| Admiral Group
Admiral Group
Team size: 10
Key team members: Dan Caunt (group company secretary and general counsel), Elena Servini (group head of legal), Luke Russell (deputy group head of legal)
What significant projects or deals has the legal team worked on in the past year? Can you provide examples of successful outcomes or major accomplishments?
More than acquisition: the team played a significant role in Admiral’s acquisition of the More Than Home and Pet insurance businesses from RSA, which was the first major acquisition in Admiral’s history and was completed within ten weeks from NDA. The team had to quickly organise and allocate responsibilities for discrete elements of the transaction with Elena Servini having overall responsibility for legal delivery, Luke Russell assigned to transitional services and data, Owen James on brand and IP, Chris Jones on diligence and disclosure and Dan Caunt on Group Board and subsidiary governance.
Mortgages and car finance: Jen Bradley and Beth Cooke advised Admiral Money on the launch of two new products in the past six months: car finance and a second charge mortgage proposition. We have provided in-house support and worked closely with the business to prepare customer facing documents in a highly regulated area and to negotiate a full chain of supply contracts with new and existing suppliers including significant originations and servicing contracts.
Google and Guidewire Migration: we provided all legal support in-house for the cloud migration and simultaneous upgrade of our Guidewire insurance policy and billing software. At the time Google believed this was one of the largest and most complex insurance cloud migrations that they have undertaken worldwide and used it as a showcase. The critical nature of this software meant that this project had to comply with regulatory outsourcing requirements.
Can you sum up the team culture/ethos in one sentence?
Admiral prides itself on its culture and has been ranked as a Great Place to Work in the UK for each of the last 23 years (ranking third in the UK and thirteenth in the World last year). A key Admiral mantra is “people who like what they do, do it better” and our team closely aligns with this. We pride ourselves on our legal expertise but providing an enjoyable place to work and develop is just as important. In a recent company survey, our team scored 93% against a company average of 82%, and there has been zero attrition in the past five years which is a testament to this. This stability has helped us build an incredible team of lawyers who have a real understanding of Admiral’s business. We ensure an open culture where people can focus on the types and areas of work that they are interested in as well as knowing they can raise questions to anyone (regardless of seniority) or concerns and ask for help when needed. This ethos combined with an active social calendar and the encouragement to participate in community impact days, we think makes our team a special place to work.
Are there any team members with expertise in niche areas that are critical to the company’s operations?
All our lawyers advise on general commercial contracts across the business but selective recruitment and upskilling means that we have expertise in key areas:
Dan Caunt (General Counsel & Company Secretary) is also the in-house representative on the Law Council of Wales Executive Committee and serves on the Law Society of Wales in-house solicitors’ sub-group.
