UK insurance law firm Kennedys has hired a 13-strong group from Clyde & Co in Madrid, in a move that will triple its lawyer headcount in the Spanish capital.  

The team is led by partners Ignacio Figuerol, Ricardo Garrido and Susana Martinez and includes nine associates and one office manager.  

Andrew McGahey, Kennedys’ regional managing partner for EMEA, said: “As a business, we aim to be a leading global legal risk advisory firm which has support for the insurance industry at its core.  

“Bringing in leading lawyers like Ignacio, Ricardo, Susana and their team underscores our commitment to strengthening our offering in one of EMEA’s most important legal markets. Combining their strengths with those of our existing team in Madrid significantly enhances the level of support we can offer to our insurance clients, here in Spain and across the EMEA region.”

Figuerol advises insurers and re-insurers in insurance litigation and arbitration and non-contentious insurance in the D&O, financial institutions and professional indemnity fields in Spain and Latin America. His experience also covers reinsurance disputes and he has recently advised insurers in connection with class actions in the US against Spanish companies.

Meantime Garrido acts for major national and international insurance companies in both contentious and non-contentious matters. He also drafts and adapts insurance policies to Spanish law and has been active in several jurisdictions in Latin America.  

Figuerol and Garrido have moved to Kennedys after 11 years as partners at Clydes, which they joined from DAC Beachcroft.

For her part Martinez is rejoining Kennedys after a two-year stint at Clydes, having earlier been the firm’s head of financial lines and cyber for Latin America and the Caribbean. Her practice focuses on advice, coverage dispute and defence work in complex matters across EMEA and Latin America, for a client base that includes insurance and reinsurance intermediaries as well as insurers and reinsurers.  

The trio’s arrival with their team significantly boosts Kennedys’ lawyer headcount in Madrid, which had decreased 33% over the past year to six according to data from Pirical.  

Among the defectors was Olivia Delagrange, whose move to Simmons & Simmons in May last year left Isidoro Ugena and Alfonso De Ramos, who work for local and London market insurers on claims, as Kennedys’ sole partners in Madrid.   

Figuerol, Garrido and Martinez said in a joint statement: “We already know [Kennedys’] existing team in Madrid well and the partners and associates are respected in the Spanish market. There is synergy amongst our respective clients, and the combination of comprehensive service and a global network makes Kennedys the ideal firm with which we can now embark upon our next chapter.”

Kennedys’ revenue topped £300m for the first time in the 2023 financial year, when turnover grew 11% to hit £313m. The firm did not disclose profits per equity partner. Revenue growth in EMEA was 9%, while the ramping up of the firm’s US presence – which now stands at more than 200 lawyers across 10 offices – saw turnover there jump 25%.

Kennedys also hired a 12-strong insurance team from Clydes in Sydney last December, just a month after it had hired away Clydes’ former Australia managing partner, Lucinda Lyons.  

Clydes has made its own big team hires recently, including a group of more than 20 lawyers from Dentons last December to debut in Poland. In February it also bolstered its insurance offering in the US with the hire of a nine-lawyer team in Chicago from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith led by partner Danny Worker.  

A Clydes spokesperson commented: “We can confirm that three partners in our Madrid office, Ignacio Figuerol, Ricardo Garrido and Susana Martinez have left the firm. We wish them well and thank Nacho and Ricardo in particular for their contribution over many years, working as part of our European region to build such a strong and successful practice in Madrid for the firm.”

They added that the firm’s Madrid office provides expertise across insurance, transportation and construction as well as specialists in aviation and marine. Miguel Relaño and Enrique Navarro have been the office’s managing partners since early 2022, having joined the firm in 2013 and 2014 respectively, and will continue to lead the team of more than 40 lawyers.