Insurance

James Grennan

James Grennan is a partner in A&L Goodbody's Corporate department and Head of the Insurance group. From 1995 to 1999 James managed A&L Goodbody’s London office. His area of particular expertise is the insurance industry. His practice embraces all aspects of insurance law and regulation including the set up and authorisation of insurers, ongoing regulation, the provision of cross-border services, sale and purchase of insurance companies and insurance businesses, captive insurance, authorisation and regulation of insurance intermediaries, contracts, regulatory investigations and enforcement actions and statutory compensation schemes. He advises life and non-life insurers, health insurers, reinsurers, captives and intermediaries. He played a major role in the A&L Goodbody legal team that advised the Irish Government’s Department of Finance on the establishment of the Irish Financial Regulator. He was also instrumental in having Irish law amended to facilitate the operations of life assurers in the International Financial Services Centre and in drafting other legislation to address insurance industry concerns. He has advised on many of the most significant insurance transactions and developments in recent decades.

John Larkin

John is Co-Head of William Fry’s Insurance Department. He advises insurance and reinsurance companies, as well as intermediaries, on all aspects of their business including M&A transactions, portfolio transfers, restructurings, contractual negotiations and regulatory matters. He also has extensive experience in helping insurance and reinsurance companies obtain authorisation from the Central Bank of Ireland and on passporting into other EEA markets.

Darren Maher

Darren Maher is a partner and Head of the Financial Institutions Group at Matheson. He has advised a wide range of leading domestic and international financial institutions on all aspects of financial services law and regulation including establishment and authorisation, development and distribution of products, compliance, corporate governance and re-organisations including cross-border mergers, schemes of arrangement, portfolio transfers and mergers and acquisitions. Darren is a member of the firm’s Brexit Advisory Group and is advising a significant number of the world’s leading financial services firms on their plans to establish a regulated subsidiary in Ireland in order to maintain access to the EU single market following the United Kingdom’s exit from the EU. Darren frequently publishes articles in financial services publications and is co-author of Law Business Research’s Insurance and Reinsurance Law Review, and co-contributor to ICLG’s Guide to Insurance and Reinsurance. Darren lectures at the Law Society of Ireland and the Insurance Institute of Ireland.

Stephen Barry

Partner, Dispute Resolution & Litigation

Gráinne Callanan

Gráinne Callanan leads Matheson’s Cork office and is a partner in the Financial Institutions Group. Gráinne advises a wide range of leading domestic and international financial institutions doing business in and from Ireland including life and non-life (re)insurance companies, captive insurers and intermediaries on corporate transactions, regulatory and compliance and corporate governance. Gráinne has extensive expertise in the areas of new authorisations, portfolio transfers, cross-border mergers, corporate restructurings, distribution arrangements and health insurance. She has advised on a wide range of innovative transactions in the insurance market in recent times and has taken a leading role advising clients on a number of significant acquisitions of closed books of life insurance businesses. Gráinne lectures at the Law Society of Ireland and the Insurance Institute of Ireland. Gráinne is also a member of the Cork Financial Services Forum.

Eoin Caulfield

Eoin Caulfield is a a Partner and Co-Head of William Fry’s Insurance Department. He joined the Firm in 1995. His practice involves a combination of insurance and reinsurance work, both on the non-life and life side, together with a general corporate and financial services client base.

April McClements

April McClements is a Partner in the Insurance and Dispute Resolution team.  April is a commercial litigator and specialises in insurance disputes. April advises insurance companies on policy wording interpretation, complex coverage disputes (in particular relating to financial lines policies), D&O claims, professional indemnity claims, including any potential third party liability, and subrogation claims.  April manages a significant number of professional indemnity claims for professionals, including insurance brokers, architects and engineers, for a variety of insurers. April has been involved in obtaining High Court approval for various insurance portfolio transfers and/or schemes of arrangement arising from reorganisations and/or mergers and acquisitions involving life, non-life and captive insurers.  April also works in the area of general commercial litigation with a particular focus on contractual disputes, most of which are litigated in the Commercial Court.  She is also a strong advocate of ADR and has acted for clients in mediations and arbitration. April is a member of the Law Society of Ireland, the Insurance Institute of Ireland and the British Insurance Law Association. She has contributed to various industry publications and has participated in seminars as a speaker on insurance issues.

Garrett Miller

Garrett is a Corporate Partner. Garrett’s applies his corporate and commercial experience across a range of clients and sectors including automotive, integrated IT solutions, offshore exploration and retail.  However his specialisation concentrates on non-contentious insurance supervision and regulation including the  authorisation of insurance entities, the provision of cross-border services, compliance obligations, governance, new product development, policy wording and intermediary arrangements. He has advised domestic and international insurance companies and intermediaries on the sale, purchase and/or absorption of businesses and the consolidation and restructuring of their existing operations. His insurance client base includes various life and non-life insurers, reinsurers and different types of intermediaries.  More recently, he has assisted clients bringing new products to market and/or using new, sometimes branded, distribution channels. The impact of recently enhanced consumer protection for insurance products has also resulted in a steady stream of instructions.

Laura Mulleady

Laura Mulleady is a partner in A&L Goodbody's Corporate practice, specialising in Insurance & Reinsurance. Her practice is focused on advising domestic and cross-border insurers, reinsurers, captives and intermediaries on all aspects of non-contentious insurance and reinsurance regulation and transactions. Laura is also the Head of A&L Goodbody's ESG & Sustainability Steering Group and she regularly presents to insurance industry clients on ESG and sustainability-related topics. Laura was named in the global list 'IFLR1000 Women Leaders 2022'.

Darragh Murphy

Darragh is a partner in the firm’s Finance Group, specialising in regulatory matters. In particular, he advises on regulatory and commercial matters relevant to financial services businesses, including insurance undertakings, investment management operations, fund promoters, banking entities and payment service providers. Darragh’s practice covers all aspects of carrying on regulated financial services and consumer credit related activities in Ireland whether in relation to the authorisation of entities in this sector, their ongoing business requirements (customer, counterparty and/or regulator facing) and/or problem resolution. Darragh advises extensively on the regulated activities of insurance and reinsurance undertakings – working on many significant corporate and regulatory driven transactions in this area. He also advises banks and other financial institutions dealing with payment services and other FinTech issues, including: SEPA payment systems, credit cards, payment instruments and e-money.

Brian Quigley

Brian specialises in commercial disputes with a focus on financial services disputes including those involving a range of mis-selling related claims against financial institutions and intermediaries both before the courts and the Financial Services Ombudsman. He also advises on the insurance and regulatory issues arising out of such mis-selling claims, administrative law disputes and related judicial reviews, statutory investigations and enforcement, insurance disputes in particular professional negligence claims, partnership disputes, asset recovery following fraud and property disputes including landlord & tenant claims. His clients include bodies regulated by the Financial Regulator for the provision of financial services, investment funds, entities the subject of fraud and State bodies.