|
||||||||||||||
|
Edition 4 Contents:
|
That creates an opportunity. MarketStance, a provider of commercial P&C insurance data and analysis, estimates that the law firm market presently represents some $3 billion in annual premiums. The swelling ranks of attorneys, the growing size of firms and the significant wealth of partners creates additional need for more insurance protection in the years ahead. More firm clients are doing business internationally and asking for counsel on those dealings. An ever-more litigious society means clients are less hesitant to sue their own attorneys. These market realities create an inescapable need for experts who can understand and help mitigate the myriad of exposures that firms and their lawyers confront. That's where a well-educated producer can help them -- and where this issue of MarketBUILDER can help you.
|
|||||||||||||
| Tips for Breaking Into the Law Firm Market Advice for identifying leads, approaching prospects and winning their business Want to add law firms to your book of business? MarketBUILDER recently collected these tips from top Chubb producers in the market segment:
Network and create ongoing relationships with key decision makers. Start with getting to know a law firm's Administrator or Executive Director. These are people who handle day-to-day operations issues for Senior Partners. He or she will probably have power to unilaterally purchase property and casualty coverages. More often than not, though, purchasing decisions regarding Professional Liability and Employment Practice coverages are made by a Managing Partner or committee of partners. Because the Administrator can control your access to the more senior-level decision makers, you'll want to establish an ongoing relationship with that person based on mutual self-interest. The Administrator is in a position to understand the politics of the firm and the competing needs, concerns and desires of various partners better than anyone. You can make yourself indispensable to the Administrator as a "de facto risk manager." In all likelihood, you'll gain a grateful referral source that will not only introduce you to the right Partners but also help you understand what's most important to them. Identify your target market. As with any sales effort, you want to qualify the legitimacy of every opportunity. Start by gathering a list of law firms in your area. , a firm that's been compiling data about lawyers for 133 years, allows users of its Web site to evaluate information about firms in a number of ways, from attorney head count and geographic reach to practice specialties and key industry focuses. Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com. |
||||||||||||||
| Five Hot-Button Questions That Can Lead to P&C Business
When speaking with a law firm, asking carefully crafted questions can identify unrealized needs for property and casualty insurance. Below are five questions dealing with property and casualty exposures.
Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com. |
||||||||||||||
| Managing the EPL Risk Law firms face a host of employment-related liability exposures, including sexual harassment; race, sex and age discrimination; disability; wrongful termination; failure to make partner; and others. A high-pressure atmosphere, coupled with lawyers' drive to move upward in the firm, can create a breeding ground for potential employment practices liability (EPL) lawsuits.
For example, as a supplement to its , Chubb's Employment Practices Liability policy for law firms, which is endorsed by the American Bar Association, Chubb offers AGOSNet, a Web-based resource containing a wealth of employment-related information, including best practices, policies and procedures, timely articles, and more. Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com. |
||||||||||||||
| The Best Law Firm Insureds Obviously, the more insurable a law firm is, the better its chances of securing appropriate coverage at an affordable premium. Therefore, as you search for law firm clients, remember that your success rate in securing insurance quotes from Chubb can be enhanced by looking for certain characteristics in the firms you approach. Characteristics to look for include:
Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com. |
||||||||||||||
| When Lawyers Are Sued The risks for law firms and special needs of their accused attorneys
According to the American Bar Association Lawyer's Desk Guide
to Preventing Legal Malpractice, a lawyer will be sued at least
once during his or her career. Mundane but damaging problems like missed
document-filing deadlines and suits for fees are behind a great many
of the claims. Yet, in a litigious society partly of their own making,
lawyers can find themselves sued for just about anything, even when
they do nothing wrong at all. Chubb provides --standout errors and omissions (E&O) protection to law firms with 10 or more attorneys. Our state-of-the-art policy allows insureds to choose defense counsel should a claim arise, something few other carriers do. We offer innocent partners protection in the event another attorney is found to have acted dishonestly. The policy gives firms access to dedicated loss control counsel and risk-management services as well. Our local expert underwriters are prepared to help you close the sale. Perhaps best of all, when a firm is on the losing side of a legal malpractice suit, it can take comfort in being backed by Chubb, an insurer of superior financial strength renowned for its expert claims service. Protection for Employed Lawyers Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com.
|
||||||||||||||
| Targeting the "Global" Law Firm Chubb Multinational Coverage: A competitive difference in prospecting and account retention
For the emerging international law firms -- those that have not yet established offices outside the United States but regularly send employees around the world -- is the answer. This portfolio of insurance includes protection for a wide range of exposures associated with foreign travel such as damage or loss of laptops, employee injury and automobile accidents. As a firm's international business grows, it may decide to acquire an overseas office. Now, the firm needs to upgrade its insurance protection. Chubb's World Network policy is the solution. From property and business income to general liability, auto liability, foreign voluntary workers compensation and crime, this policy was designed to integrate the admitted and nonadmitted components of an insurance program with provisions such as difference in terms/conditions. Other U.S. insurers are hard pressed to match the array of products or geographic sweep Chubb extends. With its combination of consistent cross-border insurance protection supported by an extensive global network of owned and affiliated operations in more than 100 countries, Chubb's experts can speak to local risks and insurance needs to assist producers and their clients. Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com. |
||||||||||||||
| Mixing Personal (Lines) With Business Ways to generate referrals that pack twice the sales punch
Take larger firms (100 or more lawyers) -- there, a managing partner or executive committee of partners often makes certain insurance buying decisions, such as the purchase of professional liability coverages. That creates an opening for producers to move the buying partners from discussions about firm-wide risk exposures to conversations about individual exposures like, say, . A sale to a partner who sits on the boards of many outside organizations can lead to referrals to fellow partners and legal peers with the same need. This marketing approach can also be used to sell some of those very same partners and peers on the quality of specially tailored to address their affluent lifestyles. From there, it's just a matter of seeking referrals to other partners whose ownership of luxury homes and vehicles, jewelry, fine art and antiques creates protection needs that mass-marketed personal insurance products can't adequately address. It's not just partners who need an exceptional level of personalized coverage. A nonpartner attorney may come to the job with a significant new client base. Or the attorney may have business connections or legal skills that put him/her on a fast track to partner. Establishing a rapport with this "emerging wealth" market segment may not pay off immediately, but chances are it may eventually. Small to midsize firms (10 to 100 lawyers) often share the same office building, commercial district or courthouse area. They also travel in overlapping professional circles and refer clients back and forth based on expertise one firm has that the others lack. Occasionally, they ask one another for suggestions, such as the type of insurance to buy. Whatever approach you take in working the referral chain within a law firm, it's important to sell a reputation for innovative coverage and superior claims service. Attorneys know how to protect themselves better than the average person. But when they do find themselves in a situation where they need insurance help, they want to know it will be there for them. Once you've convinced an attorney or firm that the recommended insurer's reputation for excellence is well deserved, you may even be able to take the next step: asking for referrals to present insurance options to the firm's very best business and individual clients.
Like this story? Want to learn more about the topic in a future issue? E-mail us your thoughts at chubbemail@chubb.com. |
||||||||||||||
|
© 2004 Chubb & Son, a division of Federal Insurance Company. All rights reserved. |
||||||||||||||
Develop
an understanding of private practice law. Lawyers are trained
to spot imposters. You can't sell insurance protection with any
degree of intellectual honesty unless you first have a practical understanding
of their world and its risks. Fortunately, there are Web sites that
can help. The and offer data on the demographic
composition of law firms and information about the profession in general.
The , which endorses Chubb exclusively as its insurer
of choice for Employment Practices Liability, also provides a Market
Research Web page with links to statistical resources across the Internet.
How
to turn a casual dialogue with a firm's insurance buyer into a
"friendly deposition"
However,
experienced EPL insurers can significantly lessen a firm's exposure
by offering risk management tools designed to help it reduce the risk
of EPL lawsuits.
Nobody's
perfect. Even the most exceptionally competent professional is bound
to make an honest mistake on occasion. In the case of lawyers, however,
an accusation of an error or omission, even if none was made, can cost
dearly if they lack the proper professional liability insurance.
What's
prompted law firms to go global? Mostly, it's a matter of necessity:
As waves of U.S. businesses have gone multinational in recent years,
their counsel has had to follow or lose business to a firm that could.
For
personal lines agents, lawyers represent a highly affluent affinity
group. This tight-knit community can yield lots of referral-driven,
cross-sell opportunities, from business coverages for firms, to personal
coverages for partners and associates, to risk management services for
their wealthy clientele.