“Our aim is to become a national provider of cradle-to-grave legal and business services to governments and businesses that have insurance needs and to the insurers themselves,” Mr van Brunschot said. 

DWF recently closed three of its Australian shopfronts to “enable a leaner Australian business to focus on institutional clients and core sectors, such as insurance, which have a stronger strategic fit for the Group and offer the best opportunity for sustainable and profitable growth, by integrating other products and services”, according to a statement from the firm earlier this year. 

DWF’s Connected Services operations in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane were retained during the closures. Mr van Brunschot said that DWF believes integrated legal services will be a “game changer” for their insurance clients and maintained that insurance was where the firm was strongest. 

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“The opportunities are significant. Insurers are already sophisticated and looking for ways to further innovate to meet customer demands and reduce claims cost. At the same time, governments and businesses are telling us they need a different way of thinking from their service providers, new ways of thinking to better manage risks and costs,” he said. 

“We solve these problems. As a global firm, we provide integrated services designed to make the insurance ecosystem simpler, faster and more cost efficient.”

Just a month after closing the three local offices in Melbourne, Sydney and Newcastle, the firm launched its risk and insurance software division, DWF 360, for the first time in the Australian market: a software suite “grounded in managing the entire process of flexible, adaptable and secure software implementation that can operate anywhere remotely.” The software adds to the firm’s new and improved integrated legal services, Mr van Brunschot said. 

“Integrated legal services are designed to better manage risk to make all aspects of the insurance ecosystem simpler, faster and more cost efficient,” he said. 

“It does this in a number of ways: it introduces consistency to the entire lifecycle of an insurance policy; it ensures each part of the process is talking to all of the other parts; it directs expert legal advice to where it’s actually needed and automates other processes; and it puts in place processes to avoid claims and litigation in the first place.”

DWF still has offices in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne and provides not only legal advice, but claims assessment, risk management, litigation as well as entire portfolios of work. They also offer business services and have in-house risk consultants who access organisations’ workplace risks, helping them avoid accidents and injuries and reducing long-term costs, according to Mr van Brunschot.

“In practice this means we take a holistic view of the insurance ecosystem and rethink the traditional way of offering legal support at every stage of the process. From advising clients on the regulatory environment to the formation of a policy and all the way through to litigation,” he said. 

“We might deliver traditional legal advice for complex claims disputes, but for other areas that can be automated, such as reviewing and updating large-scale client contracts, we have the software and technology that can do exactly that.”

Mr van Brunschot added that post-pandemic, the insurance market has experienced a surge like never before, with a growing customer demand for digitisation and efficiency. 

“COVID-19 has emerged as one of the most important issues for the global insurance industry and the global economy more generally,” he said.

“At a time when the industry is managing a surge in claims coupled with a substantially altered risk outlook, it is also having to deal with the disruption and the economic consequences of the pandemic.

“Australian insurers spend a lot of time thinking about how to drive efficiencies and minimise claims cost. In a tight and competitive underwriting environment, the effective management of the cost base remains the key driver.

“Integrated legal services can provide the solution.”

This means DWF is involved in the writing of a policy to make sure risks are managed appropriately, as well as advising the insurer on claims and settlement processes. 

“As well as managing a volume-driven portfolio, our legal advisers can step in to negotiate the best outcome in catastrophic and sensitive high-value claims,” Mr van Brunschot explained. 

“This broad offering is achieved through providing traditional legal services alongside connected or complementary business services, providing high level expertise as well as processes of automation and scale.

“The result is better cost, risk and time management for the client.”

Speaking to the future, Mr van Brunschot said that DWF would be expanding its insurance offerings, both in the Australian market and around the world. 

“We are expanding both in Australia and globally, always keeping an eye on our key sectors and strengths. As an initial priority, this will involve building out the legal and connected insurance offering across the east coast of Australia,” he said. 

“We see integrated legal services becoming an integral part of the Australian insurance market in the next five years. We will lead this transformation.”