Legal Business

Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2023: Walking the talk

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Marsh

While our annual risk and professional indemnity report in conjunction with Marsh Specialty charted the movement of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) concerns up the law firm risk management agenda in 2022, this time around ESG is all-consuming. So much so that insurers and brokers are making it a key component of discussions with corporate clients.

The increase in the level of interest in ESG and the role it plays in risk management discussions has been significant. In last year’s survey, 73% of respondents said that ESG is now firmly part of their firm’s risk management agenda. That figure has now increased to 77%, with just 6% of respondents saying that ESG does not currently fall within the risk management remit. One might argue that even that is too high a proportion of leading law firms, given that ESG is front and centre of the corporate landscape today.

Legal Business

Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2022: Do the right thing

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Marsh

If the risk management team could be described as a law firm’s conscience, then it follows that the past two years have pricked that conscience to new heights. Of course, Covid-19 has changed the way everyone does business forever and firms are scrambling to align themselves with a new corporate culture that clients are espousing – doing business the right way, not turning a buck at the expense of the planet and taking a genuine interest in maintaining a happy and productive workforce. Our annual risk and professional indemnity report in conjunction with Marsh Specialty reflects these new priorities, with firms understandably preoccupied with reputational risk tied to ethical behaviour under solid environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) principles, as well as dealing with the new normal of nurturing a workforce that now operates predominantly outside the office.

Legal Business

Going viral – Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2021

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Marsh

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After a succession of years in the public eye and with no lack of controversy in 2020, it was going to take something seismic to prevent the perennially relevant slew of misconduct claims dominating the law firm risk agenda. Last year, that seismic event happened, with the world plunged into chaos as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Unsurprisingly, our annual risk and professional indemnity report with broker Marsh shows this has caused a serious shake-up of risk registers, with firms understandably more cautious about the potential data security pitfalls of enforced home working as well as reduced workforce availability.

Perhaps a less-predicted consequence of the pandemic, however, was the widespread rise to prominence that many law firm risk managers and general counsel (GCs) experienced last year. Suddenly, risk professionals became more integral to all aspects of the law firm business, making connections and having conversations in a way that did not take place before 2021.

Legal Business

The risk debate: Silver linings playbook

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Regulatory Marsh

The decade since the fall of Lehman has seen some dramatic changes to the profession, not least law firms’ risk teams. Ten years since Legal Business first collaborated with broker Marsh to create our annual risk management and professional indemnity survey, progress has been made but the threats to the key players within the industry have become more ominous.

We gathered together leading risk experts from some of the UK and international firms most affected by increased regulatory scrutiny, geographical cohesion, data security and PR disasters to reflect on the evolution of law firm risk management and look ahead to see how the landscape could develop over the next ten years.

Legal Business

The risk debate – The coming storm

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Cyber security Marsh

On the day Brexit officially began, our annual Legal Business/Marsh round table found risk managers on the front line of a series of cataclysmic events

29 March 2017 will be a date that will remain ingrained in the memory, with Prime Minister Theresa May invoking article 50, formally triggering the Brexit process. Later that evening it was inevitable that the real effects of Brexit would dominate the discussion at our annual risk management round table.

Legal Business

All fall down? – The 2017 Risk Survey

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Financial management Marsh

The collapse of KWM, cyber threats and Brexit have all come together to cause unease among City law firms. Our annual risk survey asks if risk managers can help avoid a domino effect.

There is little debate about what is dominating discussion among law firm managers right now. Not article 50 and not Donald Trump’s latest whim. The subject gripping law firm risk for our tenth annual risk management survey with broker Marsh is the events leading up to 4.40pm on 17 January 2017 – the moment the European and Middle East operation of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) went into administration.

Legal Business

Taken to the limit – growing risks for law firms

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Financial management Marsh
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A buyers’ market for professional indemnity cannot hide law firms’ exposure to growing risks

For a profession often accused of being overly obsessed with risk when advising clients, it is ironic that law firms are taking on uncharted levels of risk themselves.

Legal Business

The risk debate: The gate keepers’ burden

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Cyber security Marsh
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Our annual Legal Business/Marsh round table saw law firm risk managers debate their role in fighting on two fronts – against demanding clients and internally with their fee-earners

Our 2016 risk management report, published last month, looked at a number of live issues for risk management teams within the UK leading firms, most of which place those teams at the frontline of potential battles.

Legal Business

The battle within: Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2016

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Cyber security Marsh
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With cyber risk exploding and storm clouds over the economy, it’s harder than ever to balance risk with commercial realities. Legal Business’ annual risk survey asks how law firms are coping.

While no major law firm has yet fallen prey to the sort of high-profile data breach that the mobile operator Talk Talk suffered in 2015, the threat is front and centre of every risk manager’s mind. For those polled in Legal Business’ ninth annual risk management survey with broker Marsh, ‘IT security breach/data management accident or breach’ was again regarded as the most significant risk to law firms in terms of the damage it could cause and the likelihood of it occurring (see table).

Legal Business

The 2015 Risk Report – What lies beneath

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Leadership Marsh
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Law firms have benefited from a relatively settled risk environment, despite a run of crisis-linked claims. But Legal Business’ annual risk survey finds dangers new and old lurking beneath the surface.

On the face of it, news in December 2014 that the number of professional negligence claims against solicitors had tripled in a year, based on research from RPC, was enough to give law firm risk managers and professional indemnity insurance (PII) specialists pause. RPC reported that High Court cases against law firms for professional negligence had increased by 192% from 143 in 2013 to 418.