Insurance, Risk Financing and Financial Services

We Are Trusted Advisors to Insurance Businesses

Successfully operating an insurance business is about navigating legal risk. Whether assuming, selling or administering property, casualty, health or life exposures, the insurance business involves evaluating legal risk, assumed under a legally enforceable contract and marketed, issued and distributed in a heavily regulated and litigious environment.

Attorneys in Leonard, Street and Deinard’s Insurance, Risk Financing and Financial Services practice group have spent much of their careers solving the legal and regulatory dimensions of insurers’ business problems. Many of our attorneys have previous experience with regulatory agencies and the insurance industry, managing legal matters unique to insurance businesses. This perspective on the industry enables us to efficiently and effectively handle the broad range of legal challenges that insurers face. We are routinely involved in insurance company formations; all manners of insurance transactions and dissolutions; alternative risk transfer arrangements; coverage matters; regulatory applications; distribution; and administration arrangements and advocacy before regulators, the courts and arbitration panels.

Representative Experience

We have broad experience in complex stock and asset insurance transactions, including the representation of a major national life insurer in the recent sale of its life reinsurance business. Some of these transactions required the enactment of enabling legislation by the Minnesota Legislature.
We regularly represent insurer clients before regulatory agencies in Minnesota, including company licensing, enforcement, financial and solvency regulation, holding company act applications, agency termination and reinsurance transactions. The firm also represents a number of insurers and related trade associations before the Minnesota Legislature.
We serve as the national litigation counsel for a major national life insurer and in this capacity practice nationwide before federal and state courts, arbitration panels, the NASD and regulatory agencies. In addition to a tremendous record of success, we have significantly reduced the client’s average cost of defense and, even more dramatically, settlement on a per claim basis.
Our firm represents a leading risk management and insurance intermediary and many of its affiliates in a broad number of matters, including reinsurance disputes, surplus lines matters, noncompete issues, regulatory enforcement matters and many other projects.
Our firm has extensive experience with class action defense of major national insurers, including successfully arguing summary judgment motions.

Key Insurance Capabilities

We provide our clients with comprehensive capabilities, including:

Insurance regulation, compliance and regulatory advocacy for insurers, producers, administrators, MGAs and related businesses
Multicase insurance litigation management
Class action defense
Insurance taxation
Insurance transactions and reorganizations, particularly with respect to combinations of for-profit and tax-exempt organizations
Noncompetition disputes involving brokers and other distribution-related litigation
Dissolutions and work-outs for distressed insurers and fraternal benefit societies