Jane O’Reilly

Full Profile

Jane is an Associate in Clyde & Co’s London office and works within the firm’s Property and Speciality insurance teams and the firm’s cross-disciplinary Climate Change and Resilience practice group.

Jane advises insurers and other firm clients on climate risk, including climate-related coverage advice and climate liability risk exposures.

Jane has a wealth of experience in bringing and defending claims in English courts for insurer, local authority, and water company clients on property liability claims, including defective design and workmanship, party wall issues, flooding claims, and defective products claims. She has also worked on complex coverage matters from business interruption coverage in relation to Covid-19 to speciality insurance claims involving large international television and film production companies.

Jane has contributed to several Clyde & Co climate-related publications, including Clyde & Co’s Climate Change Risk and Liability Report 2021, and spoken as a panellist on climate change liability risk. Jane leads a team of Resilience associates and trainees to produce Clyde & Co’s podcast series, A Climate for Change, in which Jane interviews industry leaders and specialist lawyers on the risks and opportunities of the transition to net-zero. Jane initiated the creation of the firm’s consultancy service on climate-related disclosures and assisted in the development of Clyde & Co’s climate risk consultancy practice. She also delivers training and seminars to clients.

Jane is part of Clyde & Co’s Environmental Working Group and Resilience Associates group and undertakes pro-bono work on climate-related matters.

Experience

• Undertaking comprehensive coverage analysis of portfolios of policies for insurer clients and advising on potential climate liability risk exposures.
• Advising insurers in relation to coverage of Covid-19 related losses, undertaking work on the aggregation formulas in relation to Covid-19 related losses, and the operation of master and underlying policies.
• Acting as lead Associate for insurers of an international television production company in relation to multi-million-pound insurance claims for business interruption losses arising from Covid-19.
• Successfully litigating high-value subrogated claims in negligence in the High Court (Technology and Construction List) for property and construction matters.
• Advising water company on strategy and securing a favourable settlement in a decade-long dispute relating to foul-water flooding.
• Successfully obtaining a strike out in the High Court of a claim against a local authority in relation to alleged breach of statutory duty and/or negligent conduct of its Building Control function.