Atlas
Back to Insurance Brokerage
Legal / Service Provider·Insurance Brokerage

Patrick Lewis

Partner, Mergers and Acquisitions; Financial Institutions at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

New York, NY, USA

PL
LinkedIn
Why they matter

He is currently leading Skadden's legal team on two of 2025-2026's largest insurance consolidation deals, giving him live insight into buyer/seller dynamics and regulatory friction.

Background

Patrick J. Lewis is a Partner in the Mergers and Acquisitions and Financial Institutions practices at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in New York, where he advises acquirers, targets and financial advisors on public and private M&A in highly regulated sectors, especially insurance and asset management. He holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School (2012) and an LL.B. from the University of Sydney (2010), and is admitted to practice in New York, England & Wales, and before the High Court of Australia, giving him a cross-border practice spanning the U.S. and Australia.

Notable deals

  • 2026
    Led Skadden team advising Corebridge Financial in its ~$22 billion all-stock merger with Equitable Holdings
  • 2025
    Led Skadden team advising Aquarian Capital LLC on its ~$4.1 billion acquisition of Brighthouse Financial
  • 2025
    Led Skadden team advising Sompo Holdings on its $3.5 billion acquisition of Aspen Insurance Holdings
  • 2021
    Advised Apollo Global Management on its ~$11 billion all-stock merger with Athene Holding Ltd.

Call-prep brief

Patrick J. Lewis — Skadden Arps, Partner (M&A / Financial Institutions)

Background

  • Cross-qualified in NY and England & Wales; LL.M. Columbia (2012), LL.B. University of Sydney (2010)
  • Chambers USA Band 5 (Insurance: Transactional & Regulatory, NY); Legal 500 Next Generation Partner; IFLR1000 Rising Star

Current focus

  • Co-leading (with partner Todd Freed) a run of headline insurance/annuity consolidation deals: Corebridge–Equitable ($22B, announced March 2026), Aquarian–Brighthouse ($4.1B, Nov 2025), Sompo–Aspen ($3.5B, Aug 2025)
  • Also active in Australian cross-border M&A and the new mandatory ACCC merger preclearance regime taking effect January 2026

What he cares about

  • Deal certainty and regulatory pathway in highly regulated financial-services transactions (state insurance regulators, antitrust)
  • Practical, commercial dealmaking — reviewers describe him as "hard-working and commercial" with strong negotiation skills

Sensitivities

  • He is currently adverse/aligned to multiple live, market-moving insurance transactions (Corebridge/Equitable, Aquarian/Brighthouse) — confidentiality and conflicts screening will matter before any substantive conversation
  • As active deal counsel, he may be limited in what he can discuss about competitors mid-process

Questions to ask

  1. Given his run of annuity/life-insurer consolidation deals, what regulatory or capital-structure friction is he seeing recur across insurance M&A right now?
  2. How is the new Australian mandatory merger preclearance regime (effective Jan 2026) likely to affect timing for cross-border insurance/financial-services deals?
  3. What made the Corebridge–Equitable and Sompo–Aspen structures viable versus other rumored insurance tie-ups that stalled (e.g., WTW–Aon)?

Outreach draft

Subject
Quick call on insurance M&A dealmaking trends
Hi Patrick, I've been following Skadden's run of insurance consolidation work — the Corebridge/Equitable and Aquarian/Brighthouse deals in particular caught our team's attention. We're a private equity group evaluating opportunities in the insurance brokerage and MGA space and would value your perspective on regulatory pathway, deal structuring, and where you see consolidation heading next. Would you have 20 minutes in the next couple of weeks for a call? Happy to work around your schedule given how active your deal calendar looks right now. Best, [Placeholder Name]

Linked companies

Sources