Howden welcomes new appointments to Lawyers Professional Indemnity team

Howden continues to go from strength to strength with senior appointments in Lawyers Professional Indemnity team

At the time of writing the world’s population continues to face a health crisis of unprecedented proportions in modern times. The COVID-19 crisis has affected everyone both personally and professionally. There is no doubt that we will all continue to face some tough challenges over the next few months.

Like every business, law firms will continue to be under extreme commercial pressure. Ensuring costs are tightly controlled will be a major focus and, as one of the largest single overheads, Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII) premiums will be no exception.

Unfortunately, the current economic disruption has coincided with one of the hardest markets for PII in a generation creating what some regard as a “perfect storm”.

The Performance Review by Lloyd’s highlighted that PII for Law Firms has been one of the classes of insurance most impacted by high loss ratios and consequently we have seen significant increases in rates in the first quarter of 2020. We are left in no doubt that, due to the general hardening of the market, rate increases are likely to continue through 2020.

Although much of the activity at present will be managing the day-to-day issues of remote working and revenue protection, it is nevertheless prudent to review your PII arrangements. Professional Indemnity insurers are actively seeking to select the best quality law firms and each firm must actively work to differentiate the quality of its risk profile and control frameworks in order to secure favourable terms from insurers.

With that in mind it is important to appreciate how Howden’s Professional Indemnity business continues to strengthen its highly successful legal services team with the addition of eight hugely experienced, specialist Insurance practitioners.

Howden’s specialist Legal Services PII team already represents the interests of over 1000 law firms from High Street Practices to large International firms. As such, the business is delighted to welcome Martin Ellis, Colin Taylor and colleagues.

Simon Lakey, Executive Chairman of Howden UK says

"The legal services sector is a major focus for our business and we are delighted that under John Wooldridge’s and Martin Ellis’ combined leadership and expertise, the team will successfully deliver market leading services for legal firms of all sizes, from sole practitioners up to the largest multi-national."

Martin Ellis, Executive Director and member of the Howden UK Executive Committee says 

"I am delighted to join Howden. It is a fantastic and ambitious business with significant and exciting growth plans. The PII business is renowned for its expertise and is highly successful in the legal services sector. I look forward to helping firms navigate their way successfully through the current economic and challenging insurance market conditions.”

Howden’s new additions have represented over 75 of The Lawyer UK 200 law firms throughout their illustrious careers. Mike Mortlock and Colin Taylor, both Divisional Directors, will also focus on providing market leading services for firms within the UK 200. Both are highly experienced brokers, each with over 30 years’ experience. Colin Taylor will also take responsibility for developing Howden’s existing range of risk management services for clients across all professional services sectors. These services will include risk management awareness training modules and educational workshops for firms of all sizes and profile. Colin Taylor says

"This is a challenging time for those managing a law firm and for risk managers in particular. I look forward to continuing to assist firms in the management of risk with the help and support of an already excellent team here at Howden.”

Sarah Hughes, Global Practice Leader of Financial Lines Group Howden UK, says

"We are delighted to be expanding significantly on top of what is already a fantastic team of around 150 market professionals. It means we continue to invest in deep and broad experience and sector expertise for the benefit of our growing list of legal profession clients."

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