Legal Counsel

Canopius • Full-time • London, GB • 21h ago

Job Description

The purpose of the role is to provide strategic advice and legal support to Underwriting and Product leads on all aspects of legal risk with respect to of the Group’s Insurance and Re-insurance Products. This will include ensuring that insurance policies across the Group comply with law and regulation, advising on best practice in the jurisdictions they are written in and ensuring that they take into account evolving case law that may impact the certainty of the policy. An important part of the role will be developing strong relationships with Underwriters and Product leads to ensure that they can effectively mitigate wording risk when writing the insurance (e.g. amend the wording, increase the pricing, decrease the exposure, etc.). This role will also play an important role in supporting Claims in determining coverage questions arising from the interpretation of policy wordings.

Responsibilities

Advising Underwriters and Product Leads on legal risk in documentation (e.g. insurance policies/wordings/endorsements, NDAs, underlying transaction documentation and/or structures) including:

establishing a policy wording framework across all products to provide an agreed baseline for all products;
advising on structures and documentation for any products where third party capital is managed;
where necessary, reviewing any underlying documentation and/or transaction structure that Underwriters and Product leads identify as being outside of the framework or where they are produced by brokers or pre-agreed by lead insurers;
establishing a process for reviewing and approving NDAs in an efficient manner in accordance with Group NDA Guidance, ensuring that where appropriate pre-agreed concepts are included;
for more complex transactions, ensuring the triggers in the policy wording correctly reflect the mechanics in the underlying documentation to ensure the policy will respond correctly;
advising on any deviations from the baseline framework, market standard, unusual clauses/legal risks, jurisdictional issues, etc.;
participating in discussions with brokers and/or clients to explain areas of disagreement / interpretation; and
recording deviations from the baseline framework agreed master terms per client.
Interacting with the claims process to assist in coverage analysis and to apply refinements to the policy wordings as applicable.
Maintaining a baseline of acceptable terms and templates (e.g. NDAs, wordings, NBIs, etc.) agreed with the Head of each Product.
Participating in industry bodies (e.g. Lloyd’s/LMA working groups, etc) and engaging with relevant regulatory bodies (e.g. Lloyd’s) to both: (i) ensure that Underwriters and Product Leads are aware of any relevant market and/or regulatory developments, and (ii) participate in discussion groups to drive new wordings/regulation/market issues.
Ensuring that changes in relevant legislation or case law are highlighted to Underwriters and Product leads in a timely manner and, where appropriate, reflected in documentation.
Assisting Underwriters and Product Leads with engaging appropriate stakeholders (e.g. Compliance in relation to sanctions concerns, Procurement in relation to onboarding new advisors, etc.).
Educating Underwriters and Product Leads on relevant legal issues and developments by regular communications and training.
Where appropriate, instructing external counsel to advise on particular matters relating to specific products.

Qualifications

5-8 years Post-Qualified Experience, preferably in-house within a re/insurer.
Experience of a diverse range of policyholders, both consumer and non-consumer preferable.
Experience of delegated underwriting agreements and reinsurance wordings preferable.
US, UK and European experience preferred.
Good knowledge of market wording databases.
Knowledge of Financial Lines, Cyber and/or Digital Assets insurance would be preferred.
Sound understanding of general insurance, insurance law, regulation, and market practice as they relate to products is essential.