Celebrating 40 Years of Lawyers Mutual: Claims Vice President Will Graebe Discusses Change

Lawyers Mutual is celebrating 40 years of service to the legal community. We sat down with our Vice President of Claims, Will Graebe to reflect on the past, present and future of Lawyers Mutual.

LM: How long have you been with Lawyers Mutual?

WG: 19 years

LM: What is one of your fondest memories of your time at Lawyers Mutual so far?

WG: The fishing trip I took to the Everglades back in 2008 . . . . Oh, hold on. You meant work memory. I would have to say my fondest work memory was our 2005 Lawyers Mutual Christmas party/dinner at Bloomsbury Bistro. That night typified the camaraderie among co-workers that I have always experienced here.

LM: 40 years in business is a major milestone. What would you say is one key factor in Lawyers Mutual’s success?

WG: Passion. We actually care about our insureds and we want to do everything we can to protect them and our profession. That makes us different and I think better.

LM: What major changes have you seen in the company since you started?

WG: Technology—good and bad. We have gone from a world of fax machines and paper files to a paperless system and VPN access. While technology has made us much more efficient, it has also increased cyber crime risks for our company and our insureds.

LM: How has your position evolved as the company has grown over the years?

WG: I was a claims attorney for 11 years before becoming Vice President of Claims. My current job doesn’t look anything like it did back when I handled claims. When people ask me what I do, I usually just tell them I have A LOT of meetings. 

LM: What is the most rewarding aspect of your job?  (What do you enjoy most about being a part of the team at Lawyers Mutual?)

WG: The most rewarding and most enjoyable aspect of my job is working with our very talented in-house claims attorneys and extremely capable outside defense counsel to come up with creative ways to either pull our insureds out of the ditch or to craft the best defenses that we can provide to our insureds facing malpractice claims. This is one of the things that makes us so different from other legal malpractice carriers. The first thing that we always do when an insured reports mistake is to see if we can fix it. We have been fixing problems for 40 years and we have an arsenal of tools and strategies to extricate our insureds from difficult situations.  If we can’t fix it and we have to defend a malpractice claim, we have the best panel of defense attorneys of any carrier insuring lawyers in North Carolina. It has been an honor and a wonderful learning experience working with these lawyers.

LM: How is Lawyers Mutual preparing for the future of the profession?

WG: We’re listening to our insureds, experts and innovators so that we can anticipate and adapt to meet the changing needs of our insured lawyers.