One practice across the structures that underwrite, transfer, and capitalize risk, from forming the carrier and the captive to placing the reinsurance, issuing the cat bond, and resolving the coverage dispute when the loss is real.
A corporate and private-capital boutique with international reach: a principal office in Chicago, a second office in Oakbrook Terrace, offices in London and Dubai through partner firms, meeting locations by appointment in seven further US cities, and a partner network across ~51 jurisdictions on five continents. Founded 2013.
Since 1945 the business of insurance in the United States has been regulated by the states, by act of Congress, so the opening question we put to a new carrier is where it intends to live; the domicile chooses the supervisor who reads every filing afterward. Every structure that moves risk off a balance sheet, from a cell captive to a catastrophe bond, is judged by one test: did the risk actually move? The answer decides accounting treatment, regulatory credit and whether a recovery is paid.
Treaty wording is negotiated with the eventual dispute in mind, because follow-the-fortunes and aggregation clauses are read closely only once, at the loss, when the incentives have reversed. We act for the carriers and captives that write risk, the reinsurers that take it and the investors who fund it through insurance-linked securities.
The regulators are the state insurance departments and, through locally admitted counsel, the supervisors in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and Guernsey, where much of the market's capital sits; the rating agencies then decide how much of it counts. In front of the supervisor, we speak for the company.
Structuring, domicile selection, and licensing for new carriers, with the entity, the capital, and the governance an insurer needs to be admitted and to operate within its supervisor's framework.
Speak to this team →Treaty and facultative reinsurance, retrocession, and the contract terms that decide how risk and recoveries actually move between cedant, reinsurer, and retrocessionaire.
Speak to this team →Insurance-linked securities and cat bonds, from the issuing vehicle and the collateral and trigger mechanics to the securities and regulatory questions that sit alongside the risk transfer.
Speak to this team →Loss portfolio transfers, adverse-development cover, and the court- and supervisor-sanctioned mechanisms that move a closed book off the balance sheet.
Speak to this team →Authorization, capital and solvency requirements, conduct, and ongoing supervision, which together make up the regulatory program a carrier, captive, or reinsurer runs as conditions and rules change.
Speak to this team →Acquisitions, disposals, and combinations of carriers and books, with diligence on reserves and reinsurance, change-of-control approvals, and structuring suited to a regulated balance sheet.
Speak to this team →Policyholder-side recovery, pressing policy interpretation, the duty to defend, and bad-faith claims against the carrier when the loss is real and the coverage is contested.
Enter the practice: Coverage Disputes & Policyholder Recovery →Single-parent, group, cell, and rental captives. We handle domicile selection, licensing, and the governance and solvency program a captive runs on to write its own risk.
Enter the practice: Captive Insurance →MGA and program structuring, embedded insurance, fronting and capacity, and the data and AI questions that sit under a technology-led underwriting model.
Enter the practice: Insurtech →Where a carrier, captive, or ILS vehicle is formed sets the licensing, capital, and reporting it lives under. The domicile is a structural choice rather than an address, and it is chosen to fit the program.
Capital adequacy runs under everything an insurer does, from formation and M&A to a portfolio transfer or a dividend, so the solvency analysis runs through every workstream rather than beside them.
Reinsurance, captives, and ILS only deliver their benefit if the transfer is genuine. The question of how much risk actually moved decides accounting treatment, regulatory credit, and how a recovery is paid.
Policy and treaty wording is tested when the claim lands and the incentives reverse. The clarity built in at placement is what holds, or gives way, in the coverage dispute that follows.
Change-of-control, scheme, and portfolio-transfer approvals are regulator- and often court-paced. The legal path is planned around those gates, because they set the calendar a deal closes on.
From forming the carrier to financing the risk and resolving the dispute, the work spans regulatory, structured-finance, and litigation. When a matter reaches into them, the bench is already in the room.
Before a licensing application, a portfolio transfer, or an insurance combination goes in, we run it through adversarial diligence. We read the structure the way the supervisor, the cedant, and opposing counsel will, so nothing they find is a surprise to you. One partner is accountable from start to finish.
The insurance, captive, and ILS markets are anchored in a handful of jurisdictions, each with its own regime. We work cross-border and coordinate with local counsel in those domiciles, so the structure is matched to the regulator that will supervise it from the start rather than retrofitted after the fact.
The vehicles behind insurance-linked securities and cat bonds, meaning SPVs, collateral structures, notes programs, and the true-sale and ratings questions that frame the transfer.
Structured Finance →Entity, governance, and M&A counsel for the regulated balance sheet, covering formation, change of control, and the corporate structuring an insurer or captive runs on.
Corporate →Coverage, bad-faith, and reinsurance recovery disputes, plus the regulator-facing and special-situations work where the outcome is contested and the clock is running.
Litigation →A major domicile for reinsurance, captives, and insurance-linked securities. We handle formation, licensing, and supervisory coordination on the island where much of the world's risk is written.
Bermuda →A core jurisdiction for captives, segregated-portfolio structures, and ILS vehicles, with counsel on formation, licensing, and the regulatory regime that governs them.
Cayman Islands →An established European domicile for captives and insurance-linked securities, where we handle formation, cell-company structures, and coordination with the island's insurance supervisor.
Guernsey →The full lifecycle, from insurer formation and licensing, captives, reinsurance and retrocession, and ILS and cat bonds to run-off and portfolio transfers, regulatory and solvency, insurance M&A, and coverage disputes. We act for carriers, captives, sponsors, reinsurers, and the investors financing risk.
Yes. We advise on captive structuring, domicile selection, licensing, and the governance and solvency program a captive needs to operate, across single-parent, group, cell, and rental structures, in coordination with the regulators of the chosen domicile.
We work cross-border from Chicago, London, and Dubai, and coordinate with local counsel in the domiciles that anchor the insurance, captive, and ILS markets, including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and Guernsey, to match each program to the regime that fits.
Yes. We advise on ILS and cat bond structures, the special-purpose vehicles that issue them, collateral and trigger mechanics, and the securities and regulatory questions that sit alongside the reinsurance transfer.
Often. Insurer formation, M&A, portfolio transfers, and solvency questions are regulator-facing by nature. We position governance, capital, and disclosure to meet the supervisor's expectations, and we speak for the company in front of the regulator.
Partner-first. One partner is your point of contact across the structure, the regulatory path, and any dispute, and brings in the corporate, structured-finance, and litigation bench when a matter reaches into them.
The program starts as a regulatory question: which supervisor, which capital standard, and which form of carrier. We select the domicile, build the business plan and governance the regulator will actually approve, and take the carrier or captive through licensing.
Treaty and facultative wordings, retrocession, and trust and collateral terms are drafted so the risk transfer holds up for accounting and solvency purposes. Follow-the-fortunes, aggregation, and termination language is negotiated with the eventual dispute in mind.
The structure only works if the balance sheet gets credit for it. We handle credit-for-reinsurance mechanics, collateral trusts and letters of credit, and, where the program is funded from the capital markets, the ILS vehicle, trigger, and offering alongside it.
When the event the promise was priced for actually happens, the work turns to coverage analysis, cedant-reinsurer disputes and arbitration, and commutations. When the book closes, it turns to the loss portfolio transfer or court-sanctioned mechanism that carries it into run-off.
An insurance policy is a promise with a balance sheet behind it, and we build both to survive the day the loss is real.
Reviewed by Jonathan D. Herpy, Sr., Senior Partner · Last updated October 2026 · Educational overview · Not legal advice
Bermuda is a principal domicile for insurance and reinsurance, including catastrophe and captive risk, and a respected home for listed holding companies and large funds. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
Cayman is the dominant jurisdiction for offshore investment funds and cross-border SPVs, valued for its tax neutrality and creditor-tested case law. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
Barbados stands apart for its double-taxation treaty network and a substance-based, low-tax model. Coordinated with locally admitted counsel.
One partner is accountable for the whole matter, and you have that partner's direct line. Chicago, London, and Dubai work to the same standard.