XL Catlin Adds Chubb’s McGowan, DLA Piper’s Laws to M&A Insurance Team

Preparing to capitalize on merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in 2017, XL Catlin continued to build out its global M&A insurance team with the appointments of Joseph W. Laws and Michael J. McGowan as directors of M&A Insurance in North America.

McGowan joins XL Catlin from Chubb where he most recently served as vice president helping build out Chubb’s Transactional Risk practice and leading the structuring and underwriting of Representations and Warranties insurance as well as other transaction-based products. Prior to Chubb, he previously held positions as an M&A and private equity attorney both in-house at Focus Financial Partners, a middle-market financial services firm, and as an associate at the law firm Vinson & Elkins.

Before joining XL Catlin, Laws spent five years at Kirkland & Ellis, where he advised private equity funds, as well as public and private companies related to mergers, acquisitions, leveraged finance, equity investment, joint venture and other commercial transactions. He most recently spent three years at DLA Piper, where he continued to develop his M&A practice and also acted as underwriter’s counsel for several representations and warranties insurers.

Based in New York, Laws and McGowan will report to Brian Benjamin, head of XL Catlin’s Global M&A Insurance business, who used the occasion of the appointments to note that XL Catlin will be unveiling new transactional risk products.

Benjamin said his firm is seeking to “build an underwriting platform that will quickly distinguish itself amongst our broker partners for its flawless execution and focused underwriting.”

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Topics Mergers & Acquisitions Chubb AXA XL