Solicitors

Since September 2000, solicitors’ professional indemnity has been underwritten in the open market. During this time, QBE PI has consistently been one of the top 4 insurers with a substantial market share. Our portfolio contains a balance of clients ranging from sole practitioners to multi-national firms. The sheer size and diversity of our client base has provided us with a real insight into the practical requirements of the profession; an insight that we have put to good effect in tailoring our products and services.

Solicitors’ professional indemnity is underwritten using a policy wording and mandatory limit of indemnity prescribed by the Law Society. At first sight, this would appear to homogenise the products available from the professional indemnity market. However, QBE PI has sought to add value to this benchmark through flexible excesses and an indemnity top-up cover that is underwritten on the same wording as the primary policy.

Unusually, all solicitors’ professional indemnity policies are renewed on one day. This represents a unique challenge for underwriters committed to maintaining high levels of service. We have made a major investment in our distribution network and back-office systems to meet this challenge. Our sole-practitioner and 2-10 partner schemes have consistently been the largest of their kind in the market and have provided us with the critical mass to further invest in our claims and risk management support infrastructure.

The solicitors’ profession creates a high volume of professional indemnity claims and circumstances. Coupled with high claims values and complexity, this creates the need for efficient and effective claims solutions. We have formed a specialist claims infrastructure that solely services our solicitors’ professional indemnity portfolio. Our claims helpline means that we are only a call away and our regular newsletter keeps clients informed of current developments within the legal profession.

A unique feature of our professional indemnity product is our quality assurance and risk management initiative. QBE is the only insurer that has sought to harmonise its QA procedures with Lexcel, the Law Society’s Legal Excellence QA Standard. This process has been approved by the Law Society and participants completing our QA self-assessment questionnaire are awarded up to 6 hours CPD.

Our QA initiative is designed to assist even the smallest client implement an appropriate quality management system and help evidence a systematic approach to risk management; a requirement of the latest Code of Conduct. This service is further supported by free, comprehensive packs of Core Management System and Risk Management Essential precedent documents packs.

Larger clients can benefit from our bespoke consultancy services that are tailored to their individual needs and implemented, on site, by an experienced QA consultant.