1. Professional Indemnity - 2018
GDPR – Does Insurance have a role to play?
Marco D’Ovidio
14 March 2018

2. October
October 2017 – Insurers generally keen to write business or compete to retain
More capacity for solicitor firms to draw from plus no unrated markets
Claims activity has slowed in recent years
Most of the legal profession still retain the traditional September renewal date
Premium pot is considered to still be down overall compared to the last years of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund (SIF).

3. April
April 2018 – set to continue as market is considered “soft” at present.
Typically triggers to rate increases - catastrophic losses “storms, adverse weather, fires” has not hit Reinsurers as hard as feared, however this may change.
Onerous ground rent clauses – potential for future claims relating to poor advice from firms over this.
Dreamvar v Mishcon De Reya
If upheld then insurers could react in terms of rate charged for conveyancing or their appetite to write risks with significant residential conveyancing attached.
11 working days left to obtain quotations for PII
Generic proposal forms
Quotes typically turned around in a couple days
Various policy periods – 18 months and commitment to renew (two year policies)
Aon exclusives for 1 – 15 partner firms.

4. Top Ten Loss Types Generally speaking they are:
Residential Conveyancing
Trust Wills & Probate
Personal Injury (Claimant)
Litigious (other)
Commercial Conveyancing
Matrimonial
Non Litigious – Other
Commercial
Employment
Other

5. Up & Coming Changes
2020 – SIF will cease providing cover upon the expiry of the six year run off period
Regulator switch from October 2017
To early to say how many firms will take this route
Risk to firms and clients with less cover than current MTC PII.

6. Additional cover SRA investigations / SDT proceedings
Not all PII policies included this and may cap limits
Leigh Day - £7.8 million in legal costs.
Directors & Officers cover is a more suitable policy to cover this
Would also include COLP, COFA, MRLO as well
Does not impact directly on the PII claims history
Premiums for D&O cover considerably lower than PII

7. GDPR – Does Insurance have a role to play?
GDPR due to go live from May 2018
Risks of cyber breaches (cyber attacks) are not just limited to large organisations ( interceptions with law firms in the main were under 15 partners from our experience).
In % of small firms were the victim of cyber crime (Source Federation of Small Businesses: Cyber Resilience Report
Under GDPR every business is subject to fines and penalties for failing to secure digital data, up to 4% of annual global turnover or €20m whichever is greater.
What would you do if your client data becomes exposed?

8. GDPR – Does Insurance have a role to play?
Firms will need to notify the Information Commissioners Office within 72 hours plus the clients affected.
Are you ready and prepared to do that?
Notifying the ICO and clients may seem straightforward but can be a complex and longwinded process.
Would you have the time and knowledge to do this?
What happens when a client posts on social media that you have lost their data?
Do you have a PR firm on retainer to manage this?
Claims from clients impacted by the breach
Would you want your PII insurers to pick up the costs of this? What about the excess you would have to pay and the knock on effect of premiums going forward?

9. Cyber Insurance
The AA is not longer the “fourth emergency service” Think of Cyber cover as providing that.
Fines these are included as long as they are legally insurable.

10. To Do List
12 Step Guide – have you reviewed this and benchmarked your firm against this?
Are all your staff trained and prepared for GDPR?
Will you provide ongoing training?
Have you questioned your Case Management provider on the robustness of their system?
Do you have cyber cover and is it integrated as part of your Business Continuity Plan?
Purchase Cyber cover! It’s not as expensive as you think!
How often does your IT provider perform a PEN test?
How you prepare both pre and post a cyber attack or data breach will be taken in to consideration by the ICO.

11. Questions…