Legal eagle

Tell us about your company

Ronaldsons is a West End-based solicitor that has been practicing for over 20 years. We provide legal services, primarily to corporate clients, with particular specialisms in commercial and merger and activity work for companies listed on the Alternative Investment Market and the Plus market. We know our clients well and assist them in a wide range of areas from employment law to property and litigation but do not undertake family-related matters. The practice has grown steadily since it was founded and now has four member partners plus support staff.

What insurances do you place and with which firms do you place them?

We are required by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to carry a minimum of £3m professional indemnity cover although, because of the type of work we undertake, we have opted to take significantly more than this. In addition, we have an office policy to cover our contents, business interruption and liability insurances. We arrange all our cover through New Malden-based Clear Insurance Management.

Describe the relationship with your broker

One of our partners knew the managing director of Clear Insurance from their school and university days so we have a fairly long history. Since the demise of the Solicitors Indemnity Fund, we have relied on the experts within Clear - primarily the head of its professional risks team - to advise us on how to find the best professional indemnity quotations in a saturated marketplace. We changed insurer in 2007 and Clear has arranged for us to meet our underwriters. We now have a positive, long-term, three-way relationship that we value.

Our relationship is not limited to obtaining advice on our own cover because Clear is able to provide knowledgeable advice to our AIM and Plus market clients. We have worked with our broker on a number of occasions to assist our own clients when they have had difficulty obtaining proper advice in this niche area. I appreciate this proactive approach to the issues that arise.

What challenges do you face in the current economic climate?

We have been affected like all solicitors but ours is a diversified practice that - thankfully - is not dependent on the property market. There are certainly fewer stock market floatations at present but our clients are still busy buying and selling businesses or finding themselves up against the kind of problems that we can help them with. The economic climate has put stress on many businesses and some of them need to turn to us for help now more than ever. It won't be a brilliant year but in comparison with many other West End firms, we have very little to complain about.

Does this mean you are cutting back on your insurance costs at all?

The lion's share of what we pay is for our own professional indemnity and, while I would love to be paying less, I certainly don't want to take out less cover. Much of our work is in the riskier areas for professional indemnity, so I am at least relieved that premiums have been gradually falling over the years. The renewal season is looming but I am hopeful that our insurers will consider us a good long-term risk.

What would you like to see in the insurance sector to help your business?

I am not sure that the single renewal date [1 October] for all solicitors is really in solicitors' collective interests. The whole renewal process has become hysterical and, as they only have one chance each year, insurers seem to lurch from loving us one year to hating us the next. If renewal dates were spread out over the year then I suspect a more balanced approach to the market would prevail.