Insurance Arbitrations in London after the Halliburton v Chubb Judgment: What’s Next?

Deirdre is a seasoned litigator who focuses her practice on representing insurers, reinsurers, and captive insurers in a broad spectrum of coverage disputes and handling domestic and international arbitration proceedings and litigations involving insurance and reinsurance matters. She represents companies in disputes concerning life reinsurance treaties and defends public corporations in class action lawsuits, securities litigation, and SEC enforcement actions.

In the reinsurance/insurance litigation side of her practice, Deirdre has extensive experience with all types of coverage disputes, including those involving professional liability, life and health, variable annuity, general liability, surety, product liability, employment discrimination, first-party property, and environmental matters. She has represented numerous clients in disputes arising under policies on the Bermuda form. Her work also encompasses guiding clients through US-based, Bermuda, and London arbitration proceedings.

Prior to joining Mintz, Deirdre served as a partner in the Washington, DC offices of two global law firms. Earlier, she was a partner and an associate at another international law firm.

Paul Stanley QC has a broad practice across a wide range of commercial disputes.

He has a particular interest and experience in financial services (including regulatory work), both at the regulatory level and before the Upper Tribunal and on appeal. He often deals with insurance and reinsurance claims, particularly high value pharmaceutical and products-liability claims, including many arbitrations raising a full range of issues concerning the validity and application of insurance and reinsurance contracts, especially (but not only) the Bermuda Form. He also has a particular interest in complex civil fraud cases, for both claimants and defendants, including obtaining and enforcing interim remedies, applications to commit for contempt, and jurisdictional issues, both in England and offshore.

He appears in both courts and before arbitral tribunals at all levels. He has extensive experience of appellate advocacy in the Court of Appeal.

Mr. Sylvester is a partner in the firm’s Pittsburgh office. He concentrates his practice in commercial litigation, with an emphasis in insurance coverage litigation and counseling.

Mr. Sylvester has handled major environmental insurance coverage litigation pending in the courts of Alabama, Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington. He has also litigated asbestos coverage and insurer bad-faith issues in the courts of the District of Columbia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Texas. In addition, he has been involved in insurance coverage litigation relating to product liabilities in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, California, Illinois, Missouri, Louisiana and West Virginia. He has also handled first-party property coverage litigation, including property damage and business interruption claims, in California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Washington. He has also counseled clients regarding D&O liability issues and has litigated D&O coverage issues in court and arbitration proceedings.

Mr. Sylvester has had substantial dealings with insurance coverage matters relating to Lloyd’s and the London insurance companies, in the marine, non-marine and aviation markets. He has significant trial experience in both insurance coverage actions and in general commercial matters and has argued appeals before both federal and state appellate courts. He has also handled numerous domestic and international arbitrations, including those conducted under the auspices of the AAA, the ICDR, the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution and the English Arbitration Act, among others. Mr. Sylvester has lectured and published on topics relating to commercial litigation generally and insurance issues specifically.

Thomas Birsic maintains an active trial, arbitration, and counseling practice focused on a wide range of complex commercial and insurance coverage litigation. Tom has extensive jury and bench trial experience involving complex commercial cases, including class actions, business disputes, environmental and toxic torts, and shareholder disputes. In addition, he has tried numerous international and U.S. based commercial and coverage arbitrations to conclusion.

Since 2008 alone, Tom has tried more than 15 significant complex cases to conclusion. In recognition of his extensive trial work, Tom has been inducted as a fellow of both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. For 2020, the United States Lawyer Rankings again selected Tom as one of the Nation's Top 5 Commercial Litigation Lawyers. He is also regularly (past 10 years) featured in both The Best Lawyers in America and Chambers, USA for bet-the-company, commercial, and business litigation. He is also regularly featured in The International Who's Who of Commercial Arbitration.