Rebekah Jones

Full Profile

Rebekah’s day-to-day legal expertise include advising insurers, reinsurers and their insureds in relation to complex, high value, coverage and liability disputes across a number of business lines, with a particular focus on cyber, trade credit and political risk, and professional liability claims.

Rebekah has extensive experience advising clients across the Middle East on a wide range of cyber-related matters. Such experience includes both contentious and non-contentious matters, such as insurance policy coverage and wording advice; third party claims / investigations; data protection and privacy obligations / breaches; notifications to data protection authorities, regulators and individuals and advising on the legality of paying ransom demands and the due diligence to be undertaken before any payment is made. Rebekah also regularly provides breach response project management services to companies (including instructing and coordinating IT forensics, cyber extortion negotiators and PR firms).

Rebekah has represented clients throughout all stages of the litigation process in the courts throughout the GCC, and various financial free zones, including the DIFC Court and QFC Court. She also has experience acting for clients in international arbitrations and mediations.

Experience

• Cyber – Acting as Incident Response Manager for a Kuwaiti company following a ransomware attack which encrypted all its servers and put its business entirely offline. Coordinating IT forensics and extortion negotiators to bring the incident under control and advising on notification obligations, legality of ransom payments in Kuwait, and potential third party litigation risk.
• Cyber – Advising Reinsurers in respect of a coverage claim under a Cyber Liability Policy, whereby a Middle Eastern bank suffered a modification/ destruction cyber-attack, claiming indemnity in the sum of USD 10 million.
• Cyber – Advising an international multimillion dollar cosmetics company on its regulatory and individual notification requirements in the UAE, following an incident where the company’s service provider’s rogue employees downloaded personal identification details of thousands of data subjects without authorisation.
• Cyber – Reviewing and amending cyber insurance policy wordings for a number of Re/Insurers entering the Middle East cyber insurance market, ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations.
• Trade credit – Acting for re/insurers in a claim for declaratory relief in the DIFC Court to protect their interests in a USD 5 million claim brought by a commodity trading policyholder.
• Trade credit – Advising Insurers on a policy coverage dispute following a claim filed in connection with the default of the insured’s buyer from the sale by the Insured of perishable goods. Investigating potential fraud and various breaches of conditions precedent under the policy, governed by the laws of England and Wales.
• Trade credit – Acting for Insurers in a trade credit coverage dispute brought before the UAE Centre of Amicable Settlement of Disputes and all three stages of the UAE Courts. Advising on strategy in relation to a number of complex defences, including time bar, substantive policy defences and offsetting of debts.
• Professional Liability - Advising Insurers on coverage and defence strategy in relation to a high volume of notifications filed under a Professional Indemnity, Directors & Officers, and Crime Insurance Policy, with notifications together totalling the value of around USD 1.8 billion.
• Professional Liability – Acting for three sets of Insurers before the Abu Dhabi Courts in connection with a USD 5 million claim filed under Master and Local Corporate Guard Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Policies, in connection with a Director’s alleged negligent transfer of funds to a fraudster’s bank account following a phishing email.
• Reinsurance - Advising Reinsurers in respect of three separate complex coverage disputes arising under Bankers Blanket Bond policies in Jordan, through claims brought by Jordanian banks in connection with fraudulently obtained bank loans, for a combined sum of USD 27.2 million.
• Reinsurance - Acting for a TPA (healthcare) in relation to a USD 6m dispute with their reinsurers relating to the recoverability of payments made under a corporate healthcare scheme in the UAE.
• Recoveries - Pursuing a subrogated recovery claim for AED 1.2 billion (c. USD 327 million) on behalf of property and business interruption reinsurers against several contractors in the Dubai Courts, in connection with a high-profile hotel fire.