Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / Credit: marchello74/Shutterstock.com
U.K.-headquartered Holman Fenwick Willan (HFW) has hired a leading insurance and reinsurance executive in Brazil as it seeks to deepen its bench in Latin America, a region that is yielding more work for the firm.
Margo Black has spent more than four decades in the industry and previously led the Brazilian operations of some of the world's top reinsurers, making her a pioneer in the market.
Margo Black She joins HFW as a consultant, having retired in 2018 from roles as chief executive and president of Swiss Re Brazil, as well as managing director of Latin America South at the global reinsurer.
Other career highlights include serving as chief executive for Brazil at Willis Re, executive director at Allianz Brasil, chief operating officer for Latin America at JLT Re and managing director for Latin America at SCOR. She also spent 14 years at Munich Re in Munich and London.
"Margo really is one of the founding figures of the reinsurance market in Brazil and Latin America, with vast experience across broking and underwriting," Chris Cardona, global head of insurance and reinsurance at HFW, said in a statement.
"She was on-the-ground in Brazil long before reinsurance opened up to international participants, and has been the driving force behind so many of the businesses that are now the market leaders," Cardona added.
Black is also a founding member and the former president of Sou Segura, a group focused on improving gender equality within the Brazilian insurance industry.
She is fluent in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French, and also speaks German and Italian.
The firm said bringing Black on board complements a cooperation arrangement it has with Brazilian law firm CAL, which specializes in insurance, aviation, shipping and commodities. That cooperation agreement was inked in 2018.
HFW has more than 65 specialist insurance and reinsurance lawyers across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia-Pacific, offering a range of advisory, dispute resolution, transactional and regulatory legal services to clients throughout the sector.
The firm is not alone in its ambitions to expand services for reinsurance clients in Latin America. Kennedys has recruited a string of key partners this year aimed at strengthening its capabilities in the region.
Lisa Shuchman
Lisa Shuchman is Executive Editor of Law.com International. At ALM she has also worked for The American Lawyer and Corporate Counsel. Prior to joining ALM, she worked in Japan for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and in the U.S. for the Associated Press, The Industry Standard, and regional newspapers. She received a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism. Contact her at [email protected]. On Twitter: @LisaLawReporter.