Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright has announced the arrival of a four-person insurance corporate regulatory team to be based in New York and Los Angeles.
The team will be comprised of partner Robert Romano and Stewart Keir who join Locke Lord and will be practising in Norton Rose Fulbright’s New York office.
The other two members of the team, counsel Jonathan Bank and insurance specialists Al Bottalico will be based in the firm’s Los Angeles office.
According to the announcement, The team joins Norton Rose Fulbright’s renowned global insurance practice, with leading practices in the UK, Australia, Singapore and South Africa as well as continental Europe.
Norton Rose Fulbright said: “The team expands the firm’s longstanding work in the US on contentious matters to include all types of noncontentious mandates and the full range of regulatory advice.”
Romano has extensive experience with insurance regulatory and corporate matters. He has assisted clients in numerous M&A, corporate finance and restructuring transactions, with special attention to methods of entry into new and specialty markets for domestic and international insurers, the firm highlighted.
According to the announcement, Romano is the third US lateral partner to join the corporate, M&A and securities practice in the past month, following Rajiv Khanna and Eric Rauch.
He has previously spent two years in a London law firm assisting the Corporation of Lloyd’s and clients in the Lloyd’s and company markets.
Additionally, he frequently attends meetings of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and has recently contributed to rule-making deliberations on reinsurance reform, Insurance Business Transfers and Corporate Divisions.
Bank’s practice focuses on re/insurance matters, insurance company restructuring and regulatory related matters for both the domestic and foreign/alien as well as captive insurance market.
He is actively involved in the run-off industry, involving both Corporate Division and Insurance Business Transfer statutes.
Bank’s has previously been employed by UK market participants, including one of the major accountancy firms, where he spent three years working on a number of major UK insurer liquidations.
Keir and Bottalico are non-lawyer insurance financial and regulatory specialists. They both served in senior positions in insurance regulatory agencies in the US.
Keir has served for 32 years in the New York Insurance Department (now the Insurance Division of the New York Department of Financial Services), his last position being that of Assistant Deputy Superintendent and Chief Insurance Examine.
Bottalico served for 38 years in the California Insurance Department ending his service as Deputy Insurance Commissioner of the Financial Surveillance Branch.
According to the firm, they assist clients with all aspects of insurance regulation and analysis, including statutory accounting, auditing, compliance and liaising with state insurance regulators.
Scarlet McNellie, Norton Rose Fulbright’s US Head of Corporate, M&A and Securities, said: “The regulatory landscape is ever-changing, and insurers rely on our global team to advise them on complex issues. Robert, Jonathan, Al and Stewart have impressive experience which expands Norton Rose Fulbright’s service offerings for our insurance industry clients, especially in the highly-regulated US insurance market.”
