Legal Business

Moving the Goalposts – Risk Management Survey Part 4

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Commercial Marsh
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Discussion over scrapping the single professional indemnity insurance renewal date and consigning the assigned risks pool to history has reignited. LB reassesses the state of play

In our report last year, it seemed that the debate over whether to move away from a single renewal date for law firms’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) had been settled. Insurers, brokers and risk advisers, such as Marsh, felt that it hadn’t been thought through properly. Risk managers at the top-150 law firms surveyed couldn’t see the benefits of staggering renewal dates. Even the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) itself, after taking advice from various corners of the industry, declared the likelihood of scrapping the single renewal date for solicitors’ PII as ‘improbable’.

Legal Business

Moving Targets – Risk Management Survey: Part 1

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Marsh
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2011 was always going to be a turbulent year, but the arrival of several new challenges has put risk teams under greater pressure than ever.

There’s never been a more important – or perhaps a more stressful – time to be a risk manager at a law firm. Previous Legal Business and Marsh risk management and professional indemnity reports have dealt with the need to properly establish a risk culture and gain effective buy-in from the wider firm in anticipation of major changes that were just around the corner.

Legal Business

Reinventing the wheel

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Legal regulation Marsh
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With the SRA on the verge of overhauling the regulatory system yet again, our third annual Legal Business/Marsh risk management round table looked at how ever-moving goalposts will affect successful risk management in the new decade

At the top of a rain-lashed Gherkin on a chilly February night, yet another review of thelegal profession’s regulatory system was discussed, as industry experts came together for dinner to debate some of the most important issues facing law firm managers as we enter a new decade.

Legal Business

Burning platforms

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Legal regulation Marsh
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While firms have been talking tough on developing effective risk management teams, the preparation ends now. With fundamental changes to the profession around the corner, risk teams need to be primed for action

While the first Legal Business and Marsh risk management survey two years ago examined the need for a risk management function, and last year’s report looked at the very specific challenges facing firms in the teeth of a global recession, this year finds firms very much needing to get in shape. Talk is cheap, and the emphasis now is on getting risk management and compliance teams ready to tackle the fresh structures and regulatory pressures in a new decade.

Legal Business

Staggering about

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Financial management Marsh
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There’s no doubt that there was a hardening of the professional indemnity (PI) insurance market in the past year for firms outside the LB100. The advantages of the soft market have truly come to an end. Many smaller firms have been hit hard by the hikes in premiums, due primarily to the rising number of claims within conveyancing, coupled with an increased chance of the firms failing, and the impact of fraudulent activity in the market.

Legal Business

Finding a voice

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Financial management Marsh
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The reality for a number of firms is that up until now their risk teams have been wading through treacle to get their firms in shape. Now that the concept of effective risk management is universally recognised, the hard work begins for some: getting the appropriate level of support internally. To our survey question ‘What are the main barriers to implementing a risk management culture at your firm?’, the response ‘getting proper “buy-in” from fee-earners’ came up time and again.

Legal Business

Putting out new fires

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Financial management Marsh
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This section looks at the key risks identified by the top 150 firms in the UK in our third risk management survey. While last year client bankruptcy, credit problems and other recession-related fears dominated risk managers’ agendas, this year some of those fears may have abated.

Of the potential risks identified by risk managers, the threat of clients being acquired or declared bankrupt has fallen sharply, scoring on average 2.6 out of five, compared to 3.6 last year (see ‘Legal risk profile’ table, opposite).