Barry Leigh Weissman is a partner in the Insurance and Reinsurance Department at Edwards Wildman Palmer. His practice encompasses all forms of dispute resolution including arbitration, litigation and mediation in state and federal courts on behalf of insurance and reinsurance companies on bad faith, complex litigation and multidistrict matters. Mr. Weissman also represents insurance and reinsurance companies in regulatory and transactional matters.
He has represented American, European and Asian clients in a variety of complex reinsurance, commercial and litigation matters, many of which have involved cross border issues such as mergers and acquisitions, dispute resolution and insurance regulatory matters. Mr.Weissman has also been involved in matters in jurisdictions outside of the United States, for example the United Kingdom, Japan and Korea.
Mr. Weissman has served as Managing Partner and General Counsel of an international law firm and as outside General Counsel to several insurance companies. He works closely with the senior management of various reinsurance and insurance companies advising on techniques concerning the avoidance and handling of dispute resolution, contract drafting and regulatory issues.
His practice also encompasses transactional matters such as regulations, licensing, acquisitions and mergers of insurance and reinsurance companies. Mr. Weissman is experienced in all phases of litigation in New York and California state and federal courts, as well as in mediations and arbitrations. He is certified as a reinsurance arbitrator by ARIAS and by IAIR in both Claims and Reinsurance.
Mr. Weissman recently served as the Chair of the Standing Committee on Insurance Law of the Business Law Section of the State Bar of California as well as being active on several working groups of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. He previously served on the California State Senate Advisory Commission on Malpractice Insurance, and as a member of the American Bar Associations general Practice Association's General Practice, International Law, and Litigation Sections including serving as a Member of the Council of the General Practice Section. Mr. Weissman is listed in the 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 editions of Chambers USA: Leading Lawyers for Business and was named as a Southern California Super Lawyer by Law & Politics in 2005, 2007 and 2010.
Notable Experience
ˇ Represented both reinsurers and cedents in litigation and arbitration matters, including, but not limited to, issues of clash covers, catastrophe covers, workers compensation carve out coverage, environmental coverage, accounting and actuarial disputes, contract wording issues, fraud and rescission claims, pools, declaratory judgment expenses and fronting and agency issues.
ˇ Represented life insurers in litigation and licensing matters.
ˇ Consulted with and advised the government of Korea in its efforts to sell seven of Korea's insolvent life insurance companies.
ˇ Counseled and advised reinsurers on how to deal with insurance companies in liquidation as well as led teams in the defending of arbitrations instituted by the liquidators.
ˇ Counseled, advised and represented insurance and reinsurance companies before regulatory bodies in various US jurisdictions.
ˇ Drafted regulations and testified at hearings on behalf of insurers, reinsurers and various lobbying organizations in our successful efforts to force the California Department of Insurance to modify its Proposed Reinsurance Oversight Regulations resulting in the passage of reinsurance legislation in California in 2006.
ˇ Led a litigation team in multiple actions in which insurance companies were being sued in declaratory judgment actions, including bad faith. Such major matters included film financing cases in which insurance companies were defendants in actions in New York, California and London.
ˇ Advised, counseled and tried as lead counsel over 20 bad faith matters for insurers in state and federal courts.
ˇ Advised, counseled and served on team as California monitoring counsel for coverage and bad faith claims for a national insurance company.
ˇ Involved in the litigation on behalf of insurers in environmental coverage actions in California. A core component of all the actions in addition to coverage was bad faith.
ˇ Served as the outside General Counsel of the Superior National Insurance Companies in Liquidation. I was lead counsel in the successful action by Superior National to recover over $250 million for the liquidated company. A major component of our action dealt with bad faith.
ˇ Counseled, advised and represent the Superintendent of Insurance of the State of New York as rehabilitator of Frontier Insurance Company in Rehabilitation in various actions in California.
ˇ Counseled, advised and represented the Insurance Commissioner of the State of California in actions brought against him by Anthem Insurance Company in order to force the Insurance Commissioner to allow the merger of Anthem and Wellpoint in California.
ˇ Counseled and advised the Commissioner of the Nevada Division of Insurance in the acquisition of the Nevada domestic company, the resulting hearings and dealings with the Federal Trade Commission regarding competition issues that resulted from the acquisition.
Before Edwards Wildman
Mr. Weissman was a partner in a international law firm.
News & Publications
March 2012, New IRD Partners
Insurance and Reinsurance Review - March 2012
January 30, 2012, Barry Weissman to Launch LA Insurance Practice of Edwards Wildman
New partner to expand reach of globally recognized insurance and reinsurance group
Events
May 3, 2012, Hamilton, Bermuda, Current Trends In International Insurance and Reinsurance
Memberships
ˇ International Association of Insurance Receivers
ˇ ARIAS
ˇ National Conference of Insurance Legislators