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Geoff Tan

Partner

Contact
CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP
Cannon Place
78 Cannon Street
London
EC4N 6AF
United Kingdom
Languages English

Geoff qualified into CMS’s Insurance & Reinsurance Group in London in 2010.

Geoff has extensive experience of advising insurers in the Financial Lines sector. In particular, he advises on coverage issues relating to Warranty & Indemnity (W&I), Professional Indemnity (PI), Financial Institution (FI) and Directors & Officers (D&O) policies and has experience of defending insureds and directors who benefit from cover under such policies. He is currently advising insurers in respect of financially significant claims made under a D&O policy in respect of various regulatory, criminal and civil proceedings made against a European bank and its directors.

Geoff specialises in advising insurers in respect of claims made under W&I insurance policies. Geoff has developed his interest in W&I insurance, which originated from a 6-month underwriting secondment, into a market-leading practice in advising insurers on complex coverage issues including, amongst other issues, alleged breaches of warranties arising from accounting and tax matters, building defects, material customers and previous litigation in respect of a number of different jurisdictions, and the application of standard and bespoke limitations under the SPA and/or exclusions under policies. He acts for insurers in arbitration proceedings and litigation on W&I claims and speaks regularly in the insurance market on the topic.

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Relevant experience

Warranty & Indemnity Insurance

  • Claims made under a buy-side policy where over 100 separate breaches of warranty were asserted relating to almost 20 different alleged heads of loss. The claims were in respect of a number of different problems identified following the purchase of the target, relating to Health and Safety, regulatory and property / plant and machinery issues.
  • Kwik-Fit v Ageas [2014] EWHC 2178 (QB), relating to quantification of the loss for breach of warranty claims, and whether the parties and the court can have regard to post-completion events to assist with the assessment of loss.
  • Coverage advice related to claims of breach of property-related warranties in a central European jurisdiction, working with locally based CMS colleagues, under a buy-side W&I policy. This matter was settled by mediation.
  • Coverage advice on sell-side policy claims relating to asserted breaches of warranty arising from third party litigation in Asia / SE Asia, including analysis of covered and not covered / excluded elements of the claim, and assessing the proper level of cover under the policy.
  • Arbitration proceedings relating to an asserted multi-million Euro loss allegedly arising out of Seller fraud.
  • Front-end advice to Insurers on M&A deals for the purposes of underwriting a specific litigation risk policy.

Financial Lines

  • Coverage advice under a D&O policy in respect of various regulatory, criminal and civil proceedings made against a European bank and its directors.
  • Professional Indemnity coverage advice for insurers of a collateral manager on coverage issues relating to non-disclosure/misrepresentation and the duty of fair presentation following allegations made against the insured.
  • Claims made under a D&O programme for a European Fintech company relating to a number of regulatory and criminal investigations and civil claims and cash recorded in financial statements which were later identified by auditors as not existing.
  • The Construction Industry Vetting Information Group Litigation, which related to allegations that, amongst other things, a construction worker blacklist was operated by the Consulting Association between 1993 and 2009.
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Education

  • 2007 – BA Hons. (Cantab.), University of Cambridge
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Feed

21/07/2022
CMS International Disputes Digest - 2022 Summer Edition
Welcome to the summer edition of the International Disputes Digest, a bi-annual publication that highlights, explores and analyses the latest trends in the global dis­pute-res­ol­u­tion sector. Although the...
05/10/2021
Handling Complex Coverage Issues
We are pleased to invite you to a series of seminars for 2021/22 delivered by the CMS Financial Lines Insurance Team. A key theme observed by our team over recent years is the growing complexity of Financial...
27/04/2020
COVID-19 Insurance Implications
The COVID-19 pandemic has extracted a terrible toll on human life and has caused sig­ni­fic­ant disruption to business and investment worldwide. The true economic impact of the pandemic remains to be determined...
10/10/2018
IRG Financial Lines Seminars
Our Insurance and Reinsurance Group is a recognised market leader and is consistently ranked among the UK’s top legal insurance practices in the leading legal directories. We regularly handle large, com­plex...
03/11/2015
CMS Know Your Risk Seminar - D&O/Financial Institutions (London)
CMS Cameron McKenna's Insurance and Reinsurance Group are pleased to invite you to the latest in their series of Know Your Risk Seminars. Agenda8:30 Registration 9:00 Group litigation in the UK: how...
06/06/2012
Settlement Agreements: excluding liability for defects
A judgment delivered on 23 April 2012 stated that in a Settlement Agreement, inclusion of the phrase “full and final settlement in respect of any and all outstanding matters” was, on the facts, sufficient...
03/10/2011
Insurance: launch of new Lloyd’s Claims Scheme
On 30 September 2011, Lloyd’s launched its new “Combined” Lloyd’s Claims Scheme. The changes recognise the transition of the 2010 Pilot Scheme to a full Lloyd’s Claims Scheme, and expand...