Overview
Thomas M. Dawson represents US and non-US insurers, brokers and intermediaries on regulatory, licensing, product development and corporate matters.
Tom advises industry participants on a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters, including cybersecurity compliance, insurtech ventures and Holding Company Act filings. He has helped clients form, acquire and invest in US insurers, reinsurers and intermediaries. He counsels non-insurers on advertising, licensing and marketing generally, and provides regulatory compliance advice to service contract issuers and other specialty product providers.
Tom has guided non-US insurers and reinsurers in the London Market, Europe, Bermuda and Asia for more than 35 years, helping them obtain and maintain surplus lines and reinsurer approvals, as well as monitoring NAIC activities and state and federal legislation. In recent years, the regulatory status options for non-US reinsurers in particular have multiplied, and Tom has acted, and continues to act, for many non-US reinsurers that have established large US reinsurance trusts. More recently, Tom has represented non-US reinsurers that have obtained certified reinsurer status and that as of mid-year 2021 are now beginning to apply for reciprocal reinsurer status.
Beginning in 2020, Tom began tracking and commenting on developing climate change regulation in the US and in other key jurisdictions, and he is the Insurance Transactions and Regulatory team’s representative on the Firm’s ESG Working Group.
Results
- Advising non-US insurers seeking to establish US holding companies and form/acquire US brokers and underwriting agencies
- Advised large family office fund in connection with acquiring control of a tire retailer that owns a significant US-domiciled captive insurer
- Advised a large US property and casualty insurance group in a complex process to convert an admitted insurer into a surplus lines insurer, transfer admitted risks to affiliated admitted insurers and retain risks eligible to be written on a surplus lines basis
- Advises many of the non-US reinsurers that have obtained approval for multiple beneficiary reinsurance trusts or “certified reinsurer” status
- Advising multiple non-US reinsurers seeking reciprocal insurer status
- Advise numerous issuers and marketers of vehicle, watercraft, cell phone and consumer electronics service contracts on regulatory compliance and corporate structuring matters
- Advises many of the non-US surplus lines insurers that are NAIC/IID-listed, including with respect to changing NAIC listing rules
- Heads the team providing state and federal legislation, regulatory and insurance tax advice to the International Underwriting Association of London (IUA), the leading trade association for international insurers and reinsurers
- Advised on the formation and licensing of a new US branch of a non-US reinsurer, including passage of state legislation permitting the venture*
- Obtained NYDFS approval for a venture fund’s investments in two insurers, each in excess of 10%*
- Obtained approval for multiple investment funds to file disclaimers of control following multiple debt-for-equity swaps in which each fund acquired more than 10% of the equity of a regulated insurer*
*Matter handled prior to joining McDermott.
Recognitions
- Chambers USA New York – Insurance: Transactional & Regulatory, 2016 to 2022
- The Best Lawyers in America, 2021 and 2022, Insurance Law
- Legal 500 USA, Recommended Lawyer, 2022
Credentials
Education
London School of Economics and Political Science, LLM, 1985
St. John’s University School of Law, JD, 1980
Colgate University, AB, 1972
Admissions
New York