Political Risk Specialists

Dan Lettington is Claims Counsel at Chaucer, having joined as a Claims Adjuster nearly 12 years ago. Dan pivoted into law after graduating from Leeds University by gaining his Graduate Diploma in Law with BPP; he then joined the industry as a claims adjuster specialising in financial lines.

Joining Chaucer in 2012, Dan became a beneficiary of Chaucer’s practice of nurturing talent by training people alongside study for qualifications. Within two years of joining the company, he was upskilling again by undertaking a two-year Legal Practice Course, again with BPP Law, whilst working full time, and ultimately qualifying as a Solicitor.

"The purpose of this, Dan says, is to focus on better quality, impactful relationships that create efficiencies, not least because it means more oversight and commitment from both sides, which ultimately makes the claims process much more effective for our clients. We needed more control around the process of engaging with our experts and by streamlining our panel, we can control the service and rates a bit more. We’ve refined how our claims ideology looks, so it’s our claims adjusters that are driving claims resolution and imparting that philosophy on our service providers.”

As a leader in the political risk class, Chaucer has a key role to play in improving standards and educating the market. This occurs directly; like many firms, Chaucer has a rolling graduate trainee scheme which includes time in the political risk team, but they also take legal trainees on secondment from their supplier law firms. This leadership can also occur indirectly however, through participation in market committees and panels, providing insight and expertise in a forum of market colleagues.

The Lloyd’s Market Association (LMA) is key for this activity as their committees bring together experts to discuss important issues arising, from new risks and threats, to ensuring wordings are always fit for purpose. Dan has been a member for the past six years, and last year was asked if he would like to take over the role of Chair.

"Through it, I am also part of the Head of Sector Group Committee. This is useful to get direct updates from all the other sector groups and to be able to work on perceived risks and opportunities across the whole market, as well as helpful insight from both the LMA and Lloyd’s."

All these activities mean a huge commitment to driving the market forwards and ensuring that as a leader, Chaucer is both informing the industry as to market-changing developments arising in complex cases, but also learning from following markets and competitors.

At present, the political risk classes are affected by significant global issues which are impacting insurers market-wide, the outcome of these cases will likely shape the law, once resolved. Litigation around these circumstances is likely to take many years to unravel and in such high profile and delicate proceedings, assigning a senior specialist oversight of these claims is key, as is ensuring discretion and clear progress monitoring.

Claims in the Political Risk class are by their nature almost always complex, high value, and usually involve many interests and insurers. These kinds of circumstances, Dan points out, highlights the importance of good claims handling and a consistent, attentive service. It also emphasises the importance of brokers; ensuring they are understanding what policies do and don’t offer and giving suitable advice to clients.

In response to the emergence of these types of claims, to help manage such cases and improve service delivery, Dan has been involved in creating a new strategy for the claims team.

"As Chaucer has grown, it felt appropriate for us to have something well-structured to document how things should be done. It’s resulted in our Best Practice document. It’s an aspirational document, demonstrating the pinnacle of what we should be doing and how we should be performing to provide the best possible outcomes for our clients." As Dan says, "There is no way to avoid complexity and delays in unforeseeable market-wide cases, but ensuring brokers and clients are fully informed and consistency of approach is applied from beginning to end of the chain, is critical."

This focus on claims performance has been recognised within the market, with Chaucer being awarded first place in the most recent Gracechurch Claims Monitor Report for the year to December 2023, leading on three out of five service metrics.

Dan is clearly someone with a lot on his desk, but he enjoys the work, and is grateful for Chaucer’s approach to hybrid working, which is particularly helpful with a young family. Dan attributes his ability to get so much done, to flexibility from the company and support from his management.

"The challenges of my multiple roles are compensated for by a flexible work life balance, and the complexity of the work creates a number of exciting responsibilities" says Dan.

"If I think back to when I was a law student, if somebody had asked me ‘where do you see your career going, what do you want to be involved in?’ What I am involved in now is the sort of work that I would have chosen. It’s cutting edge, and the kind of casework that is going to make future law. I find that really interesting and am excited to know that my expertise will help make a difference for our clients in the future."