John is a Partner in Kennedys’ London office. He qualified in England and Wales in 1999, and leads the firm’s financial lines practice.
John has spent periods of his career working in New York and China.
For the majority of John’s career, he has focused on financial lines matters. John’s practice is split roughly 50/50 in terms of insurance coverage instructions and defence work.
In terms of coverage instructions, John is regularly instructed in relation to very high value and/or complex matters across the spectrum of financial lines policies, including financial institutions, directors’ and officers’, crime, professional indemnity and pension trustee liability policies. He is also instructed in relation to warranty and indemnity claims.
As to defence instructions, John defends financial and other professionals and also directors and officers. He is, in particular, known for defending asset managers, independent financial advisers (IFAs), directors and officers and corporate service providers.
John’s work, both coverage and defence, frequently has an international aspect, with his current workload involving claims emanating from Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean, the Middle East, Asia and Australia.
John also advises in relation to cyber, his practice having evolved from the crossover between the traditional financial institutions computer crime product and the more recent cyber offering.
John is the sole lawyer on the London Market Association’s Financial Institutions Underwriting Business Panel where he advises the committee on emerging issues and trends, realistic disaster scenario exercises and wordings. He is also a member of the Fraud Advisory Panel, the Insurance Underwriting Association’s Cyber Legal and Claims Sub-Group (one of two lawyers on the panel) and the Forum of Insurance Lawyers (FOIL).
A keen lecturer in the UK and around the world, including the US, John also writes for the insurance press.
John is highly praised by clients.
Quotes from the Gracechurch London Insurance Law Report 2016 include: “he's practical, pragmatic. He gets what I want and delivers” and he is “user-friendly, approachable, technically excellent and has … excellent client manners with our direct clients”.
Qualifications
- Qualified as a Solicitor in England and Wales in 1999
