Legal angles

Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki counsel Peter Dunlop reflects on life before reinsurance law, lavatory cleaners and genitically modified corn.

Name: Peter Dunlop

Job title: Counsel at Bermuda law firm, Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki.

Career: Edward Lewis (acquired by Kennedys) 1996-2001, Lovells LLP 2002-2007, Attride-Stirling & Woloniecki 2007 to present.

Have you got a nickname? If I have a nickname at work I'm not aware of it! During my time in the Durham University 1st XV I was nicknamed "Flash" by a team-mate, which stuck. He subsequently went on to win the Rugby World Cup with England whereas I became a reinsurance lawyer. I have since wondered where it all went wrong.

What classes of cases have you been involved with? During my articles in 1996/7 I cut my teeth on defendant personal injury and professional indemnity cases for UK re/insurers. I was bounced most days into county courts and high court district registries so it was a fun introduction to the industry.

After qualifying in 1998 I acted for brokers in a number of property cat binding authorities disputes and for financial services companies in the UK pensions mis-selling scandal. In 2000 I made what felt like the natural step into reinsurance, advising on MD/BI claims and subrogated recovery actions from refinery and factory explosions and the like.

At Lovells I was fortunate to act for cedents and reinsurers, and run-off clients, in an enormous variety of heavy disputes arising from underwriting pools, D&O/E&O, funds mis-selling, pharmaceutical products, PA and Premium Protection Lineslips and US workman's comp, environmental pollution and asbestos (running the full gamut of London market defences - aggregation, DJs, allocation etc). I was also able to broaden my practice to include restructuring work (Part VII Transfers and solvent schemes) and regulatory investigations - on the latter I acted for an international reinsurer in the FSA finite reinsurance investigations throughout 2005/06.

Since my move to Bermuda in 2007, the disputes work has been much the same, although with a distinctly mid-Atlantic flavour and with a few more captive insurers and fund insolvencies thrown in.

What classes of cases do you most enjoy? Complex, international cases - especially for run-off clients. I have always been fascinated by the subtle but sometimes significant culture clashes of the UK and US casualty markets and the different interpretations the UK and US Courts can give to substantially identical wordings. Since moving to Bermuda I have become an ardent supporter of the UNCITRAL Model Law for arbitration over the US and UK systems because of its time/cost effectiveness and focus on the "real" issues in dispute.

What was the market like when you started in the (re)insurance business? It was an exciting time to be in the London market. It was a time of domestic mergers, there were remnants of the Exxon Valdez and Piper Alpha disasters lingering and asbestos issues were looming large at Lloyd's.

What's the hardest market you've ever known? It must be 2006, post KRW, when the US, UK and Bermuda markets fully came to appreciate the enormous industry losses at the beginning of the decade.

What's the softest market you've ever known? For US casualty, probably 2000, before Enron, Worldcom and 9/11 struck. Pricing was under enormous pressure, terms and conditions were loose and losses were low. Having said that, the last three years have been tough for many reinsurance disputes lawyers and it seems that contract certainty has had the desired effect of producing fewer disputes. It remains to be seen what impact the sub prime crisis and the Madoff fraud will have. Despite the economic crisis we are in, except in perhaps D&O, rates have not increased as much as many predicted.

What is the most interesting case you have been involved in and why? The CGU International v AstraZeneca Insurance Company case in 2005, which some commentators have called one of the most significant reinsurance decisions of the decade.

I represented the UK XOL reinsurers of AstraZeneca's captive in a $93m property damage claim for losses resulting from a genetically modified corn. Reinsurers offered to pay a fraction of the claim on the basis that the reinsurance coverage under English law was narrower. We lost the arbitration but successfully appealed the award in the English Commercial Court and won in the Court of Appeal. It was a fantastic result for reinsurers. What began as a relatively straightforward governing law preliminary issue evolved into a complicated argument covering a wide variety of fundamental reinsurance law issues.

What is the strangest bit of business you've been involved in over the years? Aside from nervously serving subpoenas on partisan witnesses in places like Essex and Cardiff in 1996, my strangest case is probably the four-week Bermuda Commercial Court trial last year. It concerned the allegedly fraudulent distribution of millions of dollars of dividends by a Bermuda captive arising from the sale of chicken manure.

What's the most exotic location reinsurance has brought you to? Although not "exotic", Indianapolis became dear to me. As soon as I moved to Bermuda I spent nearly three months in exile in Indy working for the Bermuda captive of a US pharma giant in its arbitration claim against its XOL reinsurers. The Colts were NFL champions at the time and, it being the Midwest, I managed to consume a lot of fine steak.

What is your favourite insurance-related joke? It's not exactly a joke but a mentor of mine once likened reinsurance lawyers to "lavatory cleaners in the casino of capitalism", which I've always thought rather apt.