An often-shared anecdote about the Irish author Frank O’Connor tells how, as a child, he would throw his cap over dauntingly high walls, knowing he would have to climb them to retrieve it. The story serves as an analogy for how Ronan McCann (pictured left) and his team at HF (formerly Horwich Farrelly) view the growth objectives of this insurance law firm.
It was a steep wall that McCann threw his cap over in January 2022 when he announced HF’s ambitious five-year plan to hit £100 million in turnover, but two years on, the firm has made progress in its strategy, hitting several quantitative and qualitative milestones. The business grew to reach approximately £50 million in turnover in 2023 and is projected to reach £60 million in 2024, bolstered by strong growth in the general insurance space and its diversification.
“We’ve been planting a number of flags in the ground, showing where we want to grow and how we want to do it, including our significant ambitions for the London Market,” McCann said. “During last year, we made great headway, adding to our capability to serve the London market across marine, aviation, property, international casualty and coverage, and a sector led approach in sports and entertainment.
“We’ve added additional teams in our Glasgow office, we’ve opened a new office in Leeds, and we’ve continued to grow in Dublin and in Northern Ireland. It’s been a great 12 months.”
Zeroing in on HF’s plans for further growth in the London Market, McCann noted that these were fortified by a “coup” of an appointment in Jennette Newman (pictured right) who brings over 25 years of experience in the legal and insurance sectors to her role as partner and head of London Markets.
“On the London market side, what we’re doing is expanding some of the core HF skills but also adding some new skills around marine, property – and that’s property coverage and recovery work and contingency,” Newman said. “We’re also doing a lot of multi-jurisdictional work and we’re in the process of launching an international network to help us with our international coverage, and our casualty and property capability.
“We’re also developing our proposition in aviation and in sports. Sports is particularly interesting to us right now because myself and a number of my colleagues have long-standing expertise in the space – from sports injury, right through to the regulation of sports and to the rapid growth of e-sports. And e-sports is an area where we think we can bring a really broad range of expertise.”
Newman highlighted that, from her perspective, what’s critical to bear in mind about HF’s continued expansion into the London Market is its commercial viability and regulatory capability, she said.
“What’s been great to see is that within HF there’s no major divide between what we’re doing on the company market side and the London Market side,” she said. “We’re embracing the connectivity between the different parts of the business. What I’ve always maintained is that the skills you get from serving the company market are what help you service the London Market and vice versa.
“If you look at some of the insight and information produced by Lloyd’s and John Neal around technology and AI and how it can and is revolutionising the claims process, it has a lot of relevance to everybody in the insurance market. So, I think it’s great to see that HF has embraced the transferable nature of its in-house skillset and is bringing it together across everything we’re working on, because that’s how we can really create and leverage new opportunities.”
Looking to the year ahead, McCann emphasised the importance of internal and external growth ambitions being closely aligned. It’s all about getting the underlying structure of the business right, he said, because otherwise, all too often external growth can come at the expense of the individual because you’re investing in one aspect of your business to the potential detriment of another. That’s why HF’s employee share scheme is so integral to keeping the balance right – because being a part-owner increases the value that the overall success of the firm represents.
“What was really interesting to me, after we launched the share scheme and our rebrand was that we started to get approached by lawyers from other firms,” he said. “They recognised our emphasis on being a great place to work. There has always been this labour challenge in the legal insurance market so it’s great to see how our focus on our people is resonating with the market.”
