Michael K. Robles is partner in Crowell & Moring's New York office, where he concentrates his practice on matters relating to insurance and reinsurance dispute resolution. Mike has been involved in dozens of negotiations, mediations, arbitrations, and litigations involving a litany of substantive and procedural issues. Mike has been at the forefront of some of the highest profile cases involving the insurance and reinsurance industry over the past decade, including disputes relating to finite reinsurance (civil and criminal); worker's compensation carve-out reinsurance; bad faith run-off practices under traditional reinsurance contracts and LPTs, stop loss, and 100 percent reinsurance agreements; and life insurance and reinsurance, including reinsurance of variable annuities and viaticals/life settlements.
The issues involved in these matters have run the gamut and ranged from misrepresentation, non-disclosure, and rescission cases; to complex issues of contract construction and underwriting intent; to issues relating to number of occurrences, including aggregate extension clauses and "event" language, consolidation, privilege and access to records, LOC/security disputes, DJ expenses, ECO, XPL, allocation, multi-year and stub policies (including annualization), and everything in between. Some examples of Mike's representations include:
- Obtained 100 percent relief, including 100 percent of the attorneys' fees incurred by our client, in an arbitration against a Japanese reinsurer which sought rescission of dozens of reinsurance contracts and the return of millions of dollars in loss payments.
- Represented ceding companies against reinsurers who allegedly adopted/implemented "Slow Pay, No Pay" schemes to force favorable settlements/commutations.
- Represented private equity fund in connection with RICO/fraud claim against reinsurer which provided 100 percent reinsurance of run-off liabilities.
- Represented reinsurer in a dispute under a worker's compensation carve-out reinsurance contract involving September 11th rescue, recovery, and clean-up claims; specifically, issues concerning aggregation of claims under "event" language, application of "occupational disease" exclusion, and the inclusion of actuarial projections of potential future exposure under "sunset" and "commutation" clauses.
- Represented U.S. life reinsurer in connection with dispute concerning variable annuities.
- Represented life settlement provider in connection with dispute concerning "pay first" provision in contingency insurance policy.
Affiliations
Admitted to practice: New York, New Jersey (inactive), U.S. District for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Speeches & Presentations
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"What a Headache: Mock Reinsurance Arbitration and Roundtable Concerning Sports-Related Head Injuries," AIRROC 2013 West Coast Insurance and Reinsurance Conference, Newport Beach, CA
(September 19, 2013).
Speakers: Michael K. Robles and Brian J. O'Sullivan.
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"First Annual West Coast AIRROC Insurance and Reinsurance Conference," Primer on Reinsurance; Commutations; Cyber Risk
(September 20, 2012).
Co-Chair and Panelist: Michael K. Robles.
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RAA's "Re Contracts: The Art of Designing Reinsurance Contracts and Programs"
(July 22, 2010).
Panelist: Michael K. Robles.
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"Risk-Sharing, Hedging and Regulatory Considerations for a New Generation of Variable Annuities," American Conference Institute 3rd Annual Legal and Strategic Forum on Life Reinsurance
(January 27, 2009).
Speaker: Michael K. Robles.
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