Senior Legal Counsel, Ceded Reinsurance

Job Responsibilities

• Partner with Markel’s Ceded Re Placement leads to understand each reinsurance deal and take primary responsibility over drafting, editing, and finalizing the various contracts associated with each outwards reinsurance placement.
• This includes understanding the product lines covered, their respective coverages, appropriate exclusions, and the proposed/final reinsurance terms.
• Partner with Markel’s Ceded Re team in negotiation of contract terms, reinsurance coverage, and other wordings to protect Markel’s interest and ensure contracts align with the intent.
• Primary responsibility for managing contracts associated with the Insurance Linked Securities (ILS) market in order to provide end-to-end legal support for Markel Bermuda Limited’s fronting and ILS activities, including structuring, drafting, negotiating, and closing quota share and related agreements; overseeing trust and collateral frameworks; managing industry loss warranty (ILW) arrangements; advising on specialty products; and coordinating Bermuda regulatory engagements and board governance.
• Structure and maintain trust agreements and Risk Transfer Framework Agreements (RTFAs) supporting Markel’s ILS fund groups ensuring collateral sufficiency, trust operations, and signatory governance for payments.
• Provide advice on all specialty products legal documents from end to end including reservations-of-rights (ROR) language, claims, commutation, and other agreements.
• Form strong relationships with ILS council to help build strong relationships between the ILS group, legal and ceded.
• Draft and negotiate commutation amendments and legacy claim clean-ups; coordinate with Finance/Claims and audit trail requirements.
• Serve as the backup legal interface with Nephila counsel and internal partners (Head of ILS Solutions, Managing Director Ceded Re, Accounting Policy, Claims), facilitating quick issue resolution and document execution.
• Partner with Ceded Re leadership to embed counterparty concentration and credit-risk controls into master QS language/MOUs and future fronting frameworks.
• Ensure all agreements are executed on a timely basis to meet internal Markel Service Level Agreements, as well as the appropriate regulatory requirements.
• Maintain and manage a library of all ceded reinsurance clauses and wordings and appropriate supporting documentation.
• Maintain and enhance Markel’s standard reinsurance wording library used in reinsurance contracts, trust agreements, non-disclosure agreements, commutation agreements, broker arrangements, etc. and ensure they remain aligned with industry best practices and the latest industry trends.
• Work closely with Markel partners and reinsurers on deals placed on a direct basis.
• Negotiate trust agreement language with reinsurers and their financial institutions.
• Bring all current Markel reinsurance agreements up to our global wording standards, while catering for local regulatory and commercial requirements where needed.
• Partner with and leverage our local internal legal teams where required.
• Facilitate any engagement with outside counsel where needed.
• Lead and participate in special projects as required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• JD required
• 8+ years of experience in (re)insurance transactional work, with deep knowledge of fronting, quota shares, trust agreements, ILWs, and collateralized ILS programs.
• Transactional drafting and negotiation.
• BMA regulatory fluency and governance.
• Credit, collateral and concentration risk acumen to master quota share guardrails and fronting carrier protection.