Insurance Times Awards 2024: DWF discusses Northern Ireland fraud initiative Operation Diamond

1. Why did you put yourselves forward for the Challenger of the Year category?

DWF had a strategic intent to set up a dedicated unique, multi-disciplinary insurance legal team consisting of special jurisdictional lawyers and predictive, profiling and intelligence analysts to leverage data and provide market insight. This introduced Know Your Opponent (“KYO”) strategies for our clients that helps to disrupt fraudsters.

DWF Northern Ireland was the first legal business to put together a team whose driver would be to totally understand market behaviours, identify potential fraud and understand the drivers behind fraudsters and their enablers.

2. What do you think makes your entry stand out and why should you win the award?

Operation Diamond is the first of its kind in NI, where DWF in collaboration with clients, ringfenced cases from an accident management company (AMC) and then applied KYO, analytics and local geographic knowledge to identify fraudulent claims. This was truly groundbreaking, as KYO strategies have never been applied to NI claims.

3. What would winning this award mean to you and your firm?

Winning the award would mean industry recognition for DWF trailblazing an organised fraud strategy in Northern Ireland and showing bravery in tackling adverse behaviours in the Northern Irish jurisdiction, which had not been tackled to date.