Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2013: Counting the Cost

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While the end of the assigned risks pool may encourage more insurers into the market, professional indemnity insurance for law firms is as competitively priced as ever.

As law firms experience constant pressure to rein in costs, the pricing of professional indemnity insurance (PII) is high on the agenda. As PII is typically law firms’ third-largest expense, after staff and premises, that 76% of respondents said that they found PII generally to be reasonably priced (a marginal increase on 71% last year) is good news for firms generally. But despite widespread reports of an increasingly soft market, the number of respondents saying their insurance is over-inflated has increased from 7% to 17%.

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Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2013: Finding the Balance

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New reporting requirements under the SRA’s outcomes-focused regulations have put additional pressure on risk teams’ resources but finding the right individuals for the new COLP and COFA roles has been the top priority.

Risk teams have been pulled in many directions in the last few years but top of their agenda throughout 2012 was going through the process to appoint the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) and the compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA). The new roles were introduced as part of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)’s push into outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) but for some the process has been painful and protracted, while some firms were still waiting for the individuals they nominated for the COLP role to be approved.

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Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2013: Same Old Fears

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Despite renewed focus on outcomes-focused regulation, IT security and conflicts remain the key threats keeping risk teams awake at night.

This section of the report analyses the likely impact of various risk scenarios on law firms and the likelihood of those situations occurring. Typically those situations that potentially have the most serious impact on a firm’s business are the least likely to occur, and vice versa. ‘Legal Risk Profile’ tables show the mean scores for impact and potential as separate indices.

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Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2013: Getting it Right

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Following successive years of regulatory change, including the introduction of outcomes-focused regulation, COLPs and COFAs, risk teams are now in a phase of assimilating those changes. Legal Business tracks progress so far

After five years of reporting on the torrent of regulatory change that has swept through law firms, this year’s Legal Business/Marsh risk management and professional indemnity survey finds risk managers within law firms looking to assimilate those changes. In our sixth annual report on the market, the buzzword is ‘embedding’ – ensuring the upheaval caused by the introduction of outcomes-focused regulation (OFR) and the new high-profile risk management roles (the compliance officer for legal practice (COLP) and the compliance officer for finance and administration (COFA)) are properly implemented.

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Funding the fights

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With litigation funders having established their own industry regulator and starting to move into arbitration cases, there are more reasons to believe that third-party funding is here in a big way

Leslie Perrin, chairman of litigation funder Calunius Capital, remembers the atmosphere in New York during the autumn of 2008 when he was attempting to raise money for Calunius’s inaugural litigation fund. Tumbleweed was rolling down Wall Street and Citigroup’s share price was plunging by the second. It was an inauspicious time for raising capital.

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Geek Chic – Bristows

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Home to more well-mannered boffins in its all-equity partnership than you can shake a stick at and with no international offices, Bristows is an unconventional LB100 hero. LB meets the co-managing partners of the firm that has outclassed many in the last five years.

You know you’re at a different kind of law firm when you discover that every meeting room in Bristows’ offices is named after a famous scientist. On a miserable, wet December morning, co-managing partners Iain Redford (left) and Mark Watts (right) are sitting in a room named after Michael Faraday, who discovered how magnetic forces could affect the flow of an electrical current. It’s appropriate because there’s no denying that the forces at play at Bristows these days are compelling.

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Committed to Crime – boutique firms and White-collar Crime

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White-collar crime work was once the comfy preserve of niche London law firms that knew their way around the inside of a police station. Not any more. But as the big international players stake a claim, the boutiques are standing their ground.

When the Bribery Act came into force in July 2011, it shook the world of white-collar crime to its core. In one fell swoop the UK became home to the most stringent legislation combating corruption in the world, going beyond the scope of America’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Its strict measures created a worldwide trend of amplified anti-corruption enforcement, which is now booming in a similar fashion to competition law in the nineties, and the established legal market players found themselves with a fight on their hands.

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Stepping Up – Clifford Chance’s corporate revolution

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Clifford Chance’s corporate practice had a stonking year in 2012, rocketing up the league tables and scoring roles on four of the ten largest M&A deals globally. Little wonder Matthew Layton was handed a second four-year term at the helm. Vive la revolution.

By anyone’s measure, Clifford Chance (CC) had a stupendous year for M&A work in 2012, appearing on four of the ten largest deals that took place worldwide and ranking second at year-end by deal value, up from 22nd two years ago. According to mergermarket, CC worked on 197 announced deals with a combined value of £156bn, nudging ahead of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and relegating Linklaters to fifth in the league tables.

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Mike’s Mechanics

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White & Case sent Mike Goetz to London in 2000 to take its City finance practice to a new level. Thirteen years – and two law firms – later, he’s still one of the biggest names on the London scene. LB meets a banking legend.

Ropes & Gray’s London office has just turned three years old and more than a few cynics didn’t expect it to last that long. Former White & Case finance partners Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz had just spent a disastrous 18 months at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer before announcing that they would be fronting the Boston-based private equity firm’s London offering in 2009. The aftershock of the collapse of Lehman Brothers was in full effect and Allen and Goetz had failed in their quest to build a strong transactional banking practice at Freshfields to rival Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy.

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On the Mend

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When the credit crisis hit, leveraged finance lawyers were among the first to fall. They are still in the doldrums, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. After some serious market reshaping, LB asks which firms will reap the rewards when the market finally returns.

To say that leveraged finance lawyers have had it tough in the last few years is the ultimate understatement. Some feel like they’ve been to hell and back.

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