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Watertight Reinsurance: Advanced Contract Drafting and Disputes Masterclass In-house Training

An advanced masterclass equipping reinsurance professionals with drafting precision, legal insight and strategic foresight to create robust, dispute-resistant contracts, addressing post-Covid claims, cyber, climate risks, regulation and evolving dispute trends.

★★★★★ "Very well put together, well executed and speakers were excellent."

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Course overview

Reinsurance contract drafting has undergone a fundamental shift. Recent systemic loss events - including pandemics, cyber incidents and major catastrophe losses - have exposed weaknesses in traditional wordings, particularly around aggregation, follow clauses, exclusions and claims control.

At the same time, regulatory expectations have intensified scrutiny on contract clarity, intent alignment and risk transfer effectiveness.

This training course provides a practical, market-focused look into modern reinsurance drafting, combining:

Legal developments (including a review of the Insurance Act 2015 ten years on)
Post-Covid and emerging risk claims experience
Practical dispute avoidance and resolution strategies

The focus throughout is on ensuring contractual intent is accurately captured and defensible under pressure, reducing the likelihood of costly disputes.

Key topics covered include:

Advanced drafting of follow clauses and settlement provisions
Aggregation in the context of systemic and correlated risks
Exposure through poor drafting – the pitfalls of silent cyber drafting
Post-Covid claims trends and coverage disputes
Climate and catastrophe-related drafting challenges
Notice, claims control and cooperation in complex claims
Dispute resolution strategy and arbitration practice

This training course focuses on the advanced, up-to-the-minute issues and gives you the opportunity to ask your questions to the expert trainers.

This training course is part of our Commercial & Business Law Training Course collection which has been designed for the in-house lawyer.

Benefits of attending

By attending this comprehensive training course you will:

Develop advanced drafting techniques for follow clauses, settlements and commutations
Gain a practical understanding of the Insurance Act 2015 and how it is being interpreted by the Courts
Navigate regulatory expectations and contract certainty requirements, and understand their impact on reinsurance wordings and product design
Strengthen your approach to notice, information and claims control clauses
Identify and avoid common drafting pitfalls, including cyber exposure, inconsistent clauses and misalignment between underwriting intent and contract wording
Address emerging risks and systemic exposures - including cyber, pandemic and climate risks - through clearer, more resilient drafting
Master aggregation drafting for complex loss scenarios
Understand the regulatory and structural considerations when launching new products, including how to develop a compliant Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
Anticipate and mitigate reinsurance disputes, with practical insight into arbitration, mediation, evidentiary issues and settlement strategies

Who should attend?

This training course is applicable for all those involved in the drafting and implementation of reinsurance wordings or who deal with reinsurance disputes, including:

Wordings specialists and technicians
Underwriters and reinsurance buyers
Claims managers and handlers
Wordings specialists
In-house lawyers / counsel
Lawyers in private practice specialising in insurance/reinsurance

Popular with...

This course has proven particularly popular among our customers in these roles:

Legal Counsel
Partner
Senior Associate
Senior Legal Counsel
Senior Reinsurance Technician
Wordings Analyst

This course will cover:

Follow wordings – issues, options and effective drafting

Arbitration awards, and English/foreign judgments
Settlements – how to draft wide or narrow clauses
“Without prejudice” and “ex-gratia” settlements
Businesslike steps and the burden of proof
Dealing with commutations

Legal and Regulatory framework: From Statute to market practice

Practical application of the Insurance Act 2015
The legal nature of warranties (sections 9 and 10)
Fair Presentation – new rules and wording tweaks: recent guidance from the Courts
Section 13A, damages for late payment of claims; key drafting issues for reinsurers
Section 11 challenges and recent cases
Contracting out and the transparency requirements: effectiveness and pitfalls

Notice, information and claims control/cooperation clauses

Purpose and commercial function of control and cooperation clauses, including recent cases
Reporting and notice clauses – “immediate’, “as soon as practicable” notice; including recent Court guidance
Late notice issues
Conditions precedent: enforceability and risk
Access to records clauses and data transparency
Confidentiality

Drafting watertight reinsurance clauses: some common mistakes

The linits of "full follow" clause and incorporation
Exposure through poor drafting
Check for internal consistency between clauses
Put all the clauses in the right places in the document
Use clear language - drafting for clarity, certainty and dispute resilience
Make sure definitions are relevant to all uses
Don’t use the same words in different senses
Over-reliance on market-standard terms
Don’t rely on the courts to imply terms

Developments in property and casualty clauses

Wording issues for emerging and developing markets
Clauses broadening cedants’ rights
Additional observations and developments

Aggregation

Drafting for the correct breadth of aggregation triggers: occurrence, event, catastrophe, originating cause
Hours clauses in complex and multi-phase events
Post Covid-19 aggregation disputes and lessons learned
Practical drafting tips

Regulatory considerations in a new product launch

Why is regulatory compliance important to contract drafting?
Why is regulatory risk higher for new products?
The impact of insurance regulation on the structure, content and sale of new products
How do you create a compliant MVP?
What are the risks of working with other business partners/distribution partners?

Being prepared for reinsurance disputes: Wordings and their role in dispute resolution

Governing law and jurisdiction
Arbitration: process, panel selection and strategy
Mediation and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms
Disclosure, privilidge and evidentiary matters
Settlement agreements and commutations (including IBNR)

Simon Cooper
DWF

Simon is a consultant in the Global Speciality & Financial Risks team at DWF Law LLP. He has more than 35 years’ experience of advising clients in the London and international insurance and reinsurance markets and has extensive experience of acting in large scale disputes in England and Internationally. Simon also has comprehensive experience of mediation and other forms of Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Simon is a member of the IUA Clauses Subcommittee and past secretary of the International Bar Association's insurance committee. He edited the second edition of ‘Reinsurance Practice & the Law’ and writes and lectures frequently on legal issues. He is the current Lloyd's Members Ombudsman

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Duncan Strachan
DAC Beachcroft

Duncan Strachan is a Partner at DAC Beachcroft LLP. He specialises in complex and international (re)insurance matters across multiple lines of business. His current caseload advising on major energy losses in Ecuador, Peru and Colombia; monitoring US securities class action suits against non-US entities; and advising on exposure to climate change litigation. Duncan’s focus is on international disputes and policy coverage analysis, with particular expertise in Latin America and the Caribbean, due to his familiarity with the legal and political landscape across the region. Duncan is also fluent in Spanish and regularly presents to insurers and reinsurers across the world.

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Phillippa Rowe
Phillippa Ross & Co

Phillippa Rowe, senior partner of independent reinsurance consultants Phillippa Ross & Co., has over 30 years experience of insurance and reinsurance claims in Lloyd’s and the London market and internationally. She began her reinsurance career with 15 years with the Kiln group at Lloyd’s. She currently acts as arbitrator, mediator, expert witness and technical consultant in a wide range of claims, wordings and market practice matters and writes, lectures and provides training courses on similar subjects.

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