At Zurich Programs, we take pride in working with Program Administrators with extensive experience and deep knowledge of their specialized markets. On both counts, McGowan Program Administrators (MPA) hits the bullseye.

MPA is a PA for Zurich’s Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance program. It’s a true family business and one of the nation’s very first insurance program managers. The McGowan Companies were born in the mid-1950s and MPA was one of the first subsidiaries, with their focus on the program business stretching back four decades.

Neil Patrick McGowan is Managing Director for MPA’s Professional Liability Programs, including Lawyers Professional Liability (LPL), and you could say without too much exaggeration that he was born for this career.

“Growing up and running through the hallways of the retail McGowan agency as a child, I had exposure to insurance and its operations for most of my life,” Neil said.

Building his career in and outside of the McGowan Companies (including some time as a lawyer and a stint in the U.K. as a broker for Lloyd’s of London), Neil settled in back at the family business, where he launched MPA’s Professional Liability Programs team. He says the company’s achievements in the Professional Liability sector came about for one key reason.

“The most important part of our success is our people,” Neil explained. “Our underwriters and staff are second to none in terms of knowledge, dedication, drive and courtesy. We are constantly striving to build on our successes and become better.”

Specific to the Lawyers Professional Liability Insurance program, MPA’s strengths include the program being led by an experienced attorney who brings insights on both the insurance and legal industries to the table, and the entire leadership team’s decades of experience writing LPL insurance.

“As a result, we are able to be market leaders in the space,” Neil said. Working with Zurich helps MPA meet their standard of excellence. “Our team collaborates to design, craft and enhance the policies and endorsements with Zurich to ensure that the needs of attorneys are being met and exceeded by their policies.”

Zurich has offered LPL since 1995 and MPA has been the PA for the program since 2018. Dan Hirsch is Zurich North America’s Program Manager for LPL and he noted that Zurich also boasts a strong legal background, which is one of many reasons why MPA aligns so well with our program business priorities.

“Our policy forms have been drafted by experienced lawyers for lawyers,” Dan explained. “Our underwriting team is made up primarily of licensed lawyers who have experience practicing law, so we understand the unique needs of lawyers, and the Claims department also has experienced lawyers who can empathize with a lawyer against whom a claim has been brought.”

Dan continued, “One of the great things about working with McGowan is that they share Zurich’s values and underwriting philosophy with regards to writing in the LPL space. They are forward-looking and always willing to take the time to discuss appetite, trends and innovative solutions to emerging issues. As we see new areas of the law evolve, we work together to identify opportunities to develop guidelines, forms and rates which ensure our customers’ needs are met, while at the same time protecting Zurich from unprofitable and unwise risks. I feel that the level of trust between Zurich and McGowan in the LPL space is very high. We each trust the other to do the right thing.”

Neil McGowan adds that Zurich’s stability and experience in the LPL sector was a perfect fit for MPA.

“Zurich has been insuring lawyers continuously for longer than any other carrier I am aware of in the market,” he said. “Through highs, lows and changes, Zurich is a name which has steadfastly remained rooted in the space.”

Those changes have included periods of major fluctuations in the economy and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic. The LPL program didn’t merely survive these upheavals … it emerged stronger.

“McGowan and Zurich have worked together over the course of the pandemic and the economic uncertainty resulting from it to not only maintain the stability of the program, but to significantly expand and grow the program,” Neil said.

And Zurich and MPA are both looking at possible bumps in the road ahead to help ensure the program’s continued strength. The practice of law is constantly evolving, with new complications arising, and LPL coverage also needs to evolve to keep up with a changing risk landscape.

Dan Hirsch pointed to the legalization of cannabis in many states — while remaining illegal on the federal level — and the lifting of COVID-era moratoriums on evictions and foreclosures as examples of issues that could result in additional claims and/or demand future coverage changes.

Neil McGowan said the key to addressing such issues is staying on top of them.

“We have been keeping a very close watch on certain areas of practice which may see adverse developments,” he said, explaining that kind of focus is how the LPL program has continued to thrive during economic downturns and the pandemic. “Due to our underwriting discipline, the program is extraordinarily healthy as a whole and we anticipate expanding the Zurich LPL product to new states steadily in the coming years.”