Paul Lewis

Managing Partner, Disputes

London

Paul is joint managing partner of the global disputes practice.

Paul is Global Head of the insurance disputes practice and works with clients on all aspects of insurance and professional negligence disputes. He assists policyholders, insurers and brokers with claims under liability policies including professional indemnity, public liability, directors and oﬃcers, Bermuda form and crime. Paul also assists clients with political and credit risk policies.

Paul has extensive experience of professional negligence claims. He has defended a range of professionals including insurance brokers, pensions intermediaries, solicitors, accountants and valuers. Paul heads the ﬁrm's cross practice group handling pensions litigation, and is a member of the Association of Pension Lawyers.

Chambers UK describes Paul as "an absolutely first-rate lawyer who goes above and beyond to support his clients."

Legal 500 UK ranks Paul as a Leading Individual for Insurance Litigation for Policyholders.

Paul's work with clients has assisted Herbert Smith Freehills in becoming a preferred service provider for the Association of Insurance and Risk Managers (Airmic).

Paul's experience includes advising:

the FCA representing policyholder interests in the Supreme Court in the business interruption test case in 2020
one of the world's leading mining companies on all aspects of insurance recoveries under its public liability insurance programme following a major disaster
Marsh & McLennan on a number of their most signiﬁcant claims, including assisting with disputes and regulatory matters in diﬀerent jurisdictions such as Australia, South America, Norway, France, Canada and the United States
a leading ﬁnancial institution on a major "Side C" D+O claim, thought to be one of the largest in the London market
Ernst & Young, as administrators of Nortel’s European, Middle Eastern and African entities, in handling insurance-coverage aspects of the administration
numerous firms of solicitors with claims from pension trustees and sponsoring companies
a leading retail bank in handling coverage issues arising out of sub-prime litigation both in the US and UK
a leading company market insurer on its participation on a liability programme in respect of claims arising out of a European rail disaster