Firms that handle volume conveyancing and personal injury work may need to take out more than the minimum level of professional indemnity cover in the light of changes to their policies, it was claimed at the conference.

Jonathan Davies, director and underwriting manager at St Paul Travelers Professional Risks - the second largest underwriter of law firms - said changes to the aggregation clause offered more scope for insurers to treat multiple related claims as one, potentially threatening the upper limit of a firm's cover.


Even though, in a partly linked move, the minimum cover firms have to take out is doubling this year to £2 million (£3 million for limited liability partnerships), he cautioned that this may still not be enough for firms such as bulk conveyancers and personal injury practices, where a large number of similar claims could arise.


This could happen, for example, over the sale of multiple plots of land or on mass undersettlement of a class of personal injury claim.


Meanwhile, Mr Davies said statistics indicate that the number of £1 million-plus claims against smaller firms is probably increasing.


An analysis of those top-30 firms that are St Paul's clients showed that they accounted for 64% of all £1 million-plus claims over the past decade. However, 23% were from firms with fewer than 15 partners.


He said although the number of such claims in total was not growing, their value was. There has been a notable increase in claims relating to overseas offices, Mr Davies added.


Among the top-30 firms, mergers and acquisitions work (36%) accounted for the highest number of big claims. For those outside the top 30, litigation (37%) was the major cause.