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Philip J. Loree Jr.

Philip J. Loree Jr. has nearly 20 years of experience litigating and arbitrating complex traditional and finite reinsurance and reinsurance-related disputes, counseling clients in reinsurance and insurance matters, and handling matters arising under the Federal Arbitration Act.  Before forming Loree & Loree in 2008 he practiced for nearly 17 years with one of the leading reinsurance practice groups in the United States, and was a partner in the Litigation Departments of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP and Rosenman & Colin LLP.  He was also a shareholder in the Litigation Department of Stevens & Lee, P.C. 

Mr. Loree Jr. has extensive experience arbitrating and litigating matters involving nearly every significant, reinsurance-related issue, including statutory and GAAP reinsurance accounting; transfer of insurance risk; independent auditor liability; fraud and rescission; London Market disputes; pool administration; insolvencies; follow-the-fortunes and follow-the-settlements; allocation of environmental liability and asbestos settlements; number of occurrences; trigger of coverage; issues arising out of multi-year policies; interpretation of reinsurance contracts; underwriting practices; reserving; set off; late notice; pre-hearing and pre-answer security; utmost good faith; bad faith; allocation and recovery of declaratory judgment expenses; and liability of intermediaries, managing general agents and brokers.  He has counseled clients in contentious and non-contentious matters involving regulatory compliance, Hurricane Katrina, commutations, internal reinsurance reviews, contract interpretation, life reinsurance, life settlements, risk transfer, and other issues.    

As a partner at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, he played key roles in a number of high-profile matters.  He was a member of the four-partner trial team that obtained a $1.1 billion arbitration award in favor of Sompo Japan Insurance Company against Fortress Re, Inc., the manager of what was once one of the world’s largest aviation reinsurance pools.  The arbitration concerned, among other things, Fortress Re’s accounting and reporting practices for financial reinsurance, and the $1.1 billion award is reputed to be the largest in the history of reinsurance arbitration.  Mr. Loree Jr. was also a key member of the team that represented Sompo in the related action Sompo brought against Deloitte & Touche, LLP, the independent auditor of the Fortress Re Pool, seeking more than $1 billion in damages.  That matter resulted in what was reputed to be the second largest settlement of an independent auditor liability case in history.   Mr. Loree Jr. and his former partners also represented a large, international reinsurance company in an internal review of finite reinsurance transactions that resulted in a restatement of earnings.

 Mr. Loree Jr. also has extensive experience and expertise in practice and procedure under the Federal Arbitration Act, including matters arising under the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.  He has represented clients in numerous proceedings involving the enforcement of arbitration agreements and the confirmation and vacatur of arbitration awards.  Mr. Loree Jr. argued Nationwide Mut. Ins. Co. v. Home Ins. Co., 429 F.3d 640 (6th Cir. 2005), which rejected an evident partiality and excess of powers challenge to a favorable award Mr. Loree Jr. helped his client obtain.  Considering for the first time what legal standard should apply to an evident partiality claim based on a party-appointed arbitrator’s alleged failure to disclose purported conflicts of interest, the Sixth Circuit rejected the challenging party’s argument that the district court applied the wrong standard.  Nationwide has been cited extensively by courts, treatises and commentators.   

As a Loree & Loree partner Mr. Loree Jr. recently obtained on behalf of an English client partial vacatur of a reinsurance arbitration award in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.  The final award included a provision stating that the arbitration panel would remain constituted until the parties agreed that it should disband.  When the arbitration panel would not disband after resolving all issues the parties submitted to it, Mr. Loree Jr.’s client petitioned the Court for an order vacating the retention of jurisdiction provision and confirming all other aspects of the award.  Mr. Loree Jr. successfully convinced the Court to grant the petition in its entirety, and hold that the retention of jurisdiction provision exceeded the arbitrators’ authority under section 10(a)(4) of the Federal Arbitration Act.  See KX Re Co. v. General Reinsurance Corp., 08 Civ. 7807 (SAS), 2008 WL 4904882 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 14, 2008) (Scheindlin, J.). 

 Mr. Loree Jr.’s publications include: 

 Mr. Loree Jr. attended New York University (B.A. 1986) and Brooklyn Law School (J.D. 1989), where he was editor-in-chief of the Brooklyn Journal of International Law.  He is admitted to practice in New York, and in the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut and the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.  He is a member of the AIDA Reinsurance and Insurance Arbitration Society, ARIAS·U.S.; the American Bar Association; the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; and the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Loree Jr. and his wife, Lori E. Mann, live in Manhasset, New York, and have two daughters.  He is a member of the Manhasset Special Education Parents Teacher Association, and is an avid reader, fly fisher, swimmer, boater, percussionist, legal history buff, and music lover.