Arbitration awards: challenge on grounds of ‘irregularity’

December 17, 2009

English arbitrations are generally certain, final and enforceable. They can be appealed in only limited circumstances, principally if the panel has erred as to its jurisdiction or on some point of English law or, and more rarely, if there has been some “serious irregularity affecting the tribunal, the proceedings or the award” (Arbitration Act 1996 [...]

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UK prosecutors unlikely to charge former Madoff employees

December 15, 2009

The Serious Fraud Office has been investigating whether former Madoff Securities International Ltd. CEO, Stephen Raven, or any London employee of Madoff had knowledge of Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.
Those familiar with the investigation have commented that the U.K. is unlikely to prosecute anyone at Madoff’s London operation because the SFO does not currently have enough [...]

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Safety National v Lloyd’s

November 20, 2009

On November 9, an en banc opinion of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that arbitration provisions in international reinsurance contracts are enforceable despite a Louisiana statute prohibiting arbitration agreements in insurance contracts.
In Safety Nat’l Cas. Ass’n v. Certain Underwriters at Lloyd’s the Underwriters provided reinsurance for excess policies issued to a workers compensation [...]

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Sitting Bull

September 10, 2009

No, not a reference to a tired and emotional broker who won’t be quiet, but a reflection of one of the minor joys of working for a US firm.
We all receive circular emails from time to time punting some sort of ‘must have’ service. Most of them are pretty pedestrian and more [...]

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Legal 500 calls Sedgwick London “an excellent practice”

September 8, 2009

Legal 500 have given Sedgwick London an excellent write-up in their latest edition, under the Insurance and Reinsurance Litigation section:
Sedgwick Detert Moran & Arnold LLP has an excellent practice, with clients appreciating, among other things, its international reach. Sarah Hills is ‘very detail orientated’ while new addition to the team Jolyon Patten offers ‘sensible and [...]

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Alistair Schaff on Wasa v Lexington

September 4, 2009

Alistair Schaff QC gave an illuminating talk on Wasa –v– Lexington at an impromptu BILA session in Lloyd’s Old Library today.
While Schaff represented the winning reinsurers he managed to convey an objective sense that the right decision had been reached. I was in tune with that since I had always found the CA decision [...]

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Quiet times

September 2, 2009

Well, yes, it has been pretty quiet here on ReRisk for a while and I could give you all some spiel, but basically I’ve been busy, then on holiday (twice) and so forth, and now I’m back, but even more basically…not much has happened in the Reinsurance (legal) world for a while, with the notable [...]

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Litigation tsunami?

June 30, 2009

The front page splash in The Lawyer yesterday was that EC3 law firms would be doing well out of the forthcoming “tidal wave of litigation“.
Certain of the quotes were remarkably insensitive. The comment that”the London market’s walking around with a smile on its face” from one senior partner managed to combine smugness [...]

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Freshfields in slavery shock!

June 29, 2009

No, this isn’t a story about how junior assistants (yes, I think they still do have them) are made to work 27 hours a day at this top tier City law firm, but rather that, a long time ago, Mr Freshfield had some clients who had links to the slave trade.
The FT today reveals that [...]

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Outsource routine lawyering

June 18, 2009

It’s been a long time coming, but someone has finally seen the sense in outsourcing not just support functions but more routine legal work. Rio Tinto are parceling up their more everyday lawyering to an outfit called CPA Global in India:
It works like this: Rio Tinto is building a team of CPA lawyers [...]

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