Insurance Times Awards 2026: Markel UK on building a ‘full wraparound service’

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

We wanted to showcase the tangible benefits of a successful internal law firm model, for an insurer and their clients.

Markel Law has developed into a key strategic supplier supporting Markel’s insurance products across construction, technology, care and cyber.

We now provide a full wraparound service in close collaboration with Markel’s claims teams and, on the care side of the Markel business, their specialist care-sector consultants, Markel Care Practitioners.

These partnerships across our business allow us to be more aware of a customer’s challenges and move quickly when they need legal support.

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

A recent restructure and the addition of a commercial team have strengthened our customer solutions proposition, which is very closely aligned with Markel’s broker channel.

To support the launch of the commercial team, we appointed three lawyers to complement existing specialist practice groups.

In addition, we have focused on innovation and strengthening our capabilities through two legal AI platforms trials – testing use cases (draft contracts, chronologies, case summaries), refining prompt techniques and setting safeguards for expert review of AI outputs.

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

Markel Law has a strong relationship with our principal client, Markel UK, as demonstrated both by volume and quality of ongoing instructions.

We have worked incredibly hard to make the partnership work for both parties and are not selected to work on cases ‘by obligation’.

An award win would reinforce our firm belief that our in-house model achieves the most advantageous outcomes for Markel’s brokers and their clients.