Mark C Everiss

Partner

Practice areas

• Insurance and reinsurance

Practice notes

Mark Everiss focuses on insurance and reinsurance policy wording and coverage advice and disputes. He has represented clients in the London insurance market for over 25 years.

Mark has handled many significant cases both in the High Court and in arbitration involving various business lines, including third party liability, onshore and offshore energy, financial institutions, product liability, D&O, cyber, warranty & indemnity and contingency, as well as reinsurance disputes in the live and legacy markets.

In his spare time, Mark enjoys playing and watching various sports. He is an avid collector of eclectic sporting memorabilia and art.

Mark has been a director of the Insurance & Reinsurance Legacy Association since 2007. He headed up the organising committee of the IRLA Annual Congress from 2017 to 2021. He is also an active member of BILA.

His recent publications include:

• “Warranty and Indemnity Insurance in the COVID Era”, Zeitschrift für Versicherungswesen, 29 November 2021
• “Inspection of Records by Reinsurers”, Lexis Nexis Practice Note (co-author), November 2021

Mark is a regular speaker at insurance and reinsurance events and conferences and has spoken regularly on UK EL issues, the Insurance Act 2015, warranty & indemnity policies and claims, follow the settlements/aggregation issues and the conduct of arbitration in London.

Mark has represented many insurers and insurance clients over the years on a wide variety of matters, including:

• advising a US insurer in its dispute with a London market entity relating to the sale of the US insurer’s Lloyd’s Syndicate and obtaining summary judgment in favour of the US insurer
• advising the LMA on the £800m government backed “UK live events reinsurance scheme”, protecting live events across the country that were at risk of being cancelled or delayed due to the inability to obtain COVID-19 event cancellation insurance
• advising insurers on claims made on warranty & indemnity and contingency policies
• advising an insurer on a substantial claim arising from a major high profile cyber incident, which involved complex cross border elements
• advising insurers on claims made on their reinsurance policies relating to COVID losses
• advising insurers on claims made on event cancellation policies in light of COVID related cancellations
• advising clients on the recovery of claims from reinsurers in respect of losses on employers’ liability policies
• advising a reinsurer in administration on reinsurance issues and obtaining a substantial judgment for the reinsurer having initially secured a worldwide freezing injunction on its behalf
• working on substantial policy coverage advices on a variety of different categories of business, including professional indemnity, cyber, offshore and onshore energy, and product liability
• advising a London market insurer on a significant dispute with a US policyholder relating to its pollution claims on a Bermuda Form policy
• regularly providing policy wording advice on warranty & indemnity, tax, D&O and cyber business
• drafting and advising on complex settlement and commutation agreements
• winning a number of arbitrations in London, both for domestic and non-domestic clients, as part of projects advising clients on reinsurance recovery strategy in relation to various books of business
• obtaining a number of significant awards for insolvent companies in run-off that have enhanced levels of dividends payable to creditors and that have contributed to the successful acceleration of the their run-offs and/or the closures of their schemes
• representing a major insurance company both in High Court litigation (and a protected cell company administration proceeding in the Guernsey Court) and in a connected arbitration in relation to issues arising from its relationship with a telecommunications mutual association
• obtaining awards in arbitrations for clients, including members of major underwriting pools, seeking payment of claims on their reinsurances
• obtaining awards for reinsurers successfully denying coverage of claims presented and obtaining payment of premium due but not paid
• achieving two awards on two separate issues relating to recoverability of claims, which are of significant importance to the market but which have never been addressed by the courts
• achieving awards on the fundamental issue of the burden of proof in relation to a reinsurance claim and recoverability of DJ costs/Reps fees
• obtaining awards against both domestic and foreign reinsurers and successfully enforcing awards in a variety of jurisdictions (including under the New York Convention)

Mark is recommended in The Legal 500 UK (2022), which notes that, “He has a very impressive control of the facts and will tell you how things are in clear terms” and that “His attention to detail is second to none”.

He is ranked in band 3 in Chambers 2022 Edition, which notes that, “He has an excellent knowledge of the law and the insurance and reinsurance markets. He is also very focused on understanding the clients’ needs and making sure they are met” and that “He is very easy to work with and extremely diligent”. He is also recommended in Euromoney’s Legal Media Group’s Expert Guide for Insurance and Reinsurance.

Qualifications and Education

• LLB (Hons) Law , University of Liverpool