With so many new concerns in lawyers professional liability (LPL) claim trends it is important for anyone working within this market to stay in the know. Berkley Select recently hosted a session with Al Roberts, Vice President of Underwriting, Jeff Yao, Chief Claims Officer, and Matt Henderson, Partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson, LLP answering questions about trends they are seeing in claims in the LPL space.

Below are key takeaways of the discussion on LPL claim trends and how to mitigate risks.

  1. Some of the most frequent/common LPL claims today include:
  • Conflicts of interests
  • Poor communication
  • Lawyers suing their clients to collect fees often face counter claims to legal malpractice
  • Post pandemic issues (failure to communicate timely, mis-calendering, etc.)
  1. Law firms are big targets for social engineering schemes. A common scheme is a hacker posing as a client, prompting the lawyer to open an email attachment. Once that attachment is open, hackers are now in the lawyers computer system and have access to confidential info.
  2. Training lawyers and staff on how to identify suspicious emails and phishing attempts is critical right now to help counteract social engineering. Hackers are becoming more sophisticated.
  3. Attorneys tend to be more vulnerable to phishing/social engineering and are often given resources on some of the top social engineering scams and how to avoid them.
  4. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in law is an evolving issue not without dilemma there’s a significant likelihood that if an attorney uses AI, they must know the law and fact check all information prior to publishing.

You can learn more by listening to the full recording here.

Matthew Henderson
Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Partner


Matthew Henderson is a Partner at Hinshaw & Culbertson where he’s been with the firm since 1998. He concentrates his practice on the representation of attorneys in all aspects of professional liability and ethics including the defense of legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty actions, providing risk management and legal ethics advice, defending lawyer disciplinary proceedings, and litigating attorney fee disputes and sanctions motions.

Matthew serves on the Chicago Bar Association Committee on Attorney Malpractice and is also on the Professional Responsibility Committee. He is also a member of the Illinois State Bar Association.
 
Albert Roberts
Berkley Select, V.P. – Professional Liability Underwriting


Al Roberts joined Berkley Select in June 2021 and brings over 23 years of experience in the insurance industry. Als background in Professional Liability is robust and includes working at an MGA and multiple carriers. He is also a former practicing attorney and is licensed in Illinois as well as The United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Al served on the Professional Liability Underwriting Societys (PLUS) Midwest Steering Committee for several years and has been a guest speaker as well as a moderator at several industry events. He is a trusted colleague, mentor and friend to many in the industry – building strong relationships with brokers. Al is referred to often for his deep understanding of LPL and common knowledge of Lawyers malpractice.
Jeffrey Yao
Berkley Select, Chief Claims Officer


As Chief Claims Officer since May 2020, Jeff oversees Berkley Selects claims team both the Professional and Management Liability lines of business. His experience includes over 25 years in the commercial insurance industry managing a wide variety of claims involving corporate governance, federal securities, trade secret, employment, takeovers, antitrust, employee benefits (ERISA), and class actions. Jeff received his J.D. from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and his Bachelor of Arts from Washington and Jefferson College. He is admitted to practice law in all State and Federal Courts of Pennsylvania and the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals.
 
 
News Type

PLUS Blog

Business Line

Other Business Lines

Topic

Lawyers Professional, Professional Liability (PL) Insurance

Contribute to

PLUS Blog

Contribute your thoughts to the PLUS Membership consisting of 38,000+ Professional Liability Practitioners.

Related Podcasts

Related Articles