Insurance Group In the insurance industry, legal experience and skills are hard earned and invaluable. At Bradley Arant, our Insurance Group represents clients on everything from policy/plan development to litigation to regulatory hearings and inquiries made by various Departments of Insurance to labor/employment matters to corporate issues.
Litigation Insurance lawsuits comprise a significant portion of our work. We represent insurance and annuity companies in agent cases, class actions, rating cases, contract disputes, bad faith actions, fraud and other policyholder disputes, professional liability matters, directors’ and officers’ liability matters, as well as in coverage and duty to defend disputes. We are also retained by insurance companies to defend their insureds in all types of litigation including personal injury, product liability, professional liability, labor and employment, environmental contamination, construction disputes, malpractice, agents errors and omissions and asbestos claims.
Bradley Arant’s attorneys practice in state and federal courts from Texas to North Carolina and beyond, including the United States Supreme Court, various U.S. Courts of Appeals and numerous state Supreme Courts. A number of our attorneys also concentrate their skills on the unique requirements of appellate work. In short, no matter how complex the issue, we have the experience and the skills to defend our clients’ interests effectively.
Regulation Bradley Arant’s corporate attorneys serve as insurance regulatory, corporate and securities counsel for a variety of different insurers and insurance-related businesses. The Firm has extensive experience in compliance with insurance laws and regulations for insurance companies, reinsurance companies, managing general agents, reinsurance intermediaries and insurance agencies and brokers.
Our insurance regulatory attorneys advise clients on the structure and formation of captive insurance companies, risk retention groups, purchasing groups, group funds and other alternative risk transfer vehicles. They also assist clients in connection with the licensing of traditional carriers, third party administrators, agents, brokers and claims adjusters. Our attorneys regularly handle state insurance department inquiries, examinations, holding company compliance, insurance insolvencies and rate and form filings, and have represented clients before insurance departments in every state and the District of Columbia.
Corporate Bradley Arant represents insurers and related entities in the acquisition of other companies and portfolios of business. In addition, our attorneys have incorporated, organized and licensed insurance companies to underwrite various types of insurance, including health, prescription, drug, professional liability, automobile liability, general liability and workers’ compensation. In each instance, we organized the insurance companies, advised the committees as to corporate governance, obtained all necessary approvals from the state Insurance Departments, prepared all necessary securities disclosure and filing documents, and obtained certificates of authority of their operations as insurance companies.
Attorneys in the Group also handled the conversion of a mutual company client to a stock company in one of the first “demutualizations” of mutual insurance companies in the 1990s. The attorneys involved prepared all organizational and disclosure documents to effect the conversion through a registered SEC public offering to its insured and outside investors, and they have continued to represent the company and its successor in numerous public and private acquisitions and other corporate transactions. Other activities in this area include the acquisition of several insurance companies or books of business in various states, many of which involved public mergers.
Bradley Arant’s insurance group attorneys also are actively involved in government relations at both the state and federal levels, and they assist clients in drafting and managing the passage of insurance legislation, monitoring legislative activity, and lobbying in connection with proposed legislative changes.
