Schedule J
Legal expenses incurred by life insurance companies licensed to do business in New York are disclosed in detail in Schedule J of the New York Supplement to the statutory annual statement companies file with the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS). Schedule J for many years was part of the uniform annual statement blank the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) promulgated each year. As discussed in my post No. 38, the NAIC eliminated the schedule from the blank several years ago. What is now DFS, however, retained the schedule as part of the New York Supplement to the NAIC blank.
Legal Expenses
By way of DFS's public portal, I obtained easy access to the Schedule Js for 2013 filed March 1, 2014. For ten large life insurance companies, I show here the name of each law firm or other payee that received at least $1 million from the company in 2013. For each insurance company, I list payees in descending order of amount received, and I also show the amount of Schedule J legal expenses paid to all others combined.
AXA Equitable Life Ins Co |
|
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy |
6,495,265
|
DeBevoise & Plimpton |
3,334,234
|
Mayer Brown |
1,333,871
|
Epstein Becker & Green |
1,027,128
|
Others |
9,610,061
|
|
|
Guardian Life Ins Co of America |
|
Ogletree Deakins |
1,285,530
|
McGuire Woods |
1,069,017
|
Others |
10,493,916
|
|
|
Massachusetts Mutual Life Ins Co |
|
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan |
28,549,933
|
EPIQ Discovery Solutions |
3,875,241
|
Perkins Coie |
3,089,986
|
Sidley Austin |
2,912,920
|
Bingham McCutchen |
2,682,930
|
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom |
2,390,738
|
Axiom Global |
1,160,740
|
Alix Partners |
1,003,654
|
Others |
10,149,039
|
|
|
Metropolitan Life Ins Co |
|
Steptoe & Johnson |
14,764,711
|
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom |
7,217,245
|
CMS Cameron McKenna |
2,979,988
|
Sidley Austin |
2,837,920
|
Mayer Brown |
2,705,394
|
Willkie Farr & Gallagher |
2,388,804
|
DeBevoise & Plimpton |
2,210,099
|
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan |
2,043,426
|
Patton Boggs |
2,041,108
|
Wachtel Lipton Rosen & Katz |
2,000,000
|
Morgan Lewis & Bockius |
1,836,011
|
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings |
1,608,129
|
Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman |
1,528,897
|
Barger & Wolen |
1,493,375
|
Baker & McKenzie |
1,492,722
|
Shutts & Bowen |
1,423,614
|
Proskauer Rose |
1,390,071
|
Others |
27,730,483
|
|
|
New York Life Ins Co |
|
Sutherland Asbill & Brennan |
1,579,274
|
Morgan Lewis & Bockius |
1,534,219
|
Others |
8,293,643
|
|
|
Northwestern Mutual Life Ins Co |
|
Bartlit Beck Herman Palenchar & Scott |
3,271,007
|
Others |
5,764,990
|
|
|
Phoenix Life Ins Co |
|
Edison McDowell & Hetherington |
9,586,508
|
Carlton Fields Jorden Burt |
6,982,328
|
Day Pitney |
2,846,559
|
DeBevoise & Plimpton |
1,425,158
|
Others |
6,785,926
|
|
|
Principal Life Ins Co |
|
Sidley Austin |
4,509,066
|
Analysis Group |
1,169,345
|
Maynard Cooper & Gale |
1,068,905
|
Morgan Lewis & Bockius |
1,037,412
|
Others |
7,500,973
|
|
|
Prudential Ins Co of America |
|
Seyfarth Shaw |
6,514,446
|
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison |
5,530,234
|
DeBevoise & Plimpton |
5,308,645
|
Sullivan & Cronwell |
2,750,685
|
Goodwin Procter |
2,726,099
|
O'Melveny & Myers |
2,498,013
|
D'Arcambal Ousley & Cuyler Burk NJ |
2,254,923
|
Alston & Bird |
2,118,199
|
Clifford Chance |
1,915,406
|
Sidley Austin |
1,702,010
|
Nukk-Freeman & Cerra |
1,657,198
|
Wilmer Hale |
1,412,553
|
Mayer Brown |
1,308,861
|
Meserve Mumper & Hughes |
1,269,547
|
Drinker Biddle & Reath |
1,100,966
|
McCarter & English |
1,027,485
|
Others |
22,084,429
|
|
|
Teachers Ins & Annuity Assn of America
|
|
O'Melveny & Myers |
4,300,060
|
DeBevoise & Plimpton |
4,020,675
|
Others |
5,879,238
|
General Observations
It would be interesting to see similar information for companies that are not licensed to do business in New York. That would have been possible if the NAIC had not removed Schedule J from the uniform annual statement blank.