Clyde & Co today announced its intention to open an office in San Francisco effective 28 April 2008.
A team of four partners and six associates from US law firm Duane Morris, has joined the firm. William J. Casey, Joan N. D’Ambrosio, Savannah Sellman and Andrew Wanger will be resident partners in the San Francisco office. Kevin Sutherland, a partner in Clyde & Co’s Los Angeles office, will join the team and consolidate the firm’s West Coast practice in San Francisco.
This senior team of litigators has worked extensively with Clyde & Co in the past and has already achieved an excellent reputation in the London insurance market. Each partner has a vast amount of experience and a well established practice in defending and advising insurers and reinsurers in complex insurance coverage actions and arbitrations involving professional liability, media and entertainment, intellectual property, health care and environmental and space/satellite matters.
Clyde & Co currently handles extremely complex, high-value, international matters on behalf of the insurance and aviation markets. The addition of the new team will bolster their global insurance practice in the US and strengthen the firm's capability in the developing areas of technology, design healthcare professional liability.
The decision to open in San Francisco with such a prominent, well-established team serving the international insurance and aviation industries is the next stage in Clyde & Co's strategy to develop a leading insurance practice in the US. Opening this office will also provide a platform for future growth.
The San Francisco office will be an integral part of the firm and will complement the skills of the New York practice, providing Clyde & Co with significant teams on both East and West coasts.
The move is also significant because it positions the firm in a location that is globally recognised as the primary financial and insurance centre on the West Coast.
Clyde & Co senior partner Michael Payton said, “As a firm that is closely aligned with the insurance industry we are largely free of the conflict problems that bedevil so many US firms in this arena. The purpose of this addition is to augment our core areas of insurance and reinsurance and to compliment the aviation practice for our UK, European, Asian, Middle Eastern and US clients. This team of lawyers is extremely well-known to and respected in the insurance market and will make a valuable addition to the firm."
William Casey added, “We are very excited at the prospect of joining a firm that has its primary focus on insurance and reinsurance issues. We are looking forward to being a part of Clyde & Co's team of lawyers providing superior legal services to insurance clients throughout the world."
The team wish to recruit additional staff as soon as possible to ensure that their valued client base continues to receive the highest quality of service. In addition, the firm’s aviation practice will be further strengthened by the addition of lawyers on the West Coast.