Solicitors’ top-up season 2017

June is fast approaching and it’s a big month in the insurance industry for law firms.

London Australia Underwriting (LAUW) has insured law firms for more than a decade and 2017 is no exception. We have broadened our product appetite to accommodate increasing demand from brokers, particularly for our partnership protection liability product.

LAUW’s insurance products for solicitors and law firms:

Partnership protection management liability (PPML)

Many law firms, although not incorporated within the meaning of the Corporations Law, have adopted “corporation style” management structures.

Adopting that structure may expose the firm, individual partners, and “non-partner” individuals responsible for running the firm, to claims arising from managing the firm.

There are significant weaknesses in generally available insurance:
• Directors & officers’ liability insurance can be purchased only for incorporated service and administration companies.
• An indemnity provided by the firm to a partnership board member is not insured.
• EPL insurance generally does not extend to provide cover to partners.
Recognising those weaknesses, partnership protection was developed to provide meaningful cover for partnerships, including those with corporation-style management structures.

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 extremely competitive rates.

Cyber

Australian law firms are prime targets for cyber attacks, in particular smaller law firms and barristers. Larger firms tend to have systems in place to protect them, but even their systems can be breached.

Some law firms have been attacked because of the sensitive information they hold and a key concern is the growing use of ransomware. Go to our publication Extortion in the digital age for more information on what ransomware is, what it does, how to mitigate it, and how LAUW’s cyber policy responds.

At LAUW, we take cyber risks very serious 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.

For an in-depth explanation, go to our Guide to privacy & security breach response planning.

News Alert May 2017