New Appleman New York Insurance Law

Wolcott B. Dunham, Jr., former General Editor and Contributing Author, has been recognized as the preeminent insurance industry lawyer in New York. His practice included mergers and acquisitions, public offerings, demutualizations, workouts and insolvencies, reinsurance, the convergence of insurance and banking, regulatory matters and general corporate counseling. He was a partner in Debevoise & Plimpton LLP and served as the global Co-Chair of the firm's Financial Institutions Group. In May 2007, Mr. Dunham was appointed by the Governor as a member of the New York State Commission to Modernize the Regulation of Financial Services. He was the Executive Director of the Heimann Commission (the New York State Executive Advisory Commission on Insurance Industry Regulatory Reform) in 1982. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel and is a former Chair of the Committee on Insurance Law of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York and a former Chair of the Committee on Insurance Law of the American Bar Association Section on Administrative Law. He is a Fellow of the American College of Investment Counsel. Mr. Dunham has spoken and written on many insurance-related topics. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School.

Thomas M. Kelly is a corporate partner and Chair for the Americas of Debevoise & Plimpton's Insurance Industry Group and has represented insurance companies in a broad range of capital markets and M&A transactions. He has also acted as company counsel on several of the major U.S. life insurer demutualizations. Mr. Kelly is chair of the Insurance Law Committee of the New York State Bar Association and is chair of the Corporate Section of the Association of Life Insurance Counsel.

Nicholas F. Potter is Co-Chair of Debevoise & Plimpton's Financial Institutions Group and a member of the firm's Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets Groups. Mr. Potter's practice focuses on corporate transactions in the insurance industry; he advises insurers and reinsurers, private equity firms, investment banks, and other industry participants on public and private mergers, acquisitions, restructurings, corporate governance, regulatory issues, and capital markets transactions and financings including life insurance "embedded value" and excess reserve financings.

Alexander R. Cochran is a corporate partner at Debevoise & Plimpton and is a member of the firm's Financial Institutions Group. He focuses on corporate transactions in the insurance industry, including mergers and acquisitions, financings and pension risk transfer transactions. He is a frequent author and speaker on legal developments affecting the insurance industry.