Insurance Underwriting Advisory Services

Lewis Brisbois formed its Insurance Underwriting Advisory Services Practice to elevate its business offerings to insurance industry clients with a dedicated team of experts to counsel underwriting and product leadership and provide market leading product, eliminate transaction friction, improve contract certainty, and reduce counterparty and litigation risk.

Who are we?
We are a team of attorneys who routinely counsel business units of leading domestic and international insurers in support of underwriting and product initiatives. We deliver insights and perspective derived from decades of compelling, relevant experience and support product initiatives with proven drafting acumen and astute familiarity with product offerings in today’s marketplace. Our practice includes former insurer and broker insiders who held key underwriting and product leadership roles, so we appreciate your challenges and opportunities better. Our clients know us for our focus, deep experience, agile thinking, subtle approach, and effective, collaborative consultation.

Our Services
Our Insurance Underwriting Advisory Services Practice offers a broad spectrum of specialized business-oriented legal services tailored to the needs of insurance underwriters, product leaders, and managing general underwriters/agents. Examples include:

Product development and wordings

Insurance product wording is our core specialty. We have a proven track record of delivering best-in-class products to the market. We review, analyze, draft, improve, update, and invent insurance products and wordings. In each case, we collaborate closely with our clients and offer our insights and suggestions derived from our actual experience defending and litigating claims and lawsuits across a broad spectrum of policies and industries.
We engage collaboratively in developing or updating high-level product and portfolio strategies, developing or co-developing and vetting products, endorsements, and supporting materials (e.g., sell sheets, applications, and other forms).
We support underwriting transactions by vetting others’ wordings, validating risk and coverage expectations, and collaborating in pursuit of innovation and differentiation.
We help underwriting and product leaders assess and stay ahead of emerging trends and dynamic risks.
Our corporate and transactional experience enable us to provide insurance solutions to bankruptcy, M&A, change in control, and catastrophic loss scenarios.

Portfolio management
We apply our legal and wording experience to develop or review libraries of supporting forms including endorsements, applications, notices, quote and binder letters, and more.

Underwriting Support
We counsel underwriters to help them (1) evaluate risk, (2) stay current on legal drivers of frequency and severity, (3) support compliance initiatives, (4) assess and stay ahead of emerging legal and regulatory trends and dynamic or disruptive risks, (5) review ancillary agreements including confidentiality agreements, fronting agreements, and vendor service agreements, (6) conduct legal research, (7) leverage subject matter expertise, and (8) provide training.

Outside General Counsel
Our broad insurance industry and regulatory proficiency, coupled with the firm’s litigation and corporate/transactional experience, enables us to service our clients in an outside general counsel role. That role may encompass anything from complex litigation and transactional matters to routine corporate and compliance matters.

Products and Industries
All Commercial lines products are in scope.

With All of Us
As part of the larger Lewis Brisbois, with more than 1,600 attorneys, we deliver in ways our competitors cannot or do not.

One-Stop Legal Services
Lewis Brisbois’ size enables us to offer a broad spectrum of bespoke services to our insurance industry clients that include corporate/transactional, trial, litigation and claims, and now, dedicated underwriting and product support.
On-Demand Scale
Surprised to learn you have a claim with a trial in two weeks, a looming project deadline, a critical business initiative where time is of the essence, or a massive regulatory or compliance crisis? Lewis Brisbois stands ready to deliver with the scale, skill, and experience as needed.
We See More
The uncommon insights and perspectives we distill from all we do help our team and our clients stay ahead of legal, risk, and market trends.

Recent Engagements

Development and support of financial and commercial lines products for two of the world’s largest insurers.
Support of financial institution’s product portfolio involving professional liability and employment practices liability products intended for investment advisors, private equity firms, and financial institutions as well as real estate agents and brokers, and other professionals.
Development of proprietary forms for commercial general liability, costs of correction, builders risk, excess and umbrella risks, pollution legal liability and environmental impairment liability risks, underground storage tanks, oil and gas risks, catastrophic and contractors liability products.
Specialty products for bankruptcy, M&A, change in control transactions, and excess catastrophic events.