Davies and Keoghs sign deal to form insurance and risk management powerhouse

Technology firm Davies is set to make a move in to the insurance legal services sector with law firm Keoghs set to join the group.

Keoghs, a provider of dispute resolution and risk services for the UK insurance industry will form a new legal solutions arm within Davies, as the business continues to deepen its capability and domain expertise across its global insurance market segments.

Keoghs manages more than £1bn worth of insurer claims and resolves in excess of 100,000 claims per annum.

The deal is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close during the first quarter of this year.

John Whittle, chief executive of Keoghs said: “The insurance market is undergoing exciting change with the wide scale adoption of technology offering new innovative opportunities to provide services to the market on an industrial scale.

“The Keoghs strategy has always been to place our business, our clients and our people at the heart of this change, driving forwards to create the preeminent law firm in the insurance legal sector.

“The opportunity to join forces with Davies was too good an opportunity to miss and we are delighted to be a part of an organisation that has a single, shared and unified vision for the future.”

The addition of Keoghs will see Davies’ global team grow to more than 3,700 colleagues, with operating centres across the UK, Ireland, Bermuda, the US and Canada. The combined business serves more than 500 insurance, highly regulated and global clients.

In 2019, Davies delivered revenue growth of 49%, including double-digit organic growth, as it launched new claims and insurance operations in the US.

Dan Saulter, group chief executive of Davies said: “At Davies we place considerable value on disruptive thinking and new ideas.

“Keoghs has made investments in research and development plus innovation in the past five years, not least in its core case management system and client-facing solutions, particularly ‘Lauri’, the legal-AI platform, and ‘ADA’, the fraud detection solution.”

He added: “To compete and win in an increasingly integrated global insurance market, it is essential that we can offer our clients valuable solutions right across the insurance, claims and risk value chain.

“The addition of Keoghs to our growing Davies platform provides an exciting opportunity for us to take a new message to our clients and to provide new opportunities for our teams across the world.”