Canadian Lawyer InHouse

23 CANADIANLAWYERMAG.COM/INHOUSE SEPTEMBER 2016 Developing claims management expertise in-house By Jennifer Brown who mentor and work with fi ve examiners (non-lawyers) to assess coverage and handle complex commercial claims. The team handles claims brought against Chubb's commercial insureds across all lines of specialized business and it works with outside defence counsel and in-house coun- sel to ensure the best results for its clients. Employees, who are employed as either fi rst-party adjusters handling auto claims or trainees who have joined Chubb from uni- versity who have excellent customer service skills are brought in as junior associates, akin to an articling student. "For example, one member of our team went to the Su- preme Court of Canada on a leave of certi- fi cation last year with our insured. I think things like that are a testament to what we've created on our team and the relationships we can build," says Brabander. The Chubb examiners handle everything internally and are encouraged to have frequent meetings with the insured, its broker and defence counsel and to accompany the insureds on any mediations or settlement conferences. "We've found that we have cut our external legal costs by approximately 30 per cent," says Brabander. That's because within the insurance in- dustry claims departments often hire exter- nal lawyers to handle the claims or provide coverage advice. "We handle all of our claims internally and work with our insureds to de- velop this close relationship and we obviously save the cost of hiring external counsel," says Brabander. That's not to say Chubb doesn't engage external counsel. It has a list of counsel such as Hicks Morley Hamilton Stewart Storie LLP, who nominated Chubb for the Inno- vatio award, retained on behalf of insureds to litigate claims. For example, Chubb and lawyer Maureen Quinlan from Hicks Morley partnered on "Workplace Law in Canada: A Primer," a guide launched in 2015 for insureds and brokers that con- tains information on the legal basis for key terms and conditions of employment, basic law governing terminations, the most sig- nifi cant employment-related statutes and claims examples based on Chubb fi les. It is this relationship with outside counsel that creates strong levels of trust and assists in the smooth handling of litigation fi les, Bra- bander says. IH CATEGORY: Law Department Management DEPARTMENT SIZE: Small COMPANY: Chubb Insurance Canada Top L to R – Alexandre Juneau, Madeleine Dinnissen, Katherine Moraca, Margaret Mede, Catherine Rayle-Doiron, Andrea Fisher Bottom L to R – Paula Kargas, Marie-Claude Le Ber, Aaron Veerasingham, Laila Brabander ROBIN KUNISKI A few years ago, the professional claims line at Chubb Insurance Canada had a team that was comprised mainly of law- yers handling specialized actions against its insureds such as class actions against public companies, cyber matters and data breaches. But Chubb's clients were looking for a different kind of customer relationship that was more prevalent on the consumer side of the business. "We found that our insureds just wanted superlative customer service. We thought that we could pull non-lawyers who were working on the auto claims side to bring an innovative way to handle claims," says Laila Brabander, senior vice president, head of claims for Chubb Insurance. Brabander's team includes about 100 lawyers, managers, adjusters and examiners across Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver. The team developed a program to have lawyers train non-lawyers to handle various elements of claims management. "We decided to create an experiential ar- ticling program within the team," she says. The team restructured to be made up of one-third lawyers and two-thirds junior employees coming up through Chubb's career pipeline to handle claims. "Our lawyers could pro- vide an articling experience teaching them skills such as negotiation of mediations, drafting coverage letters and policy interpretation. There would be a symbiotic relationship where the ju- nior people would also bring their wonderful customer ser- vice skills," says Brabander. The professional lines claims team at Chubb is currently com- prised of fi ve senior examiners (for- merly insurance defence litigators)

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