A professional indemnity policy is only as useful as the range of people it protects. The Solicitors Regulation Authority's Minimum Terms and Conditions deliberately cast the definition of the insured widely, so that a claim cannot succeed against an individual who happens to sit outside a narrowly drawn schedule. Understanding who is picked up is essential when a firm changes shape, takes on consultants or loses a principal.
The core insured is the firm itself and its principals - the partners in a partnership, the members of an LLP or the directors and owners of a recognised body. Cover extends to current principals and, importantly, to prior principals in respect of matters arising while they were in the firm. That continuity matters because professional negligence claims frequently surface years after the work was done, by which time the responsible individual may have retired or moved on.
The MTC definition reaches employees and, in the ordinary case, consultants and agents acting for the firm in connection with private legal practice. A solicitor who joins as a consultant rather than a partner is therefore not left exposed, provided they are acting for the firm within the meaning of the Rules. Firms that use locums, agency solicitors or fee-share consultants should still confirm the working arrangement falls within the definition, because the label matters less than the substance of who is acting for the firm.
The definition also extends, in the event of death or incapacity, to the estate or personal representatives of an insured. This closes a gap that would otherwise be serious: without it, a claim arising from the work of a deceased partner could fall on that partner's family rather than the firm's insurer. The MTC treats the liability as the firm's to insure, regardless of what has since happened to the individual.
The MTC restricts the insurer's ability to pursue recovery against a firm's own employees, subject to the dishonesty carve-out dealt with in a separate entry. The effect is that an innocent employee is not chased by the firm's insurer after a claim has been paid. This is part of the wider design of the compulsory regime, which is built to protect clients first and to avoid pushing liability onto individuals who acted in good faith.
The wide definition reflects the purpose of the regime: to ensure that a client with a good claim against anyone acting for the firm can be compensated, without the claim falling into a gap between individuals and entities. Solicitors who also act as expert witnesses or in other capacities should check where the boundary of private legal practice sits - our expert witnesses' PI guide addresses that overlap. For the full framework, see the solicitors' PI insurance guide.
Apex Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Firm reference number 724952. This entry is general information, not advice on any particular policy.