About FOIL

What is FOIL?

FOIL is THE representative voice of the defendant insurance lawyer community which advances a reforming agenda for a more transparent and proportionate claims environment benefiting claimants and insurers alike.

FOIL's Focus

FOIL’s members are involved in all areas of insurance and comprise lawyers acting predominantly or exclusively for insurance clients (except legal expenses insurers) either practising with law firms, or as barristers or as in-house lawyers for insurers or self-insurers.

In 2017 FOIL celebrated its 25th Anniversary. The organisation is led by practising lawyers, with a revolving one-year presidency. It has a permanent Chief Executive, drawn from a non-legal insurance industry background, who leads a small expert management team responsible for driving forward long-term strategy, maintaining the timely flow of essential information to members and handling all administration.

• FOIL’s Focus for 2019
• FOIL’s Focus for 2020
• FOIL’s Focus for 2021
• FOIL’s Focus for 2022
• FOIL’s Focus for 2023
• FOIL’s Focus for 2024
• FOIL’s Focus for 2025

FOIL ACHIEVES ITS OBJECTIVES THROUGH:

• Lobbying; Consultation responses, press comment, thought leadership writing, roundtable events.
• Education; Educational talks, speaker seminars and written updates accredited for CPD points by the Law Society and the C.I.I. and designed to help members work to the FOIL Standard.
• Networking; A platform for fellow practitioners at different firms to meet and work together.

History of FOIL

FOIL was formed in 1992 to provide the defendant community – lawyers, solicitors and legal executives – a body to sit alongside APIL, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, ensuring that views across the board would be heard.

FOIL’s first President, Maurice Nichols, summed up the position: “It (FOIL) may provide a useful point of contact with organisations such as APIL, perhaps with a view to agreeing certain understandings, protocols and helping to smooth the passage of litigation generally.”

Since those early days, FOIL has grown significantly to deal with many areas of defendant insurance claims law, not just personal injury; in fact less than half of our 33 sector focus teams cover areas of insurance law that involve personal injury.

FOIL works with TLS, the SRA, the CILEX, the CJC, the AHMDJ and the LSB as well as liaising with APIL and MASS amongst the professional lawyer organisations. We also work alongside and support all the major insurance and risk organisations including the ABI, the CII, the MIB, the CILA, the Alarm, the AIRMIC, the UKCMA, the MGAA, the IUA, the LMA, the BIBA, the LIIBA, the IRLA, the LMG and the IRM as well as the FSCM in Scotland.

FOIL supports members practicing insurance law in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. We also have relationships with insurance lawyers in Cyprus and Canada. FOIL continues to provide focus and horizon scanning for emerging liabilities as well as established and recognised types of claim.

In addition to providing technical information and support to individual insurance lawyers in multiple areas of insurance law, FOIL also supports its corporate members as they rise to meet the same multifaceted challenges that face all corporations in the business world today.

FOIL aims to nurture and develop talent in our industry, using Tomorrow’s FOIL as a vehicle to engage the future leaders of our respective firms, and collaborating to help member firms share experiences in flexible ways of working that maximise productivity and support the well-being of colleagues. We also help promote insurance law as an attractive choice to law students.

In 2022, we celebrated our 30^th Anniversary and FOIL now supports c.8,000 insurance lawyers and paralegals across the United Kingdom and Ireland. We have 33 Sector Focus Teams including 6 dedicated to Scottish law and 4 dedicated to Northern Ireland law. These cover insurance claims law in areas as diverse as Construction, Professional Indemnity and Clinical Negligence.

FOIL issues over 100 updates, bulletins and consultation responses each year and our members’ views regularly appear in the press.

FOIL is now an important interface between defendant insurance lawyers, insurers, self-insured organisations, brokers and lawmakers, operating at the forefront of discussion where changes in legislation or rules are discussed to achieve balanced outcomes which benefit the wider public interest.

Laurence Besemer FCII (CEO)

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