Category: Sector × city · Reviewed by Tim Roche, Director · PI & Commercial · Last reviewed May 2026
Apex Insurance Brokers is a Bristol-headquartered, UK-wide Professional Indemnity (PI) broker that acts for solicitors’ practices across London — from sole practitioners and high-street firms in the outer boroughs to mid-market commercial firms in the Square Mile, Midtown and Mayfair. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (firm reference 724952).
We do not maintain a walk-in office in London. After several years of speaking to London-based firms about how they actually want to work with their PI broker, we have found that the answer is almost always: a named contact who picks up the telephone, a properly considered submission to the relevant insurers, and a broker who turns up — by video or, when it matters, in person — at renewal and when a circumstance is notified. None of that requires Apex to carry a London office overhead, and the saving goes into broking effort rather than rent.
Solicitors PI is a heavily prescribed line. The Solicitors Regulation Authority Minimum Terms and Conditions set the floor. What sits above the floor — limits, excess, layers, defence-cost arrangements, run-off arrangements on succession — is where independent broking matters, particularly for London firms whose client base and contractual exposures look very different from a firm in a smaller centre.
London is the largest concentration of solicitors in the United Kingdom by some distance. The Magic Circle and the larger Silver Circle firms are headquartered in the City and at Canary Wharf, advising international banks, multinationals, sovereign clients and listed companies. These firms typically carry PI programmes well into nine figures, structured as layered placements with primary, excess and several upper layers — and most are placed by specialist global brokers; they are rarely Apex’s natural client.
The firms Apex more usually acts for, in London, sit a tier or two below that. Mid-market and boutique commercial firms in the City and Midtown — Holborn, Chancery Lane and Fleet Street — handling corporate, real estate, employment, dispute resolution and financial services regulatory work. West End boutiques in Mayfair, St James’s and Marylebone with a strong private client, family office, trusts and tax practice. Specialist litigation and arbitration firms. ABS structures and alternative legal businesses. Property and conveyancing-focused firms in the outer boroughs and across the M25 dealing with prime central London transactions where the price tag means even a single missed step on title can generate a significant loss.
Two adjacent groups are worth flagging because they are sometimes confused with solicitors PI. Barristers practising from chambers in the Temple, Lincoln’s Inn, Gray’s Inn and Inner Temple do not buy solicitors PI; chambers and individual barristers obtain professional indemnity cover through the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund, and we do not act on that. Patent attorneys, trade mark attorneys and licensed conveyancers fall under different regulatory regimes with their own minimum policy requirements, and we do address those separately.
International client exposure is the other variable that makes the London conversation different. A City corporate firm advising United States or Canadian counterparties on cross-border work needs the policy to respond to claims brought in those jurisdictions, and the territorial scope of the wording is something we look at carefully on every renewal.
The SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions require all firms regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority to hold a PI policy with a minimum sum insured per claim of £2 million for unincorporated practices (sole practitioners and partnerships) and £3 million per claim for incorporated practices, including limited liability partnerships and limited companies. Cover must be on a qualifying insurer’s wording, which incorporates the MTC by default. Run-off cover of six years applies on the closure or succession of a firm.
In practice, the MTC limits are a floor that very few City and Midtown firms operate to. Banking and finance clients routinely require £20 million or more on a single matter; large corporate clients frequently ask for £10 million to £25 million; institutional real estate work, particularly on prime central London assets, will often push contractually mandated limits into the same range. The standard solution is a layered programme — a primary policy at the MTC limit, with one or more excess layers stacked above it, sometimes drawn from different insurers or syndicates within the Lloyd’s market via wholesale broking.
Aggregation language matters more for London firms than for many smaller practices. A defective form used on a hundred matters can collapse into a single claim under one policy and several claims under another; conveyancing and corporate firms doing volume work need the wording read carefully. Anti-money laundering and sanctions exposure has risen significantly since 2022, particularly for firms with Russian-connected legacy clients or complex CDD obligations, and several insurers now ask sharper questions at proposal stage.
You can find more detail in our overview of solicitors PI insurance and our general professional indemnity insurance page.
A handful of claim patterns recur for London firms, and a properly broked policy should anticipate them.
Conveyancing failures on prime central London property generate disproportionate quantum. A missed restriction, an undetected easement, or an error on a leasehold structure on a £4 million Kensington flat or a £20 million Mayfair townhouse produces a claim that would not look the same in a regional market. Title insurance is sometimes a substitute for diligence and sometimes not; the PI policy is what stands behind the firm if it is not.
Anti-money laundering, source of funds and sanctions compliance failures are now a discrete claims category. Enforcement action by the SRA, civil claims from third parties affected by laundering schemes, and tribunal exposure all sit within or adjacent to PI cover, depending on wording. The wording on dishonesty exclusions, regulatory defence costs and sanctions endorsements is worth a careful read.
Commercial and corporate drafting errors — share purchase agreements, warranties, indemnity caps, completion mechanics — generate large claims when the deal value is high. London firms working on £50 million to £500 million transactions need the limit and the excess to make sense relative to that exposure.
Trust, probate and private client claims on ultra-high-net-worth estates are a West End theme. Estates with international elements, family investment companies, offshore structures and contested wills produce both large quantum and long-tail exposure. Run-off liability on retirement or restructure is a live issue for many boutique practices.
Litigation claims — missed limitation periods, mishandled disclosure, costs orders — remain a steady source of claims across firms of every size.
Apex is an independent broker and is not tied to a single insurer or panel. For each London law firm client we approach the relevant section of the qualifying insurer market and, where appropriate, the Lloyd’s market via established wholesale routes. We bring back terms with a written commentary on how they differ — not just on premium, but on aggregation, defence costs, run-off and any non-standard endorsements.
Day-to-day, you deal with a named broker. Video calls on Microsoft Teams or Zoom are standard for renewal reviews and mid-term queries. Telephone access is direct on 0117 325 0027. Secure document exchange handles proposals, schedules and policy documents.
Claims advocacy is the other half of the job. When a circumstance arises — a missed deadline, a complaint that might escalate, a notification under the firm’s CDD obligations — we sit on your side of the table with insurers, help draft the notification, and stay involved through the life of the claim. None of that requires a London postcode.
More on how we work with London-based firms generally is on our London page.
No. Apex is headquartered in Bristol and serves London solicitors firms remotely, by video meeting, telephone and secure document exchange. We travel to London client offices where there is a particular reason to do so.
Under the SRA Minimum Terms and Conditions, the floor is £2 million per claim for unincorporated firms and £3 million per claim for incorporated practices, including LLPs. City and commercial firms almost always carry more, often in layered programmes well above the MTC floor.
No. Barristers obtain professional indemnity cover through the Bar Mutual Indemnity Fund and we do not act on chambers business. Our solicitors work is for SRA-regulated firms.
Yes. Where a layer or a specialist risk is better matched by a Lloyd’s syndicate, we have established intermediary routes into the Lloyd’s market via wholesale broking, in addition to direct relationships with the qualifying insurer panel. We are not a Lloyd’s broker in the FCA-designated sense.
The territorial scope and jurisdiction clauses of the policy are reviewed on every renewal. Where the firm’s exposure includes work delivered to US or Canadian counterparties, we discuss whether the policy needs a US/Canada extension and what the cost is.
The MTC requires six years of run-off cover. We handle the run-off placement on closure, retirement or merger, and advise on succession structures where the successor practice may inherit the run-off liability.
Yes. Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference 724952.
If you run a solicitors’ practice in London and would like to discuss Professional Indemnity cover — whether reviewing an existing programme, approaching renewal, responding to a client contractual requirement, planning for run-off, or notifying a circumstance — please get in touch.
Telephone: 0117 325 0027 Email: info@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk
About Apex Insurance Brokers — Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA firm reference 724952. Registered in England and Wales, Companies House 07014570. Last reviewed: May 2026.
Apex Insurance Brokers serves UK professional services firms and commercial businesses. Call 0117 325 0027, email hello@apexinsurancebrokers.co.uk, or request a quotation.
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