Insurance Times Awards 2025: DWF Law LLP’s Kes Earl trailblazes fraud detection and drives industry innovation”

1. Why did you put yourselves forward for this category?

I have risen through DWF, progressing my career from paralegal apprentice in motor in 2017, to senior organised fraud intelligence investigator in 2025.

I work relentlessly on improving detection and tackling fraud specifically committed by medical enablers to the benefit of DWF insurance clients and the industry as a whole.

Specifically, I have assisted in developing the cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychological injury plausibility routers, as well as casualty fraud data solutions.

I am an innovator and always looking to disrupt. I believe that my contribution to DWF demonstrates that I am a trailblazer who consistently pushes boundaries to the benefit of the industry.

2. What makes your entry stand out, and why should you win the award?

My work has diversified organised fraud by investigating Know Your Opponent (KYO) trends in the casualty area.

I have proactively collaborated with casualty lawyers, especially in major loss to identify ballooning claims that require a fraud focus.

I have assisted in the development of DWF’s CBT, psychological injury plausibility routers and casualty data solutions, uniquely working with DWF’s data analytics team to design data solutions to detect fraud.

I have hosted many roundtables and industry conferences on psychological enablers, CBT, shallow fakes and medical experts bringing the latest intelligence to the insurance industry, consistently raising awareness of fraud in the casualty area.

3. What would winning this award mean to you and your firm?

Winning this award would be industry endorsement recognising my dedication to dealing with complex and challenging operations in the fraud world.

It would be recognition of my ability to analyse, provide insightful and clear outputs to clients in the area of casualty fraud which they are able to take on board and implement in house leading to many clients making significant savings.

In my work I always look to remain true to many of the DWF core values to include ’disrupt to progress’, ‘always aim higher’ and ‘be better together’ and winning the award will underpin my hard work in detecting and tackling fraud.