Traversing the turbulence of the legal solutions market

In recent months, Keoghs – the legal solutions arm of Davies – has gone from strength to strength, opening a new office in Leeds, reinforcing its team in Scotland and bolstering its credit hire offering with the recruitment of a new partner and team from Plexus Law.

Discussing the trajectory of the business and the next steps on its growth agenda, Andrew Evans (pictured), head of Keoghs’ corporate & sector risk (CSR) practice, highlighted the role having a differentiated claims proposition has played in the business’s success to date. Keoghs started building its proposition in the 2000s, he said, and was first to market with a fully single-source, cross-class claims and litigation solution.

Keoghs growth

That forerunner advantage has paid dividends in the long run, Evans said, as evidenced by Keoghs’ steady growth trajectory amid the current tumult of the legal solutions market.

“It has been a turbulent market for the last two or three years, from a provider’s point of view,” he said. “Historically, our biggest two competitors have been BLM and Plexus. BLM merged with Clyde & Co last year and through that merger, we brought their Liverpool office into our CSR division. That included 21 individuals with a new sector leader, allowing us to diversify into construction and aviation. So that broke up that competitor to some degree and we’ve taken some business from Clyde since the merger.”

Meanwhile, Plexus has been in the news lately, filing a second notice of intention to appoint administrators in late June before it was bought out of administration by Axiom Ince Limited in July. Keoghs recruited a new partner in Anne Chapman from Plexus who brought with her a team of five – all of whom sit within Keoghs’ Tactical Credit Hire division. These movements show the upheaval in the market, he said – a market that is also welcoming new entrants trying to establish their own single-source claims solutions.

“That’s happening because the market recognises that having one solution for all of their claims makes it a lot easier to manage them, to control leakage and, more importantly, to create efficiencies that allow significant savings in claims spend,” he said. “Wherever we’ve taken in new business from a standalone TPA with lawyers and put it into our teams, where the legal team is joined up and acting on the same clients, clients are typically saving double digits on their claims spend.”

Focus on retail

Evans noted that this offering is what has differentiated Keoghs until now and enabled it to support some of the biggest companies in the UK, particularly in retail. Retail is Keoghs’ biggest sector, he said, and it’s now estimated that the firm acts on behalf of over 55% of claims against retailers in the UK. With the data generated from that, the business is able to monitor claims performance and make that bespoke to the individual claims dynamic of any corporate.

“That saves them a lot of money,” he said, “but also that good practice around claims informs their risk management strategies and helps protect them reputationally because if all their models are on the front foot, they’re able to intervene on claims early and manage them in the right way, in accordance with their own claims philosophies.

“And for the brokers and insurers, when the premium is taken to market, they’ve got a much clearer sight around what’s actually going on within their risk, allowing them to place it better, make premium savings and even start to think about more innovative structures and solutions – in the knowledge that the volume and the noise around claims is under control.”

Importance of claims

The idea of claims as the proof-point of an insurance purchase is growing amid changing consumer expectations and increased efficiency drives from insurance businesses. There is an increased understanding that effective claims management is a real opportunity for differentiation, Evans said, and he’s seeing this reflected in his conversations with senior executives working with some global brokers.

“I think if you push them, they do accept that perhaps for too many years now, they’ve thought about claims as a separate issue,” he said. “Whereas I think they now understand that if they want to differentiate within their market, they have to look at all aspects of the total cost of risk.

“[…] I think the industry hasn’t ever really thought enough about how they can actually ring-fence claims spend and bring it down. Now that they’re realising they can do that – but equally that they need to have the data that enables them do that – I think it’s becoming more attractive to them.”

That opportunity is bringing in more players to Keoghs’ ecosystem who are looking to build single-source solutions, but Evans noted that it’s easier said than done. With that in mind, Keoghs has no intention of resting on its laurels, he said, and will continue to capitalise on the lead of its first-mover advantage.

“What differentiates Keoghs’ corporate risk offering even further from our competitors, however, is the opportunity we have to capitalise on all of our capability across Davies,” he said. “Where applicable, this means we can tap into the solutions from the wider business and truly offer end-to-end, one-supplier incident and claims solutions for our clients – alongside innovative insurance programme solutioning.  

“This unique market position allows to bring to market new ideas and solutions, that don’t just help reduce claims spend, and the total cost of risk but they also offer support with the release of capital from the balance sheet.”

On average, the business has seen year-on-year organic growth in the double digits, Evans said, and he expects especially strong results this year considering its acquisitions and rapid expansion.

“But that’s only one part of the story,” he said. “The reason why we are where we are today is that we decided many years ago that we would be very clear in our understanding around our product. We are lawyers and therefore our product has to deliver quality and client satisfaction. And that is more important to us than anything else because, to most of our clients, that reputation is probably worth more than any financial consideration.

“So, if we all get all those bits about reputation, control and being on the front foot of making sure that the claims experience is right, then that’s what matters most.”

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