Financial & Professional Risks

Our Financial & Professional Risks practice area is led by Fenchurch Law Partner Jonathan Corman, with support from Managing Partner David Pryce in relation to Cyber Risks. Jonathan and his team of specialist lawyers represent policyholders insured against a range of financial and professional risks, often under highly bespoke specialty business lines. We also represent professionals of all types and across all sectors, in businesses large and small.

Our Financial & Professional Risks team frequently advises multinational enterprises on claims with a cross border element, and we are skilled at managing complex jurisdictional issues arising in respect of international risks and losses from all parts of the world insured into the London Market.

Our specialist solicitors have proven expertise in relation to all aspects of financial and commercial insurance dispute resolution across a range of industry sectors, including claims on the following policy types:

• Professional Indemnity
• Directors’ and Officers’
• Trade Credit and Political Risk
• Financial Institutions
• Transactional Risks: Warranty and Indemnity, POSI, Tax Indemnity and Contingent Liability
• Crime and Fidelity
• Technology/Cyber
• Political Violence and Terrorism
• Employer’s Liability
• Kidnap & Ransom
• Reinsurance

Professional Indemnity

In relation to professional indemnity insurance, we act exclusively for policyholders pursuing claims for indemnity against their insurers and for uninsured policyholders defending claims made against them. Our client base is extensive and diverse and includes:

• Accountants
• Architects
• D&C Contractors
• Engineers
• Financial Advisers
• Fund Managers
• Insolvency practitioners
• Insurance brokers
• Solicitors
• Surveyors

Our lawyers are highly experienced in dealing with all relevant legal issues, including:

• Late notification
• Breach of conditions precedent
• Scope of cover disputes
• Misrepresentation and non-disclosure
• Gaps in cover between policy years
• Aggregation
• Application of recent legislation:
  • Insurance Act 2015
  • Enterprise Act 2016
  • Third Parties (Rights against Insurers) Act 2010

D&O

As well as advising and representing professionals, we provide the same service to company directors and officers, on insurance/indemnity coverage issues, and as defence counsel when indemnity is declined or withheld by insurers.

We provide expert and experienced advice and support to companies and individuals, who find themselves without indemnity, and in conflict with their D&O/management liability insurers.

Our team has extensive experience of dealing with every type of D&O claim, including all aspects of contractual, tortious, fiduciary and statutory/regulatory liability, and of resolving every type of coverage issue raised by insurers.

Team members have been involved in numerous high profile and complex D&O claims and coverage issues, both in the UK, and internationally.

Cyber

The world of risk is constantly evolving and no sector has developed as quickly as Communications and Information Technology over the past 20 years, impacting every aspect of our lives. With such significant change comes a whole new range of risks, such as cyber and related risks. While the London Insurance Market has led the world in developing insurance against those new risks, the pace of change means that it simply isn’t possible for existing insurance products to fit the emerging risks perfectly in every case. That imperfect fit causes frequent disputes about whether particular losses are or aren’t covered by particular insurance policies. Our experienced, specialist lawyers operate at the leading edge of the emerging risk landscape, and our clients include some of the world’s best known and most innovative businesses.

At whatever stage of a case Fenchurch Law becomes involved, we always work proactively with all parties involved in order to achieve the most appropriate and fair solution to coverage disputes as efficiently and cost effectively as possible. We work particularly closely and collaboratively with insurance brokers, combining our legal skills with their commercial leverage to achieve the best possible outcome for every one of our clients.