Simpson Thacher has been an international leader in the practice of insurance and reinsurance law for a quarter of a century.  The Firm has handled litigations involving many of the largest insurance groups, including AIG, Travelers, Swiss Re, CNA and the insurance subsidiaries of General Electric.  Based on this experience, Firm attorneys have authored two widely-cited treatises: Handbook on Insurance Coverage Disputes and Modern Reinsurance Law and Practice. 

The Firm’s lawyers have been involved in every aspect of insurance litigation and arbitration in the U.S. and abroad.  The Firm has been a recognized leader in the development of law on leading insurance coverage issues, including the duty to defend, expected or intended occurrences, allocation, trigger of coverage, the pollution exclusion and asbestos bankruptcy. 

Simpson Thacher is also recognized as the leading firm representing the interests of ceding and assuming insurers in reinsurance disputes, and successfully obtained reinsurance recoveries for its clients in three landmark cases:  Unigard v. North River; North River v. CIGNA; and ISLIC v. Lloyd’s of London.  The widely-cited decisions issued in these seminal cases reinvigorated the “follow the fortunes” doctrine and established under New York law that a reinsurer may deny a reinsurance claim on late notice grounds only if it establishes prejudice.

In May 2004, following a 10-week jury trial and three years of massive litigation, a New York jury sitting just blocks away from Ground Zero returned a unanimous verdict in favor of Swiss Re, represented in the matter by STB, in the multi-billion dollar World Trade Center insurance litigation.  STB took the lead among insurance counsel throughout the three-year litigation.  The Firm’s trial achievement was recognized as one of the top ten defense wins of 2004 by the National Law Journal.