Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has announced that it will now be offering a new policy that is designed to help cover the in-house attorneys and their personal assets against allegations of legal malpractice.
ChubbSM’s Employed Lawyers Professional Liability will give broad protection to employers as well as their in-house attorneys when they offer services provided by counsel in-house for such activities as providing the board of directors with legal opinions, or giving a review of shareholder communications.
The protection is designed to cover defense, settlements, and judgments. It can also protect against civil penalties under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that have been aimed at in-house attorneys.
The Chubb assistant vice president and employed lawyers professional liability product manager, Andrea Wysocki, said that “Increasingly, in-house counsel are being sued by creditors, customers, vendors, government regulators, competitors, shareholders and employees.” She went on to say that even in the case where the in-house attorney didn’t do anything wrong, that professional or the employer could still be required to cover extensive expenses for defense.
The new policy Chubb is offering for legal malpractice widens the definition of “insured” and “claim” in order to help fill in the gap in protection that can occur in the general liability policy of the business, as well as its directors and officers liability insurance, and even its umbrella protection.
The policy has also narrowed the exclusion for “insured v. insured”, as well as for claims leveled against in-house attorneys by one of the company’s executives or employees. Also not excluded are claims that are made by former in-house attorneys who have not held that position for over a year before the claim was made.
