Name: Benjamin Lyon Firm: Debevoise & Plimpton LLP Location: London University: University of Auckland Degree: Law and commerce
traineeships, you can tell very quickly which ones come to insurance for six months with a real interest in the subject,” Benjamin says. “I had a genuine interest in the corporate world, as well as business and finance, and that’s continued throughout my career. It’s vital to be interested in what you’re doing, because you’re going to be doing it for a long time!” He also recommends that lawyers at the start of their careers get the broadest legal education that they can. “You never know where you’re going to end up,” he notes. “If you told me 15 years ago that I’d be a senior insurance lawyer at a US law firm in London, I would’ve laughed at you. But because I got a very broad corporate legal education in New Zealand – I did capital markets work, general corporate advisory, M&A and commercial contracts – I found a speciality that I love. Having that broad legal education is critical to help you find the area that interests you.”
impact on asset prices negatively affected the investments that insurers hold against their future expected payments to their insurance customers and led to certain insurers raising additional capital to up any shortfall,” explains Benjamin. “Second, there’s been significant uncertainty as to whether certain insurance policies cover business costs and losses resulting from covid-19. This is a reputational issue for the insurance industry akin to the cloud that the investment banking industry still operates under following the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. It seems clear that a number of insureds may have been mis-sold business interruption insurance that they thought would cover them for losses and costs arising from covid-19. Generally, almost all such insurance policies have specific exclusions for pandemic coverage or are required by their regulators to not provide coverage on the basis that pandemic losses would likely render insurance firms insolvent should a significant event arise such as covid-19 – leaving all other insured with no over for their other policies.” Ongoing regulatory changes The ever-changing landscape of insurance regulation at the EU level is another variable that poses a significant challenge for insurance lawyers going forward. “Solvency II is the European directive that governs insurance broadly and that key piece of legislation isn’t changing at a great rate of knots,” Benjamin says. “However, there are other EU directives and other continual changes in law and regulation that insurers need to comply with. People want certainty and ongoing regulatory change can disrupt that. While these changes can lead to more work for law firms, it’s difficult for young insurance lawyers to learn about regulations if they keep changing every six months.” Be interested in what you do Having a genuine interest in insurance is key to being successful in this area of law. “When we have junior lawyers going through their
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