Wynne Lawrence

Full Profile

Wynne is a Partner in the Insurance and Reinsurance disputes team in the London office and a founding member of the firm’s cross-disciplinary Climate Change and Resilience practice group.
Wynne specialises in (re)insurance coverage disputes, with a focus on complex reinsurance matters involving multiple parties and jurisdictions. She acts for both cedents and reinsurers on common and uncommon issues arising under facultative and treaty reinsurance. Wynne also has particular experience in disputes related to run-off transactions and insurance linked securities (ILS). 

She advises on issues under reinsurances governed by English law, often for Lloyd’s and London market clients. In addition she provides advice on English or international reinsurance custom and jurisprudence where this is relevant under reinsurances governed by other systems of law. Wynne represents global (re)insurance market clients involved in disputes before the English High Court and Arbitration tribunals (ad hoc, ARIAS, LCIA) and regularly advises on UK (re)insurance regulatory matters (FCA and Lloyd's) and wordings. 

Wynne is a recognised thought leader on climate liability risk and the insurance industry response to the challenge of climate change and other emerging planetary boundary risks. She was lead author of the Insurance Development Forum’s report on "Technology and the protection gap" and Clyde & Co’s series of reports on Climate Change Liability Risk and Biodiversity Liability Risk and co-author of the Geneva Association’s flagship report on Climate Litigation.  

In her climate change consultancy work, Wynne advises insurers and companies in other industries (shipping, aviation, trade and commodities, natural resources) on climate liability risk exposures, and arranges bespoke seminars and workshops on climate-related liability risks to businesses, directors and officers, including in line with the Bank of England’s CBES (Climate Biennial Exploratory Scenario). 

Wynne sits on the International Underwriting Association (IUA)’s Climate Change and ESG Committees and is actively involved in the firm’s membership of the Net Zero Lawyers’ Alliance and the Insurance & Reinsurance Legacy Association.  

Experience

• Advising on contractual interpretation and aggregation under reinsurance treaties in relation to Covid-19 and Ukraine war-related losses and conducting intensive fact analysis of claims across jurisdictions
• Working with clients on in-depth reinsurance wordings analysis and reviews including assistance with renewal negotiations, developing precedent banks and drafting notes 
• Successfully securing a worldwide freezing injunction in the High Court for insurer clients
• Advising on strategy and securing a favourable settlement in a long-running reinsurance dispute involving multiple jurisdictions and contract parties across a number of years of account
• Advising on reinsurance and co-insurance recovery strategy in respect of legacy claims