Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP

Francis Mackie Edwards Wildman Palmer UK LLP Partner London Tel +44 (0) 20 7556 4370 Fax +44 (0) 20 7716 3602 Download VCard

Francis has over 30 years experience in the (re)insurance sector. His practice is well known in the London Market and International Arbitration arena, where he has run arbitrations in London, Bermuda, the US and Europe. His dispute practice also includes significant London Commercial Court cases/disputes. 

Francis covers a wide range of insurance and reinsurance sectors, mainly dealing with dispute, advice and coverage issues, with particular experience in energy, professional indemnity, political risks/contract frustration, commercial property, financial institutions/D&O, pharmaceutical/product liability, contingency risks, binding authorities, marine excess of loss market and MGA's. Over the years he has been involved in a wide range of coverage and contractual disputes involving these types of insurances/reinsurances. 

Francis is noted in the current edition of Legal 500 (UK) as being "completely unflappable and is a central figure in the field of insurance and reinsurance disputes".  Similarly, in the current edition of Chambers & Partners Guides to the World's Leading Lawyers (UK), he is noted as "an extremely well-established figure on the insurance and reinsurance landscape." Francis is listed in 'The International Who's Who of Insurance & Reinsurance Lawyers'.  All of these publications are based on independent industry research.

Francis has been involved in some of the most important and significant insurance and reinsurance cases and authorities that have been decided either by arbitration or the London Commercial Court.

Examples include:

• Societe Anonyme d'Intermediaries Luxembourgeois (SAIL) v Farex Gie Court of Appeal (Civil Division) [1995]
  
  
• Commercial Union Assurance Co Plc v Mander Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) [1996]
  
  
• BP Plc v GE Frankona Reinsurance Ltd Queen's Bench Division (Commercial Court) [2003]

Much of the dispute work is in the arbitration arena:

• He is well known for his success in acting for the London and International Reinsurance market in the very large Eastern European Shipbuilding arbitration dispute several years ago in the London Market.
  
  
• He has been involved in market arbitrations involving pharmaceutical liability insurances and reinsurances in recent years, some of which involved the Bermuda Form.
  
  
• Has been involved over the years in a number of London Market arbitrations involving the International PA/Accident Health market.

• "Underwriters told to stay away from long-tail hydrofracturing liability coverage," quoted, Insurance Day, July 2012.
  
  
• "Traditional energy policies inadequate for emerging risks," quoted Insurance Day, July 2012.
  
  
• Francis regularly speaks at conferences on current insurance and reinsurance legal issues, in both the UK and overseas. He has recently spoken about financial institution claims from 2008 onwards for seminars run by both the LMA and the IUA/London Company Market and has spoken on the outcome of the WASA –v- Lexington case and its impact on the reinsurance market.
  
  
• "Insurance Contract Law Reform - Proposed Amendments to the Duty of Good Faith," co-author, Edwards Wildman Palmer Insurance and Reinsurance Review, September 2010.

• More Publications...

Francis joined the firm's London office in June 2010, having previously been the Global Co-Chair of the Insurance and Reinsurance Dispute Practice of Dewey & LeBoeuf.  From 1993-2006 he was at Norton Rose and was head of the Insurance Group from 2000-2006.