The Policyholder Podcast: Presented by Fenchurch Law
The Policyholder Podcast, presented by Fenchurch Law, the podcast that aims to bring insights from a variety of guests with different perspectives on the insurance market, in a way that’s relevant to policyholders, and the brokers who represent them.
The Policyholder Podcast: Presented by Fenchurch Law
S2E7 - Meet The Team: Chris Ives
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Meet Chris Ives, a Partner in Fenchurch Law’s Leeds office.
Chris discusses joining Fenchurch Law in 2024, his background in financial lines, D&O and coverage work, and his expertise in Warranty & Indemnity (W&I) insurance—explaining why it’s a growing and exciting area. He also reflects on his experience working on both insurer and policyholder matters, and what ultimately drew him to Fenchurch Law.
The conversation then turns to life in the Leeds office and the importance of building a strong presence beyond London. Outside of work, listeners will enjoy hearing about Chris’ love of the countryside, cycling, family life, Italy, the Scottish Highlands, and the annual festival he hosts at his home.
Hello and welcome to a new podcast series hosted by Fenchurch Law. The series aims to introduce every member of our four offices in a short informal podcast. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Chris Ives, who joined the Leeds office in 2024. A very warm welcome, Chris. Hello, Drew. Before we dive into the pod, let's start with some quick fire questions. So, countryside or city?
SPEAKER_01:Countryside.
Dru Corfield :Agreed. Whilst you're driving, would you rather listen to music or a podcast?
SPEAKER_01:Music.
Dru Corfield :But hang on, you were telling me that you listened to the Fed Church Law podcast with your whole family recently. But I prefer listening to music. Would you rather cook at home or eat out? Eat out. How's your cooking? About average. Slightly better than average. Okay, we like that. And what is a favourite what's your favourite place that you've travelled to?
SPEAKER_01:Italy.
Dru Corfield :Very vague, anywhere more specific?
SPEAKER_01:I'd say Rome.
Dru Corfield :Yep, lovely.
SPEAKER_01:Or Tuscany.
unknown:Yeah.
Dru Corfield :Can't really go wrong with either of those. So, Chris, it's great to have you on the pods as a fairly new uh member of the firm. So just for my benefit more than anyone, because you do an area of coverage law that I know very little about. Could you tell us a little bit more about what your coverage work involves?
SPEAKER_01:Sure. So I uh my background uh is as a professional adeptsy lawyer. So financial lines, DNO work. Uh so that is where I learnt my trade. But I've also got quite a lot of experience from my last firm in relation to construction and WI type work, MA claims. So similar to many other people here, but hopefully bringing something new to the stuff.
Dru Corfield :Yeah, no, I'd love to ask you more about the the WI stuff because firstly, could you just explain what that acronym means? And secondly, could you elaborate a bit more on it? Because I think that's the thing, the things you just mentioned that we, well, a lot of us have never really come across at Fanchurch Law.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so WNI is warranty and democracy insurance, and it's a type of policy which ensures the warranties given by sellers on the sale of a company, and what happens is the buyer, instead of claiming under the SPA against the sellers for richer warranty, will claim on the insurance policy. And it's a uh it's a sort of growing area, both in terms of the number of policies placed and the number of claims arising, so a good one for us to be involved in.
Dru Corfield :No, exactly, quite right. And you mentioned those other classes like the sort of financial lines and DNO and stuff. So how how did you sort of end up here? So it's a very open-ended and vague question, but I'm curious about sort of w where you've worked and what you've done at the companies at which you've worked. So could you just basically tell us about I think someone from North America would call it your journey?
SPEAKER_01:My journey, origin story, yeah. So I have worked at a number of different firms, including on the defendant insurer side. We don't like that at all. We don't, but it does give one perspective on the insurance market. Double agent. Indeed. And at my last firm, I did a mixture of work for insurers and coverage work for policyholders, and that is always what I have found the most interesting and rewarding, and that's really why I decided to join Fenchurch.
Dru Corfield :Well, that makes perfect sense because you know we we love our policyholders here. And you mentioned your previous firm, and you worked with another colleague called Abby. Shout out to Abby. What was that like? And just just so you know, she was actually very nice about you when I asked her about you on the podcast. So albeit she did make you sound a bit like a social butterfly.
SPEAKER_01:I have I've heard her answer, and she eventually gave a nice answer, didn't she, when you when she when you prodded her. So she joined my the insurance team that I was at the Everchads as a fussy trainee. She was sort of fresh out of the box, like a new pair of trainers, and I left Everchads to get away from her so was so was very disappointed to see her arrive here. No, she's she seems to have settled in really well, and everyone seems to really like her, she's obviously very bright, and I am always trying to claim credit for her development, which doesn't seem to work.
Dru Corfield :No, but I think you can because weren't you her training partner? Yeah, I I was and therefore I will claim credit, yeah. No, no, absolutely. I think that's definitely definitely um definitely credit where credit's due. So you're you're a bit of a butterfly in the sense that you're sort of Leeds office, but you're also in London a lot. But as I'm a sort of die-in-the-wall Londoner, Londoner, London office member, could you tell us a little bit about joining the Leeds office and how you found it up there?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I've never actually worked in Leeds, so it's it's new for me. I've worked in Manchester most of my professional life, so crossing over the Pennines is sort of novel. It's a really fun office. We have a mixture of personalities, which I won't elaborate on, or can elaborate on if if you wish. And it's it's I think it's really important for us to have a base outside of London. Obviously, the majority of the work we do is London market type work, but there is that large policyholder community to be serviced outside of London. And when I look at what some of our competition does, I think that gives us a competitive edge.
Dru Corfield :Yeah, I couldn't agree more because you if you're only levelling the playing field in one place, you're not really levelling the playing field for policyholders everywhere. So I think I think it is great that we're we have the Northern Powerhouse, which is the Leeds office.
SPEAKER_01:That's true, and obviously we've got some of our sort of most trusted broking partners based outside of London as well, the claims team. So yeah, it's important that we keep an eye on them.
Dru Corfield :Definitely. And so outside of work, well, this is sort of the more fun questions now where we can ask about other stuff. But um, where would we find you outside of work? What are your sort of hobbies?
SPEAKER_01:Uh so I, you know, as a family man, so uh, you know, looking after the kids, walking the dog, attending to the chickens, uh and I like cycling, uh road biking.
Dru Corfield :You don't you don't ride in the middle of the road with spandex on though, do you?
SPEAKER_01:Side of the road with spandex is my look, yeah.
Dru Corfield :Do you have a cycling boat? Because uh when you're going down a country lane and there's a cyclist and another cyclist, and they're next to each other and they can hear you behind, but they don't do anything for about five minutes. Are you a consideration I suppose the question is are you a considerate cyclist?
SPEAKER_01:I am extremely considerate, yeah. And uh sadly enough, I I actually prefer going out by myself quite a lot. Okay, well that's better for us drivers, I think. Yeah, indeed. So uh that sort of thing, I like walking, you know, the sort of standard stuff really.
Dru Corfield :Yeah, I'm slightly triggered by the image of you and Spandex, but um but we can talk about we we can talk about our shared passion for Scotland as well, because we both love the northwest coast.
SPEAKER_01:We do, we do. So what did I say my favorite control was Italy? Yes, honourable mention to Scotland.
Dru Corfield :Yeah, shout out Scotland medal position, specifically the Highlands. But no, it was funny that we literally were like, I went down this track and there was a beach, and I was like, Ah, I've been on the very same beach. We got very, very excited about it. Yeah, beautiful place, amazing. And finally, a colleague of yours in the Leeds office tell me that you host a festival each year at your house. Can you spend some deets about that?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. So on reflection, describing it as a festival is perhaps a stretch. So post-COVID, do you remember when you could you could see people but you but they weren't allowed in your house? So with one eye on the rules, we had some friends around who camped in the garden. We had like you know, half a dozen friends around, and from small acorns have grown large trees, and yeah, now we have uh you know tents in the garden. In fact, it's this weekend.
Dru Corfield :Is it? Yeah. Is there sort of music? Is it music or is it um campfires and marshmallows and that sort of thing?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's just so it's sold out, unfortunately, this year, so you won't be able to come, but let me know for next year.
Dru Corfield :Yeah, I'll I'll get the diary invite in already. Well, Chris, I've I I thought I would have a good time and I have thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed chatting to you. Um been a great sport, and yeah, well, thanks for coming on. No problems, um, thank you.
