Bergenser Law Firm is highly specialized within the area of management liability and belongs to the absolute top advisers within this area.
We have an extensive experience and our many years of experience lies within the largest and most complex matters of management liability in our jurisdiction, including matters with international corporate bodies with companies in different jurisdictions.
Our vast experience both includes the civil and criminal liability.
Traditionally most liability claims takes their offspring in companies going bankrupt and therefore management liability matters are also more common in recessive economies, and we have experienced an explosive growth in the number of liability claims towards members of company managements.
Bergenser Law Firm has a vast experience with the management liability in Trusts, which differ from other types of entities, as the management of a Trust is underlayed supervision from a public authority, which can be the Danish Business Authority or the Danish Agency for Culture and Palaces, according to the Act of Business Trusts.
Besides the fact that the economic conditions have lead to a massive growth in the number and size of mangagement liability claims, it is however also our impression that the mentality in business life in general moves towards a more aggressive behaviour where it could be put in question whether the management of commercial businesses could be held liable for certain developments in a company.
Bergenser Law Firm advises insurance companies and members of managements in different company structures, including private limited companies, public companies, funds and different kinds of associations. Bergenser Law Firm also has a deep insight in the certain management liability relations for managements in listed companies and financial institutions, and we have an extensive experience in managing different kinds of dispute resolution and litigation matters within this area.
Bergenser Law Firm also has extensive experience and insight in different ways of approaching the risks of management liability, especially in relation to taking out different types of insurance contracts covering the liability and the costs of disputing such claims. However there are other, in our view though less sufficient, ways of dealing with the risk. In relation to the way the Danish tax authorities evaluate the possibility of companies or persons declaring to indemnify management members, and the risk connected to the fact that the covering company or person may not be able to pay on behalf of the covered members of the management, this solution is not . These down-sides are not a part of being covered by D&O insurances.
Bergenser Law Firms is experienced in relation special coverage problems related to D&O insurance claims which oftentimes is actualized. The claims oftentimes involves serious allegations against members of the management, including investigations or charges made by the police, which involves different coverage issues.
However D&O insurances are not a standardardized product, and there are relatively large variations in the market. Furthermore management members, e.g. lawyers could have a special management coverage, which however covers the lawyer, and not the other members of the management, and supplementary the insurance sum for the lawyer is often limited at a small digit. Other kinds of speciality insurance products can hold coverage for members of the management, and we have extensive experience with the certain issues that are related to such products.
Bergenser Law Firm also has extensive insight into the processes of the criminal investigation and criminal court case which may have substantial consequences for the civil liability and for the insurance coverage.
Bergenser Law Firm and are presently involved in the historical large claims pending within the Danish court system regarding bankrupt banks and other larger entities that went bankrupt in the financial crisis.
A necessary competence to master to provide a substantial advisory regarding management liability claims is an insight into the adjacent areas of liability, including the liability of lawyers, accountants, banks and other professional parties.
Bergenser Law Firm also strides the important experience handling the considerabel personal strains that the liability claims put on the persons at target.
Alongside the said practical experience with the management liability claims lawyer Søren Bergenser holds a PhD in the legal sciences within management liability, including international and comparative aspects within other European jurisdictions and the US. The PhD-thesis was published in 2012 at Karnov Group, and Søren Bergenser has published several articles within the area of management liability and has made research at The Max Planck Institute of International Private Law, Hamburg, Germany and at Duke University School of Law, Global Capital Markets Center, North Carolina, USA.
Lawyer Søren Bergenser has a year-long carrier alongside his carrier as a lawyer teaching at different universities, teaching at insurance companies and teaching in other relations within the area of management liability, e.g. Board Governance, IBC Euroforum, JUC and at other forums.