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Sam Tacey is a newly qualified solicitor at Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge UK LLP, an international firm practising litigation and non-contentious insurance industry work, as well as general litigation, insolvency and public international law. Sam studied law at the University of Bristol and completed his LPC at BPP in London. Since then he worked his way through his training contract at what was then Kendall Freeman and qualified into the insurance litigation group in September 2007. Kendall Freeman merged with US based firm Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge LLP (EAPD) on 1 January 2008.
Sam has had experience in three insurance related seats: insurance litigation, insurance corporate and insurance insolvency. He says: "I started in insurance litigation but really I was doing reinsurance arbitration, working on big disputes that had been going on for a few years. As a trainee, they were pretty difficult to get your head around at first, but I found the work both challenging and rewarding. I did things like writing formal arbitration documents such as pleadings, and lots of general research. I also did the first draft of a commutation agreement which was the basis of a settlement."
Sam's work as a trainee involved a lot of research, which meant that the documents he drafted were very labour intensive. He explains: "I drafted some affidavits and did some research on that to make sure they were drafted according to Canadian court rules. In the same matter I drafted a request for assistance from a Canadian court to the English court, which was really great work for a trainee."
It all sounds like a lot of deskwork, but Sam says he does get to spend time with clients too: "You love being able to build up a working relationship with clients, calling them on the phone and so on. It's great to have that kind of client contact."
Sam found the interpersonal element of the job most important when he did a seat in corporate insurance. He says: "You have to really get to know your clients and their business, so you're more like a business adviser. One highlight was working on the third attempt to get a solvent scheme of arrangement approved by the members of a mutual insurer. I'd seen it from start to finish and I got to go to client meetings on my own which, for a first-year trainee, was a pretty good experience."
Sam was also involved in the sale of an insurance company. "I had responsibility for drafting the disclosure letter and getting the disclosure bundles together." In corporate insurance, Sam's hours were rather unstable. "It was often hard to predict whether I'd be leaving the office at 6:30pm or 12:30am," he remembers. "We have a lot of overseas clients, so things tend to happen later on in the day. If the client wants something done, you've got to do it."
It's not really the hours that bother Sam. If there's something that he has a hard time with, it's the Financial Services Authority (FSA) handbook, which details all the regulations those who work in financial services have to obey. "It's really hard to navigate," he notes of the handbook. Sam says that a lot of regulatory work can be quite dry, but he does acknowledge how important it is to have a good grasp of this aspect of insurance, because it really helps in practice. "It's important to have an eye for detail when you are interpreting the rules and a practical approach is essential for applying the rules to your client's business." Sam remembers: "Once I had a client's business proposal and I had to evaluate it against the regulations to see whether or not they could do it without getting authorised. That was quite fun because it brought it to life."
Law firms always want prospective trainees to have plenty of work experience and bags of commercial awareness. Sam says that in insurance, this is even more important. He notes:
"Some people come into this area because they already have industry experience. If you want to work for an insurance law firm, experience at an insurance company is a real plus, while an understanding of the market is something that all trainees are expected to develop." Sam points out that as a trainee, even with some work experience, you may not have had much exposure to the industry as a whole. This means that "you spend a good deal of time working to understand the complexities of the insurance industry, particularly Lloyd's, and how everything fits together".
For those thinking about what kind of practice area they will suit, Sam advises simply getting as much experience as possible. "You probably have a feeling about the kind of work you want, and then it's just about getting as much experience in the area as possible."
Sam knows that a lot of people see insurance as a little dull but, as he says, "it's actually a lot more interesting than you think! You only need to think about all the things that need insuring to understand the breadth of your work". Much of the work has an international content, involving the United States, Europe, Bermuda and Hong Kong. He adds: "Something I really enjoyed working on was a catastrophe bond issue, which involved shifting the risk of catastrophes such as hurricanes or earthquakes from insurers the capital markets by a bond issue. That was fun, going through all the trigger events and categories of storms and how they're measured. The insurers and reinsurers know they'll go bust if there are lots of natural disasters and they haven't got adequate assets through reserves, reinsurance or other types of protection. Insurance doesn't sound very sexy, but it can be interesting!" |
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