Vere Wheatley

Vere Wheatley is a partner in the Insurance and Reinsurance Group.

Vere was admitted in 1982, joined the firm in 1989 and was made a partner in 1992. Prior to that he had spent three and half years in New York, working for part of the time at Leboeuf Lamb Leiby & Macrae - now Dewey Leboeuf - and was admitted to the New York bar in 1987. He has spent a large part of his career dealing with matters with US/UK legal overlay.

He specialises in policy cover analysis and domestic and international dispute resolution. He has a wealth of experience, as evidenced by the reported and market cases referred to below, in defending and bringing claims against International Brokers. Of particular note are a number of major reported cases against Aon and a claim by a major carrier against Willis which resulted in one of the largest settlements achieved with an International Insurance broker.

In the reinsurance field, Vere has acted over the years on a range of market issues including: the Outhwaite run-off reinsurances; disputes associated with the collapse of the Australian reinsurance market in the late 1990s; run-off cases for KWELM, Equitas and Cobalt; a raft of disputes flowing from the collapse of the PA reinsurance market; issues arising from US cats such as Hurricane Frances; and numerous facultative reinsurance construction and liability issues.

He also has experience in issues with captives as he acted for Curzon Insurance (captive of T&N the asbestos manufacturer) in its disputes with its reinsurers and companies it agreed to insure.

Vere also advises on a number of non-contentious issues and his experience includes dealing with issues arising from the surcharges applied in the Aviation market post 9/11, challenging Part VII transfers and numerous discrete market issues with the LMBC/LIIBA, the London Market Brokers Association.

The major reported and market disputes he has been involved in include:

• the Lloyds litigation in the early 1990's;
• Mander v Prudential and Gyngell Dobinson & Gregory;
• HIH v Nelson Hurst and Bradstocks(NSW);
• GAN v Tai Ping;
• Charman v GIO and New Cap;
• Bonner v Cox (Aon 77);
• Combined v Rendall;
• UCL v Aon;
• and CNA v Willis.