Clyde & Co bolsters global insurance group with new partner hire

Clyde & Co has hired a senior financial lines executive, who previously worked for 10 years at AXA XL, to strengthen the firm’s global insurance group.

Susana Martínez joins the firm as a partner in Madrid.

Her practice focuses on advice, coverage dispute and defence work in complex matters across multiple jurisdictions within EMEA and Latin America for leading insurers and reinsurers as well as insurance and reinsurance intermediaries, with a particular focus in financial lines.

Martínez comes from Kennedys where she was head of financial lines and cyber for Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to that, she worked in an international insurance law firm in Spain and from 2011 she worked for ten years at AXA XL, where she was financial lines practice leader for EMEA and Latin America.

Martínez’s expertise includes advice and litigation in respect of all types of financial lines products and claims. She has also advised insurance and reinsurance companies on corporate and regulatory matters as well as insurance policy wording drafting, including localisation to market according to legal framework and best local practices.

Martínez is the second financial lines hire for the firm this year, following the arrival of partner Stacey Rufe in Washington DC in February.

Clyde & Co's Madrid office’s primary focus is on the international insurance and aviation sectors, providing a range of contentious and non-contentious services. The Madrid insurance team has extensive experience in advising Lloyd's syndicates, Spanish and international insurance and reinsurance companies on a wide range of complex contentious matters.

Partner Ignacio Figuerol, said: “As commerce has become increasingly globalised and interconnected, we are seeing multinational companies and their foreign directors and officers facing a much harder liability, legal and regulatory environment in many foreign jurisdictions, which in turn leads to a harder market for D&O insurers and reinsurers. This global exposure requires a global approach from law firms, and through Susana’s arrival we are deepening the expertise we can offer to clients wherever they need us.”

Martínez commented: “Clyde & Co is the pre-eminent firm for financial lines in Madrid and beyond. I’m looking forward to continuing to develop my practice and making the best use of the platform available at the firm.”

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