Top 100 professional indemnity and risk management survey

At one time law firms thought a professional indemnity policy was their risk management. As the results of this survey show, time has moved on.

We know from the work we do for large law firms that their attention to risk management issues has increased significantly in the past few years.

They seek more in depth advice on a wide range of risk-related matters in the UK and overseas, such as professional indemnity, anti-money laundering, conflicts and information barriers, secondment liabilities, merger and lateral hire due diligence, training in risk management and online testing.

Our clients are particularly interested in benchmarking – knowing what other firms like theirs are doing.

We have sought to capture some of the data which is otherwise unobtainable – not limited by reference to the experience of one insurer or one broker. This year more firms than ever replied, particularly the larger ones.

This year's survey inquired about other types of law firm insurance cover, as well as asking about the professional indemnity renewal process which firms went through in 2006.

Additional questions this year centred on two types of policy which have been gaining in momentum in recent years.

The first related to so-called Lifeboat policies. The name Lifeboat was first used by St Paul Travelers but the terminology is commonly used in referring to other providers' products too. These are policies which, with some variations in approach and detail, protect members of limited liability partnerships (LLPs) from residual personal liability.

The second new question asked whether firms had management liability policies. These policies are the professional firms' equivalent of directors' and officers' cover for the management team, though again there is variation in cover.

Take-up has been increasing in the US over the past few years and we thought the time was ripe to find out about their take-up here.