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Richard Mattick advises and represents clients in connection with the resolution of disputes in a variety of fields, with particular emphasis on insurance and contractual disputes, as well as acting for clients in relation to export controls matters. Chambers UK (2018) notes "he is absolutely brilliant and understands the complexity and the fine lines of a policy. We get good solid responses and good support." In 2019, he is "always prompt and professional," and "particularly strong in his understanding of the London insurance market."
Mr. Mattick has extensive experience of acting for policyholders in English Court proceedings and London arbitrations in the insurance coverage field, including handling the first two successful challenges to solvent schemes of arrangement. He also advises extensively on insurance issues, including advising on policy wordings, where he uses his extensive experience of litigating wordings.
He has handled significant litigation on a number of topics before the English courts, including contractual disputes and product liability cases, proceedings involving complex jurisdictional issues, intellectual property actions and proceedings against directors and shareholders. He has also handled administrative law proceedings in respect of regulatory issues.
Mr. Mattick has represented clients in international arbitrations in London and elsewhere involving a variety of issues and in alternative dispute resolution procedures, where his accreditation as a mediator by CEDR has given him an additional insight into the process. He has also been active in international corporate investigations.
He is a Solicitor-Advocate (Higher Court Civil Proceedings) and a CEDR-Accredited Mediator. He speaks fluent French, Portuguese and German, having been educated for 9 years at a French school in Portugal, and having read German alongside French at university before switching to Law. Mr. Mattick has a Diploma in Translation ("DipTrans") from the Chartered Institute of Linguists, obtained in 2017.
- Represented a number of clients including Exxon Mobil Corporation, Goodrich, Goodyear, and Textron in successfully opposing efforts by solvent London Market companies to use so-called "solvent schemes of arrangement" to curtail their coverage obligations to policyholders facing long-tail liabilities, such as asbestos, silica or environmental claims including handling the first two who successful challenges to proposed solvent schemes of arrangements for insurance carriers in the English High Court in the cases of In re The British Aviation Insurance Company Limited (“BAIC”) and In re Sovereign Marine & General Insurance Company Limited (“WFUM”).
- Represented Merck in ad hoc London arbitrations against various insurers that produced a disclosed recovery of approximately U.S. $590 million, plus U.S. $45 million in fees and interest, for prescription drug liabilities — reportedly one of the largest commercial awards in Europe in recent years.
- Represented the American School of Dubai in proceedings in the Commercial Court against the professional liability insurers of an insolvent former professional adviser, relating to the latter’s negligence in relation to a construction project.
- Represented members of the Howden group in two sets of proceedings in the Commercial Court in London, challenging the English Court’s Jurisdiction in relation to declaratory proceedings commenced by insurers in London in an attempt to avoid participation in long-running insurance coverage proceedings in the USA.
- Represented a European petrochemicals company as co-counsel in an ad hoc insurance arbitration against various UK underwriters arising out of property damage and business interruption claims exceeding U.S. $150 million.
- Advising and representing various corporate clients in disputes with their insurers under Directors' & Officers' liability insurance policies.
- Advised clients on policy wording issues arising as a result of the entry into force of the Insurance Act 2015.
- Represented Goodyear in an insurance coverage arbitration against a Bermuda Excess insurer in London.
- Acted for Pilkington in product liability insurance coverage litigation before the Commercial Court in London. Acted for Pilkington in an action in the English Commercial Court to recover compensation from its product liability insurers, having previously recovered successfully from its professional indemnity insurers. Case reported as Pilkington v. CGU Insurance.
- Handled an arbitration-related injunction proceeding before the Commercial Court in London for Owens Corning reported as XL Insurance Ltd v. Owens Corning.
- Handled various confidential London insurance coverage arbitrations under the Bermuda Form and related policies.
- Various representations of Bacardi in relation to claims against third parties in product liability-related matters, including the reported case of Bacardi-Martini Beverages Ltd v. Thomas Hardy Packaging Ltd in the English Commercial Court, in which Bacardi recovered damages against a party that had supplied it with CO2 contaminated with benzene.
- Represented Ryanair in proceedings before the Court of Appeal to stay an investigation by the Office of Fair Trading and contest that Office’s right to carry out an investigation due to time bar.
- Acted for a financial services company in successful proceedings to prevent the misuse of confidential information by a departing employee and a competitor.
- Represented a pharmaceutical company in Commercial Court proceedings arising out of the sudden termination of the manufacture of products by a third party contractor.
- Represented a major French bank in litigation in the English Commercial Court in connection with an interest rate swap agreement before settling the matter on terms that were highly favorable to our client.
- Successfully initiated in the English Courts a challenge by the European Low Fares Airlines Association to an EU Regulation.
- Represented an international multimedia company in the successful recovery of possession of film footage.
- Acted for Park Air Systems Limited in successfully recovering monies stolen by the company’s Finance Director.
- Represented Harley Davidson in various contentious matters.
- Represented directors and shareholders of Microsulis Limited in successfully opposing unfair prejudice proceedings.
- Advised a large UK company on significant export controls compliance issues and on disclosures to regulators.
- Carried out or advised on internal investigations into suspected breaches of export controls rules.
- Advice to various clients on UK export controls and economic sanctions issues.
Memberships and Affiliations
- Law Society of England and Wales
- British Insurance Law Association
- Chartered Institute of Linguists ("MCIL")
July 17, 2020, Financial Times
Richard Mattick is quoted in the Financial Times regarding the amount insurers should expect to pay to small businesses in COVID-19 claims. Mr. Mattick says, “The policyholders could have a pyrrhic victory if they won on coverage but lost on trends clauses.”
May 7, 2020, Covington Alert
On 1 May 2020, one of the UK’s insurance regulators, the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”), issued a statement that it intended to seek legal clarity on business interruption (“BI”) insurance in order to resolve doubt for policyholders facing uncertainty on their claims (the “Statement”). The FCA says that it will achieve this clarity by seeking court ...
Insurers face biggest-ever losses, warns Lloyd’s chief
April 23, 2020, Financial Times
Richard Mattick is quoted in the Financial Times regarding the costly impact of COVID-19 on insurance companies. Mr. Mattick spoke about the possibility of insurers having to make late payments, saying, “It is a risk that insurers should be taking into account.”
March 18, 2020, Covington Alert
To assist companies that are developing technology solutions to help predict, mitigate or contain the spread of COVID-19, our cross-practice digital health team has put together a checklist of considerations to keep in mind. For additional guidance, please visit our COVID-19 Legal and Business Toolkit or reach out to us at COVID19@cov.com.
December 9, 2019, Covington Alert
From December 9, 2019, the Senior Managers & Certification Regime (“SM&CR”) will apply to all FSMA-authorised firms in the UK. This extension of the SM&CR to an additional 47,000 firms is predicted to increase regulatory, investigative and enforcement focus on individuals, including by expanding the number of individuals targeted.
January 14, 2019, Covington Alert
In the wake of destructive cyber incidents over the past few years, the insurance industry and its regulators have focused more attention on so-called “silent cyber” exposures in traditional property/casualty insurance policy forms and started taking steps to reduce or specifically address those exposures. We explain here what “silent cyber” means, and what the ...
November 8, 2018
NEW YORK—The Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice has presented Covington with the “Good Governance Program” award at its third annual Celebration of International Pro Bono Excellence. The Vance Center recognized Covington for its work on behalf of ACOS Alliance, a coalition of news organizations, freelance journalist associations, and NGOs working ...
July 30, 2018
SILICON VALLEY—Covington advised GlaxoSmithKline on its multi-year collaboration with and $300 million equity investment in 23andMe. GSK will become 23andMe’s exclusive collaborator for drug target discovery programs. The collaboration will focus on research and development of innovative new medicines and potential cures using human genetics as the basis for ...
May 10, 2018, Covington Alert
The Court of Appeal in London has handed down a judgment of significance to both the insurance and international arbitration communities in Halliburton v Chubb. The judgment raises serious questions about the apparent reluctance of English courts to police arbitrators for “apparent bias” and to set aside arbitrator appointments and awards in London-seated ...
March 6, 2018, Covington Alert
The Commercial Court in London has recently held that breach of a specific policy provision described as a warranty in a buildings insurance policy allowed an insurer to avoid coverage for a fire claim, but was not grounds for making the policy completely void from inception, as the insurer had argued. The case is BlueBon Ltd v Ageas (UK) Ltd [2017] EWHC 3301 ...
August 23, 2017, Strategic Risk
May 17, 2017, Covington Alert
Last Friday may mark the start of a new era in cyber crime. The first worldwide ransomware attack, commonly dubbed “WannaCry,” emerged on May 12. The malware is believed to have infected more than 300,000 computers in 150 countries to date. A cyber criminal or ring of criminals, taking advantage of an exploit made available by the ShadowBrokers hacker group that ...
Regulatory Wild West Mars Surging Cyber Insurance Market
May 10, 2017, Law360
Richard Mattick is quoted in a Law360 article regarding the current state of the cyber insurance market. According to Mattick, "An increasing number of UK insurers are issuing cyber policies, but there is no market standard." He adds, “Because of the novelty and variety of the product, policyholders are worried about what they are buying. There is no specific ...
UK Insurance Lawyers Brace For New Policyholder Powers
May 8, 2017, Law360
Richard Mattick is quoted in a Law360 article examining the UK's newly imposed laws on insurance policyholders, which is expected to lead to increased litigation in the area. According to Mattick, "Lawyers will be recommending that their policyholder clients be as vigilant as possible for delays by insurers and remind insurers of the new law." He further ...
May 4, 2017, Covington Alert
With effect from today, policyholders may recover damages from insurers for late payment of some insurance claims. For insurance contracts agreed or renewed on or after May 4, 2017 and governed by English law, the UK Enterprise Act 2016 introduces an implied term, affording the policyholder the right to recover losses caused by the insurer’s failure to pay valid ...
February 1, 2017, Covington Alert
In response to the Insurance Act 2015, insurers may increasingly include conditions precedent in their policies in place of warranties, whose effect the Act has weakened. In the recent case of Zurich Insurance Plc v Maccaferri Limited [2016] EWHC Civ 1302, the Court of Appeal in London made clear that an ambiguous condition precedent must be interpreted strictly ...
Buffett-AIG deal prompts fears over US insurance
January 23, 2017, Financial Times
Richard Mattick is quoted in a Financial Times article regarding concerns raised about whether claims on insurance policies will be met following the Buffett-AIG deal. According to Mattick, “This deal would merit close monitoring from policyholders to see how claims are handled under the new deal and ensure that policyholders have options for recourse should ...
Panellist at various seminars
2005-present
Mr. Mattick serves as a panelist at various seminars on solvent schemes of arrangement and asbestos coverage. He also participates in Laurence Simons seminars for in-house counsel on various topics.
August 12, 2016, Covington Alert
The Insurance Act, which received Royal Assent and became law in the United Kingdom in February 2015, has now come into force: it applies to all insurance policies entered into on or after August 12, 2016, including renewals, and to all variations to existing policies made on or after that date. As previously reported, the Act contains the most significant ...
Roundtable: Insurance Act 2015
May 23, 2016, The Law Society Gazette
Alex Leitch, Carlo Kostka, and Richard Mattick participated in a roundtable with The Law Society Gazette regarding the UK Insurance Act 2015. Leitch, pointing at “fair presentation,” a grey area in the new legislation, said a policyholder will want to make sure that they have “discharged the duty of giving a fair presentation of the risk which is going to be ...
UK insurers mandated to process claims quickly
May 22, 2016, Business Insurance
Richard Mattick is quoted in a Business Insurance article regarding the UK Enterprise Act. According to Mattick, the new Act, which updates one element of the Insurance Act 1886 that was left out of the Insurance Act 2015, “remedies a long-standing injustice for insurance policyholders.” It marks the first time that policyholders can seek damages for late ...
August 7, 2014, Covington E-Alert
August 5, 2014
LONDON, 5 August, 2014 — Covington & Burling advised Illumina on its partnership with Genomics England to provide infrastructure and expertise for a four-year project that aims to make the UK the world leader in genetic research into cancer and rare diseases, through funding research to decode 100,000 human genomes - a patient's personal DNA code. The deal is ...
July 26, 2012, Covington E-Alert
May 22, 2012, Covington E-Alert
April 1, 2011, Covington E-Alert
March 15, 2011, EuroWatch
February 28, 2011, Covington E-Alert
February 15, 2011
WASHINGTON, DC, February 15, 2011 — For the seventh time, Practical Law Company has awarded Covington & Burling LLP its worldwide first place ranking in the Life Sciences Regulatory Super League category. PLC also singled out Covington’s Antitrust/Competition, Corporate, and Insurance practices, along with lawyers from each group, in its practice-specific ...
October 28, 2010, Covington E-Alert
October 25, 2010, Covington E-Alert
March 16, 2010, Covington E-Alert
July 6, 2009, Covington Advisory
July 2009, Insurance and Reinsurance Law Briefing
- Chambers UK, Insurance - Mainly Policyholders (2012-2020)
- Chambers Global, Insurance: Mainly Policyholders (2014-2020)
- Super Lawyers - London, Civil Litigation (2013)
- Legal Experts UK (2010)
- PLC Which Lawyer?
- Dispute Resolution, England (2008-2012)
- Insurance, England (2010)
Practices
Education
College of Law, London, 1980
- Solicitors’ Final Examination, 1980
Queens' College Cambridge, M.A., 1983
Queens' College Cambridge, B.A., 1979
- Entrance Scholarship in Modern Languages