JillAllison Opell represents insurers and insurance-related entities in all lines of business, including accident, life and health, property and casualty (including pet), surplus lines, travel, and reinsurance. JillAllison also represents private equity funds and other sponsors acquiring and divesting insurers and/or insurance-related entities. She is chair of the Insurance Practice Group, co-chair of the Health Care & Life Sciences Sector’s Payor Provider Convergence Area of Focus, and vice chair of the Business Law Department.
JillAllison’s regulatory experience includes advising clients with respect to acquisitions, intercompany agreements and investment laws, as well as compliance, licensing, and Affordable Care Act issues. She has counselled private equity funds, insurers, reinsurers, producers and other insurance industry professionals, helping to solve complex regulatory problems, maintain regulatory compliance, obtain regulatory approvals, and develop new products. She also has a breadth of experience advising mutuals and representing all parties to a demutualization (including the regulator). Always monitoring and analyzing the latest regulatory developments, she frequently advises clients regarding the implications of state legislative updates and regulatory investigations. JillAllison has spent her career developing relationships with regulators in many jurisdictions across the country.
Representative Experience
- Counsel to one of the nation’s largest personal lines and commercial insurance brokers. Handled several significant roll-up deals, including the acquisition of two insurance brokerages for a combined enterprise value exceeding US$7bn.
- Represented government entity in a complicated and contentious transaction (that had been pending for over a year) with respect to the approval of a prominent insurance company’s reorganization and conversion from a mutual insurance company to a stock insurance company, as well as the ultimate acquisition of the converted entity by a sponsor. Hired by the same government entity to represent it on another sponsored demutualization.
- Acted as global insurance counsel for a multibillion-dollar private equity fund. Provided long-term strategic advice with respect to significant insurance acquisitions. Advised on all insurance M&A matters and acted as strategic counsel for portfolio insurance companies and insurance businesses.
- Acted as insurance counsel in acquisitions of MGAs and similar regulated businesses for a major private equity fund.
Awards and Recognition
- Recognized, Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in the practice area of Insurance: Transactional & Regulatory (2021-2024)
Presentations and Publications
- Co-author, “MGA or Not an MGA … That is the Question,” New York Law Journal, June 3, 2022
- Co-author, “So You Comply with New York Reg. 500: Now What?,” Insurance Journal, April 17, 2019
- Co-author, “3 ways to turbocharge the sale of your insurance business,” PropertyCasualty360, May 26, 2017
- Co-author, “First Steps Under New York’s Cyber Rules: Risk Assessment, Policies, Procedures,” Insurance Journal, April 12, 2017
- “Power of Receivership Court: Current & Future Issues” International Association of Insurance Receivers Seventh Technical
- Developments Series, discussion of interplay of state insurance rehabilitations and federal laws, as well as the interplay of domestic v. foreign states in insurance rehabilitations, October 14, 2020[OJ1]
- “Critical Issues in Cybersecurity: Are you prepared and in compliance?” Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI) ACIC General Counsel Seminar, San Diego, CA, July 27, 2017
- “Critical Policies for Cybersecurity Compliance” Louisiana Insurers’ Conference (LIC) Annual Compliance Seminar & Legislative Review, New Orleans, LA, June 22, 2017
- “Examining the Implications of Recent Health Insurance Consolidation, and the Latest Issues Related to the Seeming” Demise of Health Insurance CO-Ops, American Conference Institute’s 11th National Forum, March 1, 2016
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