Best Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance for Law Firms (2026)
Law firms buy a lawyers professional liability policy, a claims-made form written around legal services, not a generic E&O policy. Check your state's rules first, then how the quote treats prior knowledge, settlement consent, bar complaints and work outside the client relationship.
10 providers document Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance for law firms. Gallagher, Lockton and Marsh rank highest on Spot’s evidence ranking.
Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Providers for Law Firms, Ranked
- Rank 1
Gallagher
- Gallagher recommends E&O for small businesses that provide a specific professional service, naming technology, insurance, accounting, tax, wealth management and legal services, and lists doctors, lawyers, accountants, nurses, caregivers, counselors, social workers and engineers as example professionals; it also notes that many client contracts require carrying E&O. 7
Read the Full Gallagher Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 2
Lockton
- Lockton lists 'Professional liability/professional indemnity' as one of several liability solutions on its General & Product Liability page, and separately places professional liability as one of the core coverages in its Law Firms practice. 8,9
Read the Full Lockton Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 3
Marsh
- Marsh names specialized industries its professional liability experts serve, including banking and broker/dealers, insurance companies and asset managers, merchant banking and venture capital, accountants, attorneys, architects and engineers, media and entertainment, technology, and healthcare and biotechnology. 10
Read the Full Marsh Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 4
Travelers
- Travelers offers separate E&O products by profession, including accountants, design professionals, lawyers, real estate professionals, insurance professionals, life/accident/health insurance agents, managed care organizations, financial institutions and a miscellaneous professional liability option for other client-facing professionals. 11
Read the Full Travelers Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 5
Embroker
- Embroker sells professional liability, also called errors and omissions insurance, as a standalone product for professional-services businesses, separate from its lawyers professional liability program and its bundled technology E&O/cyber product. 12
Read the Full Embroker Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 6
Marsh McLennan Agency
Not rated- The cited product page describes E&O and named specialist professional lines, including architects and engineers and lawyers professional liability; the overview does not treat them as one form. Marketing description only; actual coverage, exclusions, conditions, limits, and availability depend on the issued policy and jurisdiction. 13
Read the Full Marsh McLennan Agency Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 7
Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance
No review score- BHSI’s U.S. Professional First overview identifies Lawyers Professional Liability and Miscellaneous Professional Liability alongside Technology E&O and Media Liability. 5,14
- The overview names staffing firms, management consultants, marketing firms and real-estate firms as targeted customers for Miscellaneous Professional Liability; it separately lists law-firm size bands for Lawyers Professional Liability. 5
Read the Full Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 8
Counterpart
Not ratedNo review score- Counterpart lists distinct professional-liability programs for miscellaneous professionals, architects/engineers/contractors, allied healthcare and lawyers. 6,15,16,17
- The Lawyers Professional Liability page describes claims arising from lawyers’ professional services; the MPL page gives service-related negligence and financial-loss examples. 6,15
Read the Full Counterpart Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 9
The Baldwin Group
Not ratedNo review score- Baldwin names accountants, architects, engineers, financial advisers, lawyers, management consultants and surveyors as professional-services clients. 18
Read the Full The Baldwin Group Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
- Rank 10
Relm Insurance
Not ratedNo review score- Relm groups a family of professional liability products under Professional Lines and Errors and Omissions, distinguishing a general E&O line from specialized versions for accountants, consultants, financial institutions, lawyers, lenders, media, trust/fund administrators and other niches. 19
Read the Full Relm Insurance Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance Page
How We Ranked Professional Liability (E&O) Providers for Law Firms
Spot lists a provider only when its published Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance information includes a documented claim (verified or company-reported) about eligibility, role, coverage or application that mentions law firms. “Named for Law Firms” marks a provider’s own statement of who it serves; “Related mention” marks a role, coverage or application claim.
Providers with both a Reliability Score and a Review Score rank first, then providers with one of the two, then providers with neither. Within each group the order is the equal-weight average of the scores the provider has, as in the industry guides; ties break on fit, then the number of documented claims, then name.
The Reliability Score comes from Spot’s reliability assessments and the Review Score from the provider’s rated review sources. Neither measures whether a policy fits your business or what it costs. How Reliability Scores work.
Spot, a product of Tools for Enlightenment, publishes this research and works in the commercial insurance market. Editorial policy.
What Do Law Firms Need From Professional Liability Insurance?
Your state may decide whether you carry it. Oregon requires every active licensee in private practice with a principal office in Oregon to carry primary coverage through the Oregon State Bar's Professional Liability Fund as a condition of the license. California's Rule 1.4.2 requires a lawyer who knows or reasonably should know they have no professional liability insurance to tell each client so in writing at engagement. The Insurance Information Institute says professional liability is required in some states, especially for attorneys. Check your own bar's rules.1,3,4
Buy the legal form. The Institute describes legal malpractice policies as a special type of professional liability policy. In a carrier's lawyers professional liability specimen, professional services means legal and consulting services you perform for others, with the pay going to you, as a lawyer, notary public, arbitrator, mediator, fiduciary, speaker or author of legal treatises, and it also names bar association work and pro bono representation. A role the form does not name is where gaps start.1,2
Appetite follows firm size. One carrier's overview names firms with 100 or more attorneys as targeted customers for lawyers professional liability and firms with 50 to 100 attorneys as select customers, while another publishes illustrative quotes for firms of one to ten lawyers. Ask which markets want a firm your size before you spend time on applications.5,6
Which Professional Liability Exposures Do Law Firms Face?
Claims can surface long after the work, so timing terms decide coverage. In the specimen, a claim must be first made against you and reported in writing during the policy period, the act must fall on or after the retroactive date, and the claim cannot result from events you knew or should have known would lead to a demand before the policy began. If the policy ends, an automatic 60-day reporting window lapses once the same or similar insurance replaces it, and longer extended reporting periods are options sold for additional premium.2
A bar complaint is not an ordinary claim. In the specimen, a disciplinary proceeding counts as a claim only to the extent of a coverage extension that pays defense costs up to its own limit, and help responding to a subpoena has a separate limit of its own. Ask what your quote pays for each and how much it pays.2
Activity outside the client relationship is where exclusions bite. The specimen excludes covered acts connected with any business enterprise other than the named insured in which you hold a controlling interest, whether or not a lawyer-client relationship existed, activities as an ERISA fiduciary unless you are one solely because of services to clients, and activities connected with a trust or estate of which you are a beneficiary.2
A fee dispute may not be a covered loss. In the specimen, loss does not include fines, penalties, sanctions, disgorgement or the return, reduction or reimbursement of fees, costs or expenses, so a refund or a sanction against you is not paid as damages.2
What Should Law Firms Check Before Buying Professional Liability Insurance?
Read the settlement-consent clause before you sign. In the specimen, the insurer will not settle without your consent, but if you refuse a settlement it recommends and the claimant accepts, its liability for that claim is capped at the settlement amount, plus defense costs to that date, plus 50 percent of any further loss; failing to consent expressly counts as refusing. Ask each insurer whether its form has a similar cap and what share of the excess it keeps.2
Find out what sits inside the limit. In the specimen, the duty to defend is part of the limits of liability, so defense costs reduce what is left to pay a judgment, while the disciplinary and subpoena extensions carry additional limits. Compare quotes on that structure, not just the headline limit and premium.2
List your side roles and ask that each is within the policy's definition of professional services. Notary work, mediation, service as an executor or trustee, and bar committee work appear in the specimen's definition, while the same form excludes notarizing a signature without the signer's physical appearance.2
What Do Law Firms Ask About Professional Liability (E&O) Insurance?
Do Law Firms Need Professional Liability Insurance?
It depends on your state. Oregon requires lawyers in private practice with a principal office there to carry coverage through its Professional Liability Fund, and California requires a lawyer without professional liability insurance to tell clients so in writing at engagement. Check your bar's rules and your engagement terms.3,4
Should Law Firms Buy Lawyers Professional Liability Instead of Generic E&O?
Ask for the legal form. The Insurance Information Institute calls legal malpractice policies a special type of professional liability policy, and a carrier's lawyers specimen defines professional services around work as a lawyer, notary, mediator, fiduciary and similar roles. Compare any general E&O quote against that definition.1,2
Does Professional Liability Insurance Cover Bar Complaints for Law Firms?
Sometimes, within a limit. In a carrier's specimen, a disciplinary proceeding is a claim only to the extent of a coverage extension that pays defense costs up to a separate limit. Ask how much your quote pays for a disciplinary matter and whether a deductible applies.2
Do Law Firms Stay Covered for Old Work After a Policy Ends?
Only through reporting windows. In the specimen, a claim must be made and reported during the policy period, an automatic 60-day window ends if replacement insurance starts, and longer extended reporting periods cost additional premium. Ask about both before you cancel or switch carriers.2
19 documents, numbered as cited. Open the sources