City law firm RPC has opened its first US office in New York and hired insurance partner Scott Schechter to lead it.
Schechter has joined after 25 years as a partner at national firm Kaufman Borgeest & Ryan and is expected to help build RPC's local insurance team. The new office is the firm's fifth globally after London, Bristol, Hong Kong and Singapore.
RPC's global head of insurance, Simon Laird, said New York was a “natural next step” as clients increasingly navigated complex claims involving US exposures.
“The New York office is an exciting development for our global insurance practice, developed in response to client demand. This is a strategic expansion of what is already one of the strongest global financial lines, cyber and W&I claims platforms in the market,” managing partner, Antony Sassi, added.
Schechter brings a broad insurance background spanning directors and officers liability, financial institutions, professional liability, fintech and transactional liability. RPC said his arrival would boost its ability to support clients with complex claims involving US exposures, particularly across financial lines and cyber.
Schechter follows several other recent insurance hires by the firm, among them financial lines specialist Tom Mungovan in London in May from DWF and cyber specialists Ed Lewis and Sumyutha Sivamani in London and Singapore respectively, although it has lost partners to rival firms, such as DAC Beachcroft.
Schechter said the opportunity to join and build RPC's New York team was "impossible to resist”, citing its track record on complex, high-stakes insurance matters and international platform.
Rival firms, such as Kennedys and Clyde & Co, have made considerable strides in the US. Kennedys began its growth push in 2017 with a merger with Carroll McNulty & Kull, which gave the London firm five established US offices across New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Texas. It expanded into California in 2020 by absorbing four partners from Hinshaw & Culbertson and later reinforced its West Coast footprint by opening in Los Angeles and then Seattle to capture regional insurance disputes.
Meanwhile Clyde & Co maintains an office in New York as a hub for complex insurance litigation, reinsurance arbitrations and related disputes, as part of a US footprint that expanded to 21 offices earlier this year when the firm opened in Indianapolis and Seattle.
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