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Transactional Liability

Our team acts for leading UK and global insurers and can advise on underwriting, due diligence, policy wording and claims issues arising from transactional liability policies. 

Overview

Our extensive experience, having been involved in the early development of the transactional liability market, includes advising upon numerous bespoke transaction-specific wordings and drafting standard form policies for leading carriers and MGAs.

Our team advises insurers on policy coverage issues under both buy and sell side warranty and indemnity insurance policies and frequently deals with coverage disputes whether pre-action or defending proceedings. We are able to assist in a number of jurisdictions due to our experienced international network and are able to draw upon the experience of experts around the firm where required.

We provide realistic assessments on liability and commercially sensible strategies for defending underlying disputes and managing exposure to quantum together with managing important broker and insured relationships.

We recognise the increasing notification frequency and severity of claims and provide a quick turnaround with high quality service on these complex matters.

Featured experience

  • Acting for the successful insurers in the case of Finsbury Food Group Plc v AXIS Corporate Capital UK Ltd & Ors [2023] EWHC 1559 (Comm), where the policyholder's claim for indemnity under a warranty and indemnity policy was dismissed and insurers obtained recovery of costs on the indemnity basis. This is the first case concerning W&I insurance to have been determined by the Commercial Court.
  • Advising Insurers on a variety of claims involving alleged breaches of accounting warranties, IT warranties, warranties relating to material contracts, client relationships and renewable energy assets, warranties relating to anti bribery and corruption, stock and asset claims, leaseholder obligations and other matters. These claims vary in size from the very high value (in excess of £50M) to smaller and medium sized matters and can involve alleged fraud.
  • Advising Insurers in respect of a £13M claim brought by the buyer of a Swedish manufacturing company against the sellers alleging deliberate misrepresentation and bad faith.
  • Advising Insurers in relation to a £14M claim for alleged breach of warranties relating to the acquisition of a solar farm.
  • Instructed by a big 4 accountancy firm in relation to expert advice given in court proceedings to defend a £20m breach of warranty claim.
  • Successfully reaching a mediated solution in relation to a £20M claim in the healthcare technology sector.
  • Successfully identifying the structural flaws with, and hence deterring, what was likely to be an extremely large claim (£55m) against a policy of W&I insurance in respect of diesel trading and an investigation brought by the Serious Fraud Office.
  • Acting on a c£25m breach of warranty and subrogation recovery matter for Insurers.
  • Resolving a coverage determination in respect of a large claim against W&I insurance in respect of a consumer technology business, without the need for contentious proceedings.
  • Acting on a coverage dispute in respect of a collection of renewable energy assets, with complex issues of energy market regulation and practice, interaction between the Share Purchase Agreement and Policy, applicability of exclusions and disclosure.

Transactional Liability key contacts

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Kirsty Hick

Partner

London

Kirsty Hick

Partner

London

+44 (0)20 7894 6378

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Jack Holling

Partner

London

Jack Holling

Partner

London

+44 (0)20 7894 6001

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Julian Bubb Humfryes

Senior Associate

London

Julian Bubb Humfryes

Senior Associate

London

+44(0)20 7894 6137

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Who we are

Why choose DAC Beachcroft?

We’re a broad-based commercial firm serving a wide range of sectors with a strong heritage in insurance,
health and real estate. We combine excellent legal skills and cutting-edge delivery expertise to design
solutions that fit the needs of our clients – often involving clever uses of technology.

More about us