Insurance Business Asia 5-Star Insurance Law Firms and Lawyers 2021

SPECIAL REPORT

2021

INSURANCE LAW FIRMS AND LAWYERS Insurance Business Asia honours the achievements of the 19 lawyers and 19 law firms that blazed a trail for insurance law specialists during a time of uncertainty

CONTENTS

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Feature article .............................................. 2 Methodology ................................................ 3 5-Star Insurance Lawyers and Law Firms 2021 ................................... 5 Profile ............................................................ 6

SPECIAL REPORT

5-STAR AWARDS: INSURANCE LAW FIRMS AND LAWYERS

ASIA’S TOP INSURANCE LAW EXPERTS THE OUTBREAK of COVID-19 disrupted industries across the world, but it also created opportunities for new initiatives to shine. People in various professions faced novel challenges, which brought with them new, creative solutions.

Asia’s insurance law profession was among those that felt the impact of the pandemic in many ways. Specialists in this field found themselves facing issues they had never encountered before, such as COVID19’s weight as a contributory factor in employment-related matters and the pandemic’s effect on business continuity.

These circumstances have necessitated

“A development in insurance law is whether COVID-19 is [considered] a personal injury by accident under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance” Angela Yim, Mayer Brown Hong Kong keeping a close eye on business interruption (BI) test cases that have been filed in UK and Australian courts.

Cyber insurance and other cyber-related

5-STAR INSURANCE LAWYERS BY GENDER

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concerns also grew in importance as digital operations became crucial for all organisations, including law firms. This unveiled a new aspect of insurance law about which there is much to discover.

The almost immediate jump to remote work posed a challenge to many firms, but in a number of cases, the firms were adequately equipped with appropriate systems that supported the transition.

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Categorising COVID-19

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The categorisation of COVID-19 in insurance policies became a hot-button topic as the insurance industry struggled to define how significant the effect of the disease was.

“A development in insurance law is whether COVID-19 is [considered] a personal injury by accident under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance,” says insurance litigation expert Angela Yim, a partner at Mayer Brown Hong Kong.

Insurance lawyers also grappled with whether contracting COVID-19 on the job would give a worker valid cause to file a common law claim against their employer, Yim adds. Even vaccination was not exempt as an area of potential concern, as specialists have to consider whether employees could bring common law claims against their employers if they became ill due to a vaccine’s side effects.

Yim notes that a number of companies have been scrimping on insurance coverage for employees as their businesses struggle in the wake of COVID-19. Indeed, the impact of the pandemic on business resulted in much of the work taken on by insurance lawyers in 2020–2021.

following the experience of SARS in 2003,” Goh says. “Whilst such BI cover can be available as an option, it is usually expensive.”

Goh points out that the outcomes of the UK and Australian test cases would influence how Singaporean courts approach local BI cases.

“So far, from the individual claims that may be brought by an SME that has a possible BI cover for infectious disease, the judgments from the UK and Australia will be of persuasive effect before the Singapore courts in the absence of local precedents if the policy wording is identical or very similar,” Goh says.

TL Lim, a partner at Mayer Brown Hong Kong, notes that the usual criteria for exten-

“For our insurance and reinsurance team, 2020 was an extremely busy period on both the contentious and non-contentious fronts” Simon Goh, Rajah & Tann Singapore

“The COVID-19 pandemic affected insurance law in the field of BI insurance, [particularly] the applicability of insurance policy wording on closure of and restrictive access to premises due to an outbreak of infectious disease,” explains Simon Goh, who leads the insurance and reinsurance practice at Rajah & Tann Singapore.

Notably, property insurance policies took a significant hit. However, Goh notes that the effects of the pandemic on the BI aspects of these policies were not as strong in Singapore as they were in the UK and Australia, where major BI test cases were heard in high-profile court proceedings.

“SMEs in Singapore do not generally have BI extensions for their property policies [that] potentially cover infectious diseases

sions related to infectious diseases also hamper certain claims.

“In Asia, claims for COVID-19-related BI are few, as the infectious disease extension usually requires an outbreak at the premises concerned,” he adds.

Credit and cybersecurity concerns Lim says that cash flow concerns, which prevent businesses from settling invoices, have also led to an increase in trade credit insurance matters, something Goh also noticed.

“Given the scale of the corporate failures in 2020, the quantum of insurance claims was large, and we believe there are a number of policyholder claims which have been rejected, [leading] to more disputes between

METHODOLOGY To determine the top insurance law firms and legal talent in Asia, Insurance Business Asia obtained feedback from in-house legal counsel, insurance industry professionals and lawyers over a 15-week period.

Through in-depth phone interviews with the research team, insurance professionals and GCs provided input on the law firms and insurance law specialists they admired. These professionals hailed from different countries, and their input helped to cultivate a well-rounded group of leading lawyers and firms.

The research team also received peer recommendations from members of the legal industry on the law firms and lawyers they would endorse to others. The names presented were ranked based on the quality of work, level of specialist expertise and service delivery to clients.

At the end of the research period, a total of 19 law firms and 19 lawyers received 5-star ratings based on these criteria. These were named the firstever 5-Star Excellence Awardees in insurance law in Asia.

100% of insurance law specialists expect more work to come over the next year

55% of the 5-Star Insurance Law Firms are based in Singapore

26% of the 5-Star Insurance Lawyers hail from Hong Kong

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SPECIAL REPORT

5-STAR AWARDS: INSURANCE LAW FIRMS AND LAWYERS

5-STAR INSURANCE LAW FIRMS BY COUNTRY

insurers and policyholders as negotiations with insurers do not result in settlement,” Goh says.

He notes that the Singapore government implemented an initiative that would enable policyholders to delay paying premiums on both life and non-life insurance policies, which helped those with cash flow or income problems.

A major factor in the struggle – and sometimes failure – of many businesses was being under lockdown. The restrictions spurred most industries – including the legal profession – to transition quickly to digital operations. Although this enabled companies to operate under the circumstances, cyber attackers took advantage of the situation to create problems. “[The past year] was somewhat of an

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Singapore

10

Hong Kong

6

China

4

inflexion point for cyber insurance in Asia, brought about by the marked increase in the frequency of cyber-related incidents and large payouts caused by ransomware,” says Lim, who works with both the insurance and reinsurance and cybersecurity and data privacy teams at Mayer Brown Hong Kong.

He points out that in particular, social engineering fraud and business email compromise have resulted in considerable losses for the organisations that were victimised. “[These losses] have given rise to coverage issues under commercial crime policies, which sometimes require some sort of infiltration into the insured’s computer system or electronic communications such that mere interception of email communications between an insured and its vendor, without

any actual infiltration into the computer system or electronic data at insured’s end, may not suffice,” Lim explains.

In such cases, coverage disputes may arise based on how a policy is worded.

“The definition of financial loss under such policies may also give rise to coverage disputes if the wording imports proximate cause language – such as ‘resulting directly from’ – because often, the cause of the loss is the insured acting on or being duped by the fraudster’s request,” Lim says. “This has caused some carriers in the market to review their policy wordings and coverages for social engineering fraud.”

Service delivery through digitisation The variety of unique challenges tcaused by COVID-19 have made the pandemic period a busy one for insurance law specialists.

“For our insurance and reinsurance team, 2020 was an extremely busy period on both the contentious and non-contentious fronts, with an increased number of disputed insurance claims, as well as an uptick for corporate insurance and regulatory advisory work as clients sought new ways of doing business during the pandemic and what is widely expected to be the new normal as COVID-19 becomes endemic,” Goh says.

He adds that Rajah & Tann Singapore was able to sustain client service delivery quality while staff were working remotely because of the firm’s paperless operation and existing systems and processes. Yim reports a similar arrangement for Mayer Brown, where its systems were designed to accommodate remote access and limit disruptions to operations.

As insurance law moves towards significant development, IB Asia spotlights the best of the region’s insurance law industry in its firstever 5-Star Insurance Law Firms and Lawyers report, which presents those who made the cut due to their outstanding contributions to the field.

2021 CHINA

HONG KONG

INSURANCE LAWYERS

SINGAPORE

Elsie Shi JT&N

Edwin Northover Debevoise & Plimpton

B en Nicholson Kennedys Legal Solutions

Anparasan K WhiteFern

George Yu JT&N

Phone: +852 2160 9846 Email: enorthover@debevoise.com Website: www.debevoise.com

E laine Tay Rajah & Tann Singapore

Simon Goh Rajah & Tann Singapore

aul Zhou P SGLA Law Firm

Angela Yim Mayer Brown

I ain Anderson RPC Premier Law

T eo Weng Kie

J ohn Goulios DLA Piper

Y uh Huey Khoo WongPartnership

uan Min Y King & Wood Mallesons Zhan Hao Anjie Law

Gareth Thomas Herbert Smith Freehills Rupert Skrine Kennedys Simon McConnell Clyde & Co

J ustyn Jagger Sharpe & Jagger

2021 CHINA Anjie Law Firm

Tan Kok Quan Partnership

INSURANCE LAW FIRMS

HONG KONG

SINGAPORE

Clyde & Co

Clyde & Co

RPC Premier Law

Debevoise & Plimpton

Denton Rodyk & Davidson

Sharpe & Jagger

Herbert Smith Freehills

DLA Piper

T an Kok Quan Partnership

Kennedys

Kennedys Legal Solutions

WhiteFern

Mayer Brown

Rajah & Tann Singapore

WongPartnership

JT&N

King & Wood Mallesons

SGLA Law Firm

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SPECIAL REPORT

5-STAR AWARDS: INSURANCE LAW FIRMS AND LAWYERS EDWIN NORTHOVER Head of financial institutions in Asia Debevoise & Plimpton

E

dwin Northover, Asia-based corporate partner and head of financial institutions in Asia, has a broad practice in cross-border public and private mergers and acquisitions. He specialises in M&A, joint ventures and distribution agreements in the insurance industry and technology sector.

Described as “a very skilled and competent lawyer” and “an excellent negotiator,” Northover was recommended by Chambers Asia-Pacific (2021) for the Insurance: Non-contentious category. He was also listed in the 2021 edition of The Legal 500 Asia Pacific for M&A and insurance, and the IFLR1000 in 2020.

Northover has over a decade of experience in Hong Kong. He has been with Debevoise for nearly 15 years, spending time in London and New York, as well as Asia.

He has worked on most of Asia’s high-profile insurance deals and has a client list that includes AIA, AIG, AXA, FWD, Prudential Financial and Sun Life. He also undertook a six-month secondment at insurer AXA’s M&A team in Paris in 2013.

Northover holds a double first-class honours degree in modern history from Merton College, University of Oxford, and has a postgraduate diploma in law from BPP Law School, London.

Presented by:

RECOGNISING THE NEXT GENERATION OF INSURANCE INDUSTRY LEADERS Nominations open 30 August 2021.

For more information, visit www.insurancebusinessmag.com/asia 6

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2021

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