Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP today welcomes two new lawyers to its Corporate & Securities Practice Group in New York, further enhancing its abilities to serve insurance industry clients on transactional and regulatory matters. Joining the firm are Joseph L. Seiler III as Partner and John W. Weber, Jr., as Of Counsel. Both were previously with Dewey & LeBoeuf in New York.
The two bring with them decades of experience counseling domestic and foreign insurance companies on securities offerings and financings, mergers and acquisitions, regulatory compliance and U.S. federal and state tax issues.
Their addition complements the January arrival of a group of insurance regulatory lawyers, which included three partners, and brings the total number of lateral hires in the firm’s New York office to eight since it moved to Midtown Manhattan in July 2011.
“When you have an opportunity to add lawyers who can complement your existing practice while building out new offerings, you do it,” said Alfred W. Putnam, Jr., Drinker Biddle’s Chairman. “And that’s the opportunity we were presented with adding Joe and John.”
Seiler, a corporate lawyer, focuses a substantial portion of his practice on serving insurance and insurance holding companies on public and private securities offerings and financings, as well as mergers and acquisitions and restructurings. He also advises private and public clients in the leisure, manufacturing and technology industries, among others.
A tax lawyer, Weber provides federal and state taxation advice on the formation and operation of non-U.S. insurers and reinsurers of all types. His work also includes a focus on captive insurers and tax-exempt municipal bonds.
Robert C. Juelke, chair of Drinker Biddle’s Corporate & Securities Practice Group, said the additions of Seiler and Weber fit with the group’s goal of continuing to grow its insurance industry practice in a “thoughtful, deliberate manner.”
“Our clients have been asking us more and more to help them with their insurance transactional work,” Juelke said. “These additions allow us to better meet their needs.”