FAIRLAWN, Ohio– LAWFUEL – The Law Newswire –A new lawyers’ professional liability program offers improved underwriting flexibility and manageable rates for attorneys who have been turned down or priced out of the market by standard carriers. Brunswick Companies, a leading insurance risk management firm, has been named by Lloyd’s of London as the U.S. administrator of a new program designed to meet the needs of law firms of one to fifteen attorneys who have been unable to secure coverage due to practice specialty, claim activity, disciplinary history, or other unusual risk characteristics.
Jerry Nelson, Senior Vice President, explained, “Brunswick Companies has decades of experience in creating customized professional liability programs for professional groups. By partnering our underwriting expertise with the financial strength of Lloyds of London, we have developed a program that offers an alternative to the standard professional liability carriers. While many insurers automatically decline coverage to lawyers who have certain risk factors, our underwriters have the know-how to evaluate the firm’s ongoing level of exposure; often we can offer a program with manageable rates.”
Law firms most likely to benefit from this program include those fitting one of the following profiles:
Have experienced a single, large “shock-loss” claim
Specialize in “high-risk” areas of practice such as plaintiff law (other than class action)
Firm attorney(s) have experienced disciplinary actions or grievances
Recently declined or cancelled
Anyone can make a mistake, Nelson said, and even a single instance of disciplinary action or a single claim will cause some insurers to classify a firm as hard-to-place. Brunswick Companies recognizes that firms may react to such an occurrence in different ways. “The key to this program is our ability to evaluate not just the risk factors, but the steps the firm has taken to avoid a reoccurrence. Many insurers don’t offer this customized evaluation,” stated Nelson.
The new program will be administered by Brunswick Companies across the United States; it is not available in the New York City metropolitan area, Alaska, Alabama, California, Hawaii, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, South Carolina, Texas and West Virginia.
Brunswick Companies is an experienced team of risk managers and insurance underwriters, with over 30 years experience in providing proactive solutions to companies and professional groups of all sizes by implementing a customized “best practices” approach to effective, long-term risk and insurance management.
