James Bateson
Global Head of Financial institutions
Norton Rose Fulbright LLP
Related services and key industries
Biography
James Bateson is the Head of our Financial Institutions and Insurance Group and member of the Corporate, M&A and Securities Department.
James has more than 30 years' experience of advising both domestic and international insurers and reinsurers, private equity firms, investment banks, and other industry participants (including Lloyd's market participants) in relation to corporate, regulatory and transactional matters. His experience includes public and private mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, distribution arrangements, restructurings, Part VII transfers, corporate governance, regulatory issues including regulatory investigations and enforcement action, capital markets transactions and financings. James is an acknowledged industry leader for cross border M&A and restructuring work in the insurance and financial services sectors.
James is regularly recommended in legal directories and is ranked as a "Leading Individual" by Legal 500, 2022 and as an "Eminent Practitioner" by Chambers UK 2022 and in The Best Lawyers in the United Kingdom - Insurance 2023 edition. He is also recommended in Who's Who Legal: Insurance and Reinsurance, Global Guide 2020. James garners praise from clients for being "not only a technical lawyer but a good business lawyer" who "gives fantastic advice and is always accessible" - Chambers UK 2020. "He elevates everyone's game - he thinks very broadly about the issues at stake and is always trying to broaden the conversation to ensure different perspectives are brought in" – Chambers UK 2021.
James is a co-author of the chapter on authorization in the Practitioners Guide to the Financial Services and Markets Act (fifth edition, 2014) and is a regular public speaker and media commentator. He was a member of the Insurance Law Sub-Committee of the City of London Law Society from 2002 to 2007.
James is a director of Treloar Trust, which oversees Treloar School and College for Disabled Young People, a national leader in special education, where he is Chair of the Risk and Compliance Committee. He served on the Norton Rose Management Committee from 2001 to 2007 and on the Supervisory Board from 2008 to 2011. He is the Mental Health sponsor for the EMEA business.
Professional experience
Collapse all- Solicitor, qualified in England & Wales
Advising:
- ERGO Versicherung AG - on its acquisition of JRP Insurance Management Limited, a London-based managing general agent and commercial lines broker serving the Lloyd's of London market.
- Munich Re - on the sale of MSP Underwriting Limited and its subsidiaries, to US insurer Cincinnati Financial Corporation.
- The Karfunkel-Zyskind Family - on the UK regulatory aspects of its acquisition of an entity formed by private equity funds and managed by Stone Point Capital LLC, as well as on its acquisition of approximately 45% of issued and outstanding common shares in the company that the Karfunkel-Zyskind Family and certain of its affiliates and related parties did not already own or control. The transaction values the fully diluted equity of the company at approximately US$2.95bn, excluding the company's outstanding preferred stock.
- A major European insurance and reinsurance group - on its Brexit planning, including advice on the legal and regulatory aspects of its corporate structure, governance, capital, target operating model, the conduct of life and non-life, direct and reinsurance business (including business in run off), its arrangements with reinsurers (including intra-group reinsurance and concentration limits), group servicing arrangements and commercial arrangements with other contracting third parties such as claims handling and business administration.
- A new US$3bn specialty insurance carrier to be located in Bermuda and London - on all aspects of its establishment, including its licensing application in Bermuda and London, and the conduct of its business globally, including post-Brexit in Europe.
- A major US-based specialty insurance group - on its Brexit planning, including legal and regulatory advice on a multi-jurisdictional analysis of the future location of a new insurance carrier, the future target operating model including intra group arrangements, its arrangements with Lloyd's of London, arrangements with cover holders (including cover holders located in the US) and service companies, claims handling, conduct of business and other business arrangements.
- XLRe - in connection with the £1.6bn restructuring of its European operations, including the Part VII Transfer of its entire non-life business to XLRe Ireland.
- Direct Line Group - on the restructuring of its insurance operations through a Part VII transfer affecting approximately 21 million policyholders.