FOIL Background
History of FOIL
FOIL was formed in 1992 to provide the defendant community — lawyers, solicitors and legal executives — a body to sit alongside APIL, the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, ensuring that views across the board would be heard.
FOIL’s first President, Maurice Nichols, summed up the position: “It (FOIL) may provide a useful point of contact with organisations such as APIL, perhaps with a view to agreeing certain understandings, protocols and helping to smooth the passage of litigation generally.”
Since those early days FOIL has developed to represent all areas of defendant insurance law, not just personal injury, and now has regular contact with bodies such as the ABI, the Law Society, the Law Commission and the Ministry of Justice, among others.
It is now an important interface between defendant insurance lawyers, insurers, self-insured organisations and lawmakers, operating at the forefront of discussion where changes in legislation or rules are discussed to achieve balanced outcomes which benefit the wider public interest.
FOIL’s continuing drive to deliver true benefits to its members saw it undertake a major consultation exercise — the Big Conversation — in 2008, consulting widely with insurers and members alike. The outcome has been to sharpen and improve FOIL’s capabilities by strengthening the central management support for members and radically revising its consultation structure, which now more closely aligns to the operational structures within the insurance industry, resulting in a better-defined focus on sector issues.
FOIL is even stronger going forward. Members can view in detail FOIL’s Strategic Plan, Vision, Mission Statement and Values by clicking – FOIL Members.
Current
| Tim Oliver | President | |
| Laurence Besemer | CEO |
Past Presidents
| Dan Cutts | ||
| Anthony Hughes | ||
| Henry Bermingham | ||
| Lea Brocklebank | ||
| Neil McLaughlin | ||
| Andrew Underwood | ||
| Claire McKinney | ||
| Jason Rowley | ||
| Tim Wallis | ||
| Martin Staples | ||
| Andrew Parker | ||
| Martin Bruffel | ||
| Tony Cherry |
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| Maurice Nichols |
