Serving North Carolina Legal Community: A message from William Stroud, President of Lawyers Insurance.

As a young boy growing up in Ayden, NC, the idea of community was impressed deeply upon me. Each of the businesses and professionals were integral to our town’s common good and success. There was a town pharmacist, a town doctor, a town dentist, and a town attorney. You could get new tires down at Tripp’s or pick out a new car from the folks at Leo Venters Ford. My dad could sell you most any insurance you might need.

Community meant familiarity and accountability. For a kid that meant knowing you would be found out if you made trouble; it also meant someone would be there to take you home if you wrecked your bicycle or got hurt playing football at the playground. For adults it meant serving your fellow citizens, both through your business or profession, and through civic involvement and leadership, including showing up at the high school football game on Friday nights.

Despite explosive growth in North Carolina, the legal profession retains a community feel, which is enhanced through the NC Bar Association and other affinity organizations.

At Lawyers Insurance, whose sole mission is to serve the legal community, it means understanding and evolving to meet the insurance needs of the legal profession through rapidly changing times. We are familiar with your practice and we are accountable to serve law firms and lawyers.

Key Business Accomplishments

• NCBA Health Benefit Trust participation at historical high
• 99% retention of existing NCBA Health Benefit Trust law firms
• High demand for excellent Cyber Liability offerings
• Double digit growth in non-health lines income
• Competitive Group Dental and Disability offerings

2020 was a year like no other. Operating during a pandemic was initially a challenge, but since the consulting company was so new, it was timely to experiment with serving clients in new ways.

And our clients welcomed the flexibility. While we could not meet in person, we collaborated via Microsoft Teams video chats, RingCentral calls, Zoom videos, as well as firm retreats hosted on platforms such as Remo. The pandemic called on lawyers to innovate. And they found themselves reaching out to LMCS to determine what “evolve and thrive” meant for them.

Highlights of 2020

Designing a Succession Plan for Your Law Practice: A Step-by-Step Guide for Preparing Your Firm for Maximum Value. Camille Stell and Tom Lenfestey co-authored the authoritative resource for the solo and small firm owner on succession planning.

Resources. We created the Managing Partner Survey Results, 5 e-Books available on our website, along with a monthly newsletter.

Transformed the Managing Partner Summit to the online community, Leading Law. While there is more work to be done to increase content and to build relationships among members, online communities are more important now than ever.

Speaking Engagements, CLEs, Publications. We moved to a virtual world but continued delivering impactful content to legal professionals. With more than 20 speaking engagements and 50 articles covering topics such as the modern law firm, networking from six feet, strategic planning, and succession planning, education continued to be a cornerstone of the mission of LMCS.

We continue to look Forward, anticipating the needs of our Community, innovating creative solutions and helping legal professionals to Evolve and Thrive.

In 2020, we experienced substantial growth during challenging times, maturing into a profitable agency and establishing an identity for providing great service and education.

A central piece of our marketing strategy is providing high-quality, low cost or free CLE for real estate attorneys and staff members. Prior to the pandemic, we were able to provide free or low-cost CLE in communities across the state including Fuquay-Varina, Burlington, Greensboro, Greenville, Wrightsville Beach, Cary, Fayetteville, Winston-Salem, Sanford, Greenville, Durham, Raleigh, Smithfield, Shallotte, and Jacksonville. These CLE programs allowed us to connect with new attorneys and paralegals, driving new business and establishing strong relationships.

In addition to increasing our total commitments in 2020, we also improved our turnaround time on prior policy searches. Efficient and timely client service remains a priority at LM Title.