Indemnity Legal

Indemnity Legal are specialist insurance lawyers dedicated exclusively to acting for policyholders to resolve complex or high value coverage disputes with their insurers.

The firm's experience is unique: all of its partners have spent time on “the other side” advising insurance companies on how best to manage complex or disputed claims. Indemnity Legal now uses that insight to anticipate how an insurer might approach an insurance dispute, and to put its policyholder clients in the most informed position possible when coverage disputes arise.

Indemnity Legal’s mission is to ensure that every valid insurance claim is paid for its clients, however complicated the claim may be. The firm never acts for insurance companies, so that it is always conflict-free to represent commercial policyholders in need of expert advice to ensure that valid claims do not go unpaid.

Main Areas of Practice:
Indemnity Legal is able to advise on the resolution of complex or high value insurance disputes under any type of insurance policy governed by English Law, and has particular expertise in resolving disputes under:

• Financial lines policies (professional indemnity, directors & officers, commercial crime, warranty & indemnity, cyber)
• Liability policies (employer's liability, public liability, products liability, corporate liability);
• Property policies (commercial combined policies, business interruption policies, defect guarantee policies)
• Construction policies (construction all risks)
• Trade credit policies

Recent cases include:
 

• Acting for an individual involved in post-Grenfell criminal fire-safety investigations seeking to access D&O cover.
• Acting for a failed SIPP provider seeking professional indemnity coverage for in excess of £80m + of liabilities.
• Acting for a group of 26 independent schools seeking business interruption cover for c.£2.6m of COVID-19 business interruption losses under a “non-damage denial of access clause”.
• Acting for a PFI transport infrastructure business seeking business interruption cover for £3.5m of business interruption losses suffered as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Acting for a London-based design practice to recover c.£500k of unpaid COVID-19 business interruption losses following allegations of non-disclosure, underinsurance and the application of average.
• Acting for three directors in respect of a disputed D&O claim arising from their private prosecution for allegedly fraudulent transactions relating to PPE contracts amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Acting for a leading smoked salmon producer to recover in excess of £1m of clean-up costs following the sinking of a feed barge in a Scottish loch.
• Acting for a listed contractor (and its JV partner) to resolve a dispute under a contractors’ all risks policy in respect of losses sustained due to the damage of water tanks at a water treatment facility.

International Work:
The firm's work often has an international or multi-jurisdictional element. Recent examples include:

• Acting for a publicly listed electronics distributor in respect of a disputed marine claim for the theft of €1m+ of consumer electronics in transit in Italy.
• Acting for a London-based asset manager and its CEO to obtain D&O coverage for a multitude of claims made in Scandinavia.
• Advising a Monaco-based asset manager and its board on D&O coverage available for regulatory investigations in Monaco.
• Advising on the application of sanctions exclusions to various D&O policies.
• Acting for a South African family office to recover c.£5m of loss under a commercial property policy following a fire at an investment property in Scotland.

Offices:
London (Head Office), Sheffield