas independently or manage collaborative efforts between multiple service providers. Akin Gump has exceptional, long-standing relationships with experts in media relations, public opinion and crisis management consulting who are available for a wide range of client matters.
* The national average on dismissals was gleaned from T. Foster, D. Martin, V. Juneja and F. Dunbar at National Economic Research Associates, Inc. – Trends in Securities Litigation and the Impact of PSLRA.