Dr. Henning Schaloske

Full Profile

Henning maintains a broad practice focused on insurance and reinsurance law, and has extensive experience in litigation as well as domestic and international arbitration (institutional and ad hoc), including corporate and commercial disputes. In arbitration, he is experienced as counsel as well as arbitrator (chairman/sole and party-appointed) and is certified as an arbitrator for (re)insurance disputes with ARIAS Germany.

He has a particular focus on advising (re)insurers in complex domestic and international claims, either as monitoring, coverage or defence counsel. Due to his outstanding expertise and experience, clients seek his support across all major business lines, especially in the Financial and Professional Lines (D&O, E&O, PI, crime), cyber, W&I as well as product liability, property, CAR/EAR and energy with a particular focus on offshore. Further, Henning stands out in the market with broad experience in reinsurance matters.

Besides claims work, Henning frequently advises on product development across all business lines and in corporate insurance matters, in particular on German and European regulatory, insurance distribution and insurance competition law.

Henning is chairman of the board of ARIAS Germany and has previously chaired the Working Group on “PI Insurance/Financial Lines” of the German Bar Association for ten years until 2022.

Henning is consistently recognized and recommended as a top-tier expert for insurance and reinsurance by JUVE, Chambers Europe, Legal 500, Handelsblatt/Best Lawyers, WirtschaftsWoche, Who’s Who Legal and others. His expertise is recognized through his listing as a “Leading Individual” for insurance litigation by Legal 500 and for D&O by JUVE Handbook. In addition, Who’s Who Legal has named Henning one of the top three “Most Highly Regarded Individuals” for insurance law in Germany stating that he “earns plaudits for his leading expertise in insurance claims and related regulatory issues” (Who’s Who Legal Germany, 2022).

In the 2024 rankings for Chambers Europe, Henning was ranked Band 1 for insurance in Germany, with sources saying, “he’s a very nice guy with a very high knowledge of the market, and he’s easily accessible - whenever I need him he’s there.”

German business weekly WirtschaftsWoche has consistently recognized him a “Top Lawyer” for insurance law over the past four years. Furthermore, he has been ranked #1 in the WirtschaftsWoche “Legal All Stars 2021, 2022 and 2023” rankings for insurance law in Germany.

Education

• Law and Anglo-American language and law programme, University of Münster
• Dissertation on the law of co-insurance programmes with Professor Dr Armbrüster, Free University Berlin
• Business studies for lawyers, Fernuniversität Hagen

Memberships

• ARIAS Germany 
• German Arbitration Institute (DIS)
• German Bar Association (DAV)

Experience

• Acting as monitoring and coverage counsel in numerous domestic and international D&O matters, including publicly known representation of primary and excess insurers eg in re EM.TV (Dot-com bubble), SachsenLB (financial crisis), SKW, Rheinmetall,  Villeroy & Boch, Volkswagen and others.
• Representing insurers in coverage disputes, for example in market shaping cases with regard to the validity of the claims made-principle under German law and the assignment of coverage claims against D&O insurers.
• Defending insureds in professional indemnity claims, including directors and officers, law firms, tax advisors and accountants, for example with regard to complex funds and tax structures as well as transactions, financial accounting and audits and insolvency matters, including obtaining first judgement maintains liability shield of English LLP under German law.
• Handling numerous domestic and international product liability and recall cases as coverage or defence counsel, in particular in the automobile industry, construction and energy sectors.
• Advising insurers and insured in complex international cyber matters, including class actions and cyber liability claims, GDPR fines, ransomware attacks, business interruption and data breach notifications.
• Supporting insurers in the handling of large and complex property and BI claims.
• Providing coverage advice on CAR/EAR claims, in particular regarding offshore wind projects.
• Advising and defending insurers as coverage counsel in W&I claims.
• Representing parties in reinsurance arbitrations, for example with regard to follow-the-settlements and deposits.
• Drafting primary, excess and master policies across various business lines, including D&O, E&O, PI, Cyber, W&I, Liability and Specialty insurance.
• Advising international insurers in setting up German business operations and insurance distribution structures, including digital solutions and platforms.
• Advising InsurTechs on regulatory and commercial aspects of their business models.
• Representing parties in commercial domestic and international arbitration proceedings, especially in (re)insurance, liability, post-M&A and international trade matters.