Getting to know the network – BLM

Date: Monday, January 21st, 2019 by Michaela Hickson.

How did you get started in your career?

I trained at a top criminal firm in London’s East End, handling litigation and crime. Soon after qualifying, at about 3am on a Saturday morning sitting in a police cell with a violent client, I decided to get a new job. I applied to the well respected 8 partner insurance firm Berrymans down the road in the city of London, and joined to handle property and professional indemnity, eventually specialising in product liability and becoming a partner in 1997. Following various mergers that firm became BLM.

What is your job now? 

Head of product liability at BLM and Chairman of Global Insurance Law Connect

Can you describe your firm to us in 50 words?

A top UK insurance law firm acting for most of the leading insurers. Experts in what we do, approachable and straight forward with an ambitious young partnership keen to expand and grow our business and international links with similar minded specialists.

How did you come to set up GILC?

Client demand plus a need to compete with other insurance firms offering international links. I was involved from the start because I had worked with international firms while handling product liability and had built a network of contacts. Joining with the other founder firms with the same idea, we researched the leading firms in the key jurisdictions and started recruiting. Three years later we are growing and taking on the competition.

What do you find yourself doing in a typical day at the office?

Working with my team on our caseload of product liability claims for a range of insurers and corporate clients, meeting with Aneesah, the Network Manager, every day (sometimes several times) to plan and progress the growth of GILC, marketing, administration and a range of jobs as a partner.

Where is your office?

What do you see outside your office window? In the City, close to the Thames with a view of the river, HMS Belfast, the Shard and south London.

How does the practice and business of insurance law differ in the UK to elsewhere in the world?

Being at the hub of the London Market and surrounded by insurers obviously makes business at BLM very exciting and provides real opportunities. We are very much at the cutting edge of insurance – hopefully Brexit won’t change things!

What do you get up to when you are not at work?

With three sons lots of sport and fielding complaints from my wife Lisanne about male banter.

Jim Sherwood  – email here