Kerrie is Of Counsel in our Financial Regulation Group. She is a (re)insurance lawyer with over 18 years’ experience advising insurers, reinsurers and start-ups on regulatory, licensing and commercial matters. She has held both senior in-house legal roles in major international insurers and reinsurers, and at early-stage insurtechs, as well as practised at leading firms in both Dublin and London.

Kerrie advises insurance and reinsurance undertakings, intermediaries and insurtechs on Irish and EU regulatory requirements, including authorisation and licensing, Solvency II, the Insurance Distribution Directive, governance, conduct of business, product design and individual accountability, and on the reinsurance structures that sit behind them.

She trained and qualified at a leading London (re)insurance practice, handling complex coverage disputes and RCJ litigation for Lloyd’s and London market clients, and went on to advise on Irish and pan-EU (re)insurance regulation, products and corporate transactions in the (re)insurance department of a top-tier Irish firm.

Her in-house career spans reinsurance, life and non-life insurance, and insurtech: Senior Legal Counsel at PartnerRe, Regional Legal Counsel at Elips Life (Swiss Re), and Head of Legal and UK Branch Manager at Companjon, where she supported the international growth of this early-stage insurtech.

She has advised on and negotiated a wide variety of funded and non-funded reinsurance and retrocession arrangements, longevity and alternative risk structures, MGA, Binding Authority, TOBA, distribution, outsourcing and technology agreements for (re)insurance clients. She takes clients from advice through to implementation, having sat on both the adviser and the operator side of the same requirements.

Relevant Experience

  • Sole legal support on funded reinsurance and retrocession transactions, including complex funds withheld structures
  • Led the legal function of an early-stage insurtech group spanning a regulated insurance undertaking and its distribution business
  • Led the EU, US and wider international entity set-up, incorporation and licensing of an insurance group
  • Approved by the Central Bank of Ireland (PCF) and the Financial Conduct Authority (SMF); key liaison with both regulators on licensing and compliance
  • Managed MGAs, UK appointed representatives and EU tied agents, negotiating Binding Authorities and TOBAs and overseeing delegated authority and outsourcing
  • Advised on embedded non-life insurtech products and technology-platform distribution models under the Insurance Distribution Directive, including policy wording drafting
  • Represented clients in regulatory investigations before the Central Bank of Ireland, the FBI and An Garda Síochána