Practical LawConferences

Neville Howe is responsible for legal, risk and compliance at RSA, dealing with all aspects of the insurer’s UK & Western European business – a £4 billion insurance operation with a wide reaching market; from pets at More Than to shops and wind farms globally.

Neville has spent over 20 years working in insurance, previously at Lloyds, St James’s Place and AEGON before moving to RSA in 2005.

Before qualifying as a lawyer, Neville spent 10 years in the Army, finishing as a Captain in the Royal Engineers.  He is a keen sailor with 3 children and lives on the Suffolk coast, where he can indulge his passion for being on the water.

Stephen Riley has spent 38 years in the London Insurance Market.  He started his career at Swiss Re in London as a graduate trainee becoming CEO of its London operations in 1995.  In 1999 he joined CLM, the original Lloyds Corporate capital venture, and when that was sold moved to CNA Re.

In 2002 Stephen joined Global Aerospace Underwriting Managers, the specialist aerospace insurer.  He was Executive Director until his recent retirement in March 2015.  He has held a number of senior positions in the London market – Chairman of the IUA, Chairman of the London Market Group, and been a member of the board of ABI.

He has now embarked  on a part-time career as a NED for 2 Lloyds based businesses, while continuing to serve as President of the London Institute of London and Junior Warden of the Insurers Livery Company.

Kirsty Cooper heads the Office of the Chairman at Aviva and is the Group General Counsel, Company Secretary and a member of the Executive Committee. Kirsty leads the Legal and Secretarial function for Aviva globally and is also responsible for running the Office of Chairman, ensuring that the post-holder has all the support and assistance required.

Since her appointment as General Counsel and Company Secretary Kirsty has created Aviva’s first global legal leadership team and commenced a series of initiatives to ensure that Aviva has a strong and effective global legal function.

Kirsty graduated in Law from the University of Glasgow in 1987.

Stephen is the Head of the Competition and Anti-Trust Practice at RPC.  He has extensive experience advising across a broad range of EU and UK competition law matters, including complex cartel investigations, merger inquiries and market investigations.  He has recently advised key client RSA throughout the UK market investigation into private motor insurance.  Other recent cases include advising the MyFerryLink business before the CMA, Competition Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal in respect of the Eurotunnel/SeaFrance merger inquiry and Sports Direct on a number of merger and anti-trust issues.  Stephen also has experience on the regulator side of the fence, having spent time at the UK Communications regulator, Ofcom.

James has overall responsibility for all legal, compliance and regulatory matters for Genworth Financial’s Global Lifestyle Protection division. This division operates across Europe and in the last few years has expanded into Turkey, Latin America, China and Korea. Prior to joining Genworth Financial, James was the Senior Legal Counsel at GE Capital’s European asset financing business. Before becoming an in house lawyer, James was a banking lawyer at Allen & Overy in London and Clayton Utz in Sydney.

José Ramón González is Chief Legal Officer of QBE North America, a division of QBE Insurance Group Limited, one of the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance companies.  In this role, José has overall responsibility over legal, compliance, corporate governance and regulatory affairs for QBE’s North American operations.

Until April 2014, José was General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of Torus, a Bermuda-based commercial insurance organization providing property, casualty and specialty insurance and reinsurance products to a client base located primarily in the UK and continental Europe.  At Torus, José had global responsibility over the legal and compliance function, as well as oversight over claims and internal audit.

José began practicing law in 1995 as a corporate associate at the law firm of Weil, Gotshal and Manges (WGM), working in the firm’s London and New York offices.  In 1999, he joined the Mergers and Acquisitions Group of the Law Department of American International Group (AIG) as an Assistant General Counsel, representing AIG on a worldwide basis in acquisitions, depositions, joint ventures and investments relating to insurance and asset management businesses.  During this time with AIG, José spent a considerable amount of time working in Europe, East Asia and Latin America.  In 2005, José was promoted to a senior position within the legal department of AIG’s insurance businesses eventually becoming Deputy General Counsel.  Until his departure to Torus in February 2011, José was a member of the law department’s Leadership Team overseeing the law department’s corporate function and providing legal support to a variety of business units.

José holds a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a J.D. from the Columbia University School of Law.  He also holds a Masters in European Union Law from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

Fergus is General Counsel at Royal London, the UK’s largest mutual life insurance company. Fergus sits at the ExCo and his career has included holding senior roles in compliance and company secretariat in businesses across life and general insurance, asset management and broker dealing.

Paul Bickley is Senior Legal Counsel for HSBC Insurance in the UK, supporting its global partnerships and its UK Bancassurance business, which includes the manufacture of life / protection and distribution of general insurance under the HSBC, first direct and M&S Bank brands.

He acts as a local subject matter expert, leads global matters with input from HSBC’s worldwide legal community and advises on a range of matters from customer-facing materials, product structure, legacy issues, distribution arrangements to regulatory aspects.

Before taking up a career as an in-house insurance lawyer, Paul trained and qualified as a tax lawyer at Linklaters in London. He has worked for AXA UK and RSA prior to joining HSBC in 2014, acting on distribution, reinsurance and outsourcing arrangements and dealing with all ancillary issues across all classes of general insurance in the UK and global markets. Paul’s experience includes leading insurer responses to the 2011 OFT Market Study into Private Healthcare and the 2012 Competition Commission Market Investigation into Private Motor Insurance.

Richard Ferris is Chief Counsel for Aon plc’s EMEA Risk businesses, including re/insurance broking, insurance risk and market consulting and captive management. Prior to joining Aon Limited in 2007 as Deputy Legal Director, Richard spent 3 years as Head of Litigation at Riverstone Management Limited, the UK run-off arm of Fairfax Financial Services, before which he practiced at international solicitors Holman, Fenwick & Willan as an insurance and reinsurance sector specialist.

Robert Robinson is the Group General Counsel of Amlin plc where he has overall responsibility for all legal matters involving the Amlin group. Amlin plc is a FTSE 250 company based in London that participates in the global reinsurance and specialty insurance sectors. The group has offices in the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Bermuda, Singapore and the US. Until 2011 Robert also was the Head of Legal & Compliance for Amlin Underwriting Ltd, the Amlin group’s Lloyd’s managing agent. He joined Amlin in 2007 from Liberty Syndicates where he served as the first Syndicate Counsel. He joined Liberty from the Chicago-based law firm Lord Bissell & Brook where he was an equity partner and partner in charge of their London office.

Robert has extensive experience as an advocate, having acted as lead trial counsel in numerous insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration proceedings both in the US and abroad. He also has acted in a wide variety of non-contentious matters including: M&A and corporate finance transactions; corporate governance; commercial contract negotiations; insurance licensing and regulatory matters; sanctions, anti-corruption and competition law advice; and insurance product development.

He has been involved in various London insurance market groups including the Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA). Robert was the founder of the LMA Binding Authority Claims Group and is also a past chairman of the LMA Counsel Forum. From time to time he acts as an arbitrator in reinsurance disputes.

Helen is a partner in the insurance and reinsurance team. She has over 20 years’ experience in insurance and reinsurance work. She has a broad practice advising insurers, reinsurers and intermediaries as well as corporate and retail clients on all aspects of insurance law and regulation in the UK. She has previously held senior positions in the in-house legal departments of a global broker and a UK authorised reinsurer. She has significant insight in to the operation of the market from a business, a legal and a regulatory perspective. Her current practice encompasses advising on a range of issues impacting clients operating in the insurance and reinsurance markets. In summary, this includes advising on all legal and regulatory aspects of insurance distribution arrangements; the design and drafting of insurance and reinsurance products in the light of prevailing law and regulation; advising participants in the market on authorisation and compliance with UK regulation; advising insurance and reinsurance intermediaries in relation to agency law, the law and regulation applying to client money, terms of business and the sale of insurance products and the design of specialist insurance products.

Adrian Majumdar is a Partner at RBB Economics. Prior to taking his post at RBB in April 2004, Adrian was the Deputy Director of Economics at the UK competition authority, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), now part of the CMA.  Adrian has published widely on nearly all aspects of competition economics and is a co-author of the textbook published in 2011, UK Merger Control. Adrian is on the Advisory Board of British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL) Competition Law Forum. Adrian is also a non-governmental advisor for the UK to the International Competition Network and an expert for the OECD on competition matters.  Adrian lectures for King’s College London, where he is a Course Director of the Postgraduate Diploma/Masters in Economics for Competition Law. Adrian completed his undergraduate studies at Cambridge University and his PhD at the Centre for Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia.

John joined Travelers in 2012, and heads a team of six in-house lawyers as well as a compliance department of four. He also acts as Company Secretary.

John’s legal career in London began at Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, where he qualified as a solicitor in the firm’s aerospace insurance department.  He eventually moved to the London office of the US law firm LeBoeuf, Lamb Greene & MacRae (latterly known as Dewey & LeBoeuf) where he specialised in aviation claims, as well as large scale international insurance and reinsurance dispute resolution.

In 2002, John moved in-house to AIG as Regional Counsel for Central Europe and CIS, and in 2010 was appointed Deputy General Counsel for the Greater Europe region.

John studied English literature at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and law at the London School of Economics. He is married and has two sons.

Hugh Savill is Director of Regulation at the ABI, with accountability for relations between the insurance industry and the Bank of England on prudential regulation, for relations with the Financial Conduct Authority on conduct regulation, and also for taxation issues affecting insurers.

He sits on the Executive Committee of the ABI, and reports through the Prudential, Finance and Tax Committee to the ABI Board. At the ABI Hugh has held a number of Assistant Director roles, covering EU and international affairs, UK public affairs, and ABI member relations and events. He was temporary Director of Investment Affairs for 18 months before moving into his current role in 2012.

Hugh joined the ABI in 2005 from the UK Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), now the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. In 20 years at the DTI, Hugh worked on the finance and governance of the Department, faced off to the Scott Inquiry into the sale of arms to Iraq, and specialised in the negotiation of EU regulation.

Hugh is a well-known insurance lobbyist at European and International level, member of the ECOFIN Committee of Insurance Europe, and chairs the Capital Task Force of the Global Federation of insurance Associations.

He was educated at Harrow School, and read Modern Languages at New College, Oxford University. He started his career in the Fine Art Department of Phillips Auction House.

Richard Ferris is Chief Counsel for Aon plc’s EMEA Risk businesses, including re/insurance broking, insurance risk and market consulting and captive management. Prior to joining Aon Limited in 2007 as Deputy Legal Director, Richard spent 3 years as Head of Litigation at Riverstone Management Limited, the UK run-off arm of Fairfax Financial Services, before which he practiced at international solicitors Holman, Fenwick & Willan as an insurance and reinsurance sector specialist.

Quentin Zentner was appointed as General Counsel in December 2014, having previously held the role of Director, Life Legal since August 2010. Quentin was previously General Counsel at Nikko Principal Investments Ltd, a Japanese private equity company and before that was a Corporate Partner at Pinsents Curtis. Quentin is a qualified solicitor.

Philippa supports the ABI board and executive team. As General Counsel she manages the legal risk of the activities of the organisation. She is responsible for managing the competition risk of being a trade association, advising on the legal aspects of policy work and managing external legal resources.

Philippa joined the ABI in May 2012 from law firm, Pinsent Masons, where she worked as a Senior Associate in the insurance group.

Philippa began her career as a Litigator acting in a variety of insurance and reinsurance disputes. She moved to specialise in commercial insurance reviewing policy, treaty and market wordings, drafting distribution agreements, and advising on regulatory compliance. Philippa has been seconded to a number of UK insurance firms including as acting General Counsel.

Jonathan Spry is Head of Insurance Solutions and Advisory at StormHarbour. Jonathan joined StormHarbour in 2014 and has over 15 years of investment banking and insurance industry experience. Jonathan is an Insurance Corporate Finance, Structuring and Solutions specialist focused on providing Advisory Services and Capital Management / Risk Solutions to  life and non-life (re)insurers. Jonathan has expertise in Solvency II, Insurance Capital,  Insurance Linked Securities, Debt Capital Markets, Credit Risk Mitigation,  Risk Transformation, Alternative Assets and Securitization of Insurance Risk. From 2010 – 2014 Jonathan was Head of Insurance Capital Management (Structured Solutions) and more recently Head of UK Insurance Coverage at RBS. Prior to RBS, Jonathan was a Senior Vice President in the capital markets division  of the global reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter, where he was responsible for capital markets advisory and the origination, structuring and execution of insurance linked securities. Between 2003 and 2007 Jonathan was Head of  Insurance Linked Securities in Europe at Standard &Poor’s. At S&P Jonathan had primary analytical responsibility for rating life and non-life insurance securitization and played an important role in the development of rating criteria for insurance securitization, cat bonds and CDOs of insurance risk globally as well  as being a  member of the insurance Enterprise Risk Management team. Prior to joining Standard & Poor’s in 2003, Jonathan held positions at Morgan Stanley, Nat West and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi where he was responsible for structuring and executing a number of corporate finance and structured finance transactions.

Jonathan has contributed to numerous articles on the topic of Insurance Linked Securities and is the author of the market overview in ‘The Handbook of Insurance-Linked Securities’ published by Wiley Finance in July 2009. Jonathan was voted ‘Young Broker of the Year’ by Insurance Day magazine at their annual London Market Awards for 2008.

Michael is the General Counsel and Company Secretary for Lancashire Insurance Company (UK) Limited and is responsible for the delivery of legal, governance and regulatory services for Lancashire’s UK companies. Michael worked for the Corporation of Lloyd’s for 9 years from 1992 principally as a supervisor of Lloyd’s insurance brokers and managing agents. Michael qualified as a solicitor in 2001 and since then has worked in private practice and also for a Lloyd’s Managing Agent as its Compliance Officer. Since 2007 Michael has worked for the Lancashire group. Michael is Chair of the IUA’s Legal and Regulatory Committee. Michael has a BA in Modern History from Liverpool University and an MA from London University in Area Studies with a focus on 19^th century American social history.

Kevin is a Compliance Technical Manager for the Royal London Group and provides advice and guidance on regulatory change, including the requirements and challenges of the Senior Insurance Managers’ Regime. With ten years’ experience of life insurance and asset management compliance Kevin previously had a long career in risk management at Barclays Bank, both in the UK and overseas.

Alex is the Group General Counsel and Company Secretary at Novae Group plc and leads the legal, company secretarial and compliance functions.  Prior to joining Novae, Alex was Emerging Markets General Counsel at RSA responsible for the legal and compliance across Asia, Latin America, Central & Eastern Europe and the Middle East.  Prior to moving in house in 2007, Alex practised as a corporate lawyer in two leading City firms.

Kenneth Underhill was appointed ACE European Group General Counsel in October 2007.
Kenneth has responsibility for overseeing the legal, compliance and company secretarial functions for ACE’s operations in Europe and MENA.
Kenneth joined ACE from Reynolds Porter Chamberlain where he was a Partner with considerable experience in regulatory issues, market reform, commercial law and insurance and reinsurance law.
Kenneth’s legal career started in Brisbane in 1984. He obtained an LLB at Queensland University of Technology in 1989. In 1992 he obtained an LLM at London University before starting work at Charles Russell, following which he worked for an insurance broker in London and Sydney before joining Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.

Sophie serves as Corporate Counsel for Chubb Europe, the European subsidiary of The Chubb Corporation, a $16 billion global property & casualty insurer. As Corporate Counsel Sophie’s responsibilities include devising and implementing financial crime compliance strategies for Chubb In Europe, advising senior management and all business areas on complex sanction issues, sanction clauses, and all sanction issues in the area of multinational and global marine programs, kidnap & ransom covers, and reinsurance. Sophie also manages Chubb’s AML and Anti-bribery compliance programs in Europe.

Sophie has been employed with Chubb Insurance for over 16 years and is qualified to practice law in the UK, the US and The Netherlands.

Robert leads all legal, compliance and transaction structuring issues for Leadenhall Capital Partners LLP. Leadenhall is a London-based investment manager wholly focused on investing in insurance linked investments portfolios for institutional investors. Established in 2008, Leadenhall is a joint venture between the Amlin Group and a highly experienced management team. Robert is admitted to practice law in both New York and England & Wales, having previously practiced as a senior associate in the investment funds practices of Allen & Overy LLP and Dechert LLP. Robert received a BA in philosophy from Brigham Young University, fulfilled a Fulbright Fellowship in law at Warsaw University in Poland and obtained a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law.

Jonathan Hough QC is a barrister practising in commercial and public law at 4 New Square.  He has a busy practice in the field of insurance and reinsurance law, and is recognised as a leading silk in this field by both the main legal directories (Chambers UK and Legal 500).  His work covers most classes of risk, including commercial liability, property, motor, professional indemnity, legal expenses, trade credit, D&O, financial risk, property title and personal accident / disablement.  He acts in litigation and arbitration over coverage issues, as well as business disputes between insurers, reinsurers and intermediaries.  He has considerable experience in drafting policy documents and business agreements and advising on other non-contentious matters, including regulatory issues under the FSMA regime.  More generally, he has expertise in the field of consumer credit and financial regulation, and is ranked by Chambers UK as a leading silk in consumer law.

Nick is a specialist technology lawyer, a fluent Japanese speaker and a data protection specialist.  Much of Nick’s commercial work focuses on the cloud computing, e-commerce and online services sector and the data protection and privacy issues arising from the cross-border provision of cloud-based services, mobile apps and e-commerce, particularly for Japanese and US cloud service providers. Nick started his legal career with the IP/IT team of Baker & McKenzie in London before joining the Corporate/TMT team of Herbert Smith’s Tokyo office in August 2007.  He joined White & Black in 2012 and has recently been promoted to become a partner in the firm.

Phil is a co-founder of and head of the Commercial & Technology team at White & Black. He is a specialist technology lawyer with particular expertise in issues relating to information and cyber security, data protection and privacy regulations and cloud computing.  His clients include a number of multi-national corporations – many of which are high-tech organisations – notably in the information services, PCI, managed communications and ERP sectors.

Phil is also regularly consulted on information law matters such as data protection, big data and information security by organisations whose principal activities fall outside the high-tech industries.

Phil has worked both in-house and in private practice.

Nick is a dispute resolution lawyer at White & Black with a specialism in technology-related disputes.   He advises technology companies and tech-enabled businesses in respect of confidential information and intellectual property disputes, personal data and freedom of information issues in connection with contentious proceedings, public procurement challenges and wider commercial and corporate disputes. Nick has particular experience in advising on disputes arising from software development contracts and has recently acted for a US software company in a dispute with a global food group and in the termination of an online joint venture for a media group.

Before joining White & Black in 2014, Nick qualified into the dispute resolution team at DLA Piper in Leeds and spent time on secondment to Santander as well as advising on disputes and renegotiation for major government ICT projects.