Employed Lawyers Liability

Why your company and in-house counsel need employed lawyers liability insurance:

• Creditors, customers, vendors, government regulators, competitors, shareholders, trustees, and even employees can sue your company’s in-house attorneys for legal malpractice.
• Other insurance policies your company may have — such as general liability, umbrella, and directors and officers liability — generally do not provide coverage for
  • legal malpractice, including litigation arising out of professional or legal services provided to your company’s employees and executives, your company’s clients, or other entities related to your company, such as affiliates and holding companies.
  • Pro bono or moonlighting legal services.
  • “internal” claims; i.e., suits brought by your employees or executives.
  • disbarment or similar professional disciplinary proceedings.
  • counsel who are not also officers of the company and other legal staff.
• Your in-house counsel does not have to do anything wrong to be sued. A large proportion of lawsuits may be meritless but must still be defended. In Chubb’s experience, defense expenses typically comprise the bulk of the costs associated with professional liability lawsuits.
• a malpractice lawsuit may result in losses of hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. Comparatively speaking, purchasing Employed Lawyers Professional Liability by Chubb makes good business sense.
• States may require attorneys to disclose to clients if they do not maintain specific limits of malpractice insurance. exceptions to disclosure requirements for in-house counsel may not extend to legal services rendered to clients other than their employer. A failure to disclose an attorney’s insurance status to other clients may result in a misconduct investigation and disciplinary action.