Solicitors’ top-up season 2018

London Australia Underwriting (LAUW) has a range of insurance products for solicitors and law firms.

Partnership Protection Management Liability (PPML)

Many law firms, although not incorporated within the meaning of the Corporations Act, have adopted corporation-style management structures.

Adopting that structure may expose the firm, its partners and personnel responsible for running the firm, to claims arising from managing the firm.

For partnerships, there are significant weaknesses in generally available insurance:

• Traditional directors’ & officers’ liability insurance responds only for incorporated service and administration companies – ie, not the main partnership entity.

• An indemnity provided by a firm to a partnership board member may not be insured.

• EPL insurance generally does not extend to provide cover for equity partners.

Recognising those weaknesses, LAUW’s PPML product was developed to provide meaningful cover for partnership firms, including those with corporation-style management structures and those with incorporated service and administration companies within their groups.

Please contact Glenn Dawson or Steve Walker (click here) for more information.

Professional indemnity – Excess of loss

Professional indemnity is a compulsory insurance requirement for Australian law firms.

LAUW can offer up to $20m capacity with a minimum attachment point of $10m at competitive rates.

Please contact Arné Booysen, Matthew Titmuss or Declan Rye (click here) for more information.

Cyber attack protection

In March 2014, the Privacy Act was amended with the National Privacy Principles (NPPs) replaced by the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).

In February 2017, the Privacy Amendment Bill 2016, which establishes a mandatory data breach notification scheme, was passed by the Australian Senate. The Bill became law in February 2018.

Australian law firms are prime targets for cyber attacks and some have been attacked because of sensitive information they hold. Therefore, they must adhere to the APPs.

LAUW still finds insureds’ with outdated privacy policies on their websites that still refer to the NPPs instead of the APPs. Brokers need to make their clients aware of these changes and the importance of complying with the Privacy Act.

At LAUW, we take cyber risks seriously and have a market-leading policy wording and an incident response team. Rather than just providing a policy, we work with brokers and educate insureds with the help of our partners.

News Alert May 2018