Kennedys

Our Firm

The Bermuda office of the Global Firm Kennedys  is one of the leading commercial law firms in Bermuda.

Our insurance and dispute resolution partners have extensive experience advising clients on some of the largest and most complex legal issues facing insurers, reinsurers, banks, investment funds, trustees, companies, shareholders and financial and professional service providers.

Our corporate and finance partners have been involved in some of the most complex and ground-breaking transactions in Bermuda, regularly advising banks, insurers, other financial institutions, borrowers and overseas and domestic investors on all aspects of their businesses.

Our insolvency and regulatory teams also advise on a wide range of domestic and cross border insolvency procedures, restructurings and corporate reorganisations.

Our global reach as part of Kennedys, our local and international experience, and our deep sector knowledge ensure that our lawyers have an extensive understanding of the global and local issues facing our clients.

Our Practice

We advise on both contentious and non-contentious corporate, commercial and finance matters affecting, among others, insurers and reinsurers, banks, trustees and beneficiaries, insolvency practitioners and creditors, investment funds,  financial and professional service providers, regulated and unregulated companies and their investors and lenders. We are highly experienced both in advising and representing clients in a range of contentious and non-contentious matters.

Insurance and Reinsurance

Our specialist insurance and reinsurance practice is one of only a small number in Bermuda able to offer dedicated expert advice and representation on both contentious and non-contentious matters across multiple product lines and business structures.

On the non-contentious side, our corporate insurance team has assisted insurers, reinsurers and intermediaries, their owners and lenders with licensing, mergers and acquisitions, re-domestications, business transfers and capital-raising exercises, both private and public. They have also helped clients establish collateralised insurance structures in Bermuda for use in ILS transactions and have advised on a number of complex insurance and reinsurance deal structures both in the long-term (life and annuity) and general (P&C) business sectors.

The team is also expert in advising on all aspects of Bermuda regulation of insurance business. They frequently advise clients on capital treatment, acquisition of and investment in subsidiaries and the use of reinsurance to provide capital relief. The team also advises insurer clients on a range of compliance matters such as AML/ATF, CRS, economic substance, personal information protection, ABAC and code of conduct issues.  We also represent licensed entities and their directors and officers in relation to regulatory investigations and enforcement actions.

On the claims and contentious side of our insurance practice, we advise and represent clients in coverage, litigation and arbitration matters across almost all classes of business, including general liability (including the “Bermuda Form”), professional liability, directors' and officers' liability, employment practices liability, financial institutions, product liability, Industry Loss Warranties, Insurance Linked Securities, captive insurance programmes, property, life insurance and other classes of long-term business, environmental liability, construction, and marine .

We offer a “one stop” service for insurance and reinsurance arbitration work, including arbitrations seated or held in Bermuda, London, Toronto, the United States and elsewhere. We are in a unique position to offer clients access to Kennedys’ global network and highly specialist insurance teams in London, New York, and throughout North America, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Our team also offers unique specialist expertise advising and acting on Offshore Professional Risks, involving claims in offshore jurisdictions (including Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and British Virgin Islands) relating to directors,  trustees, fiduciaries, corporate service providers, lawyers, accountants, fund managers and administrators, auditors, insolvency practitioners, financial institutions, insurance brokers, captive managers, architects, building professionals, and medical professionals.

Dispute Resolution and Restructuring

We have appeared in some of the largest and most complex commercial disputes before the Supreme Court of Bermuda, as well as conducting appeals before the Court of Appeal for Bermuda and the Privy Council in London.

We act for both plaintiffs and defendants in a broad range of commercial disputes in the Bermuda courts and through arbitration. This includes acting in corporate disputes, including shareholder disputes, claims involving company directors, partnership disputes, claims by beneficiaries and against trustees, insolvency disputes (representing both insolvency practitioners and creditors), breach of confidence disputes, and claims against professionals among others.

We have experience dealing with applications for injunctive and other urgent relief, including freezing injunctions, anti-suit injunctions, and provisional liquidation appointments. We are also regularly involved in asset tracing and asset recovery proceedings, contested winding-up petitions, minority shareholder petitions, merger appraisal litigation and corporate governance disputes, as well as applications for the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitration awards, and for the production of evidence for use in foreign proceedings.

We also advise and represent creditors, liquidators, debtor companies and contributories in a broad range of insolvency and restructuring matters.

Corporate, Finance and Real Estate

We regularly advise clients in connection with a wide range of corporate, commercial and banking transactions and large scale infrastructure projects, including mergers and amalgamations, re-domestications, public and private offers of securities, lending and security, shareholders agreements, amendments and restatements of bye-laws, partnership agreements and acquisitions and disposals of shares and businesses. Our lawyers have been involved in a number of ground-breaking matters, including Bermuda’s first PPP project and Bermuda’s first industrial scale solar project. Our clients include banks, insurers, developers, trading companies, professional service companies, unregulated companies and their investors and lenders.

Our services also encompass real estate and trusts matters. Our lawyers regularly advise developers, investors and funders on all aspects of project finance, real estate development and infrastructure projects with particular experience in the hospitality and leisure sector.