Why you should enter the Innovation Cup

Matthew Thomson from Lockton, the brokers for the Law Society’s professional indemnity insurance Master Policy, shares the benefits of putting innovation at the forefront of risk management and why you should enter the Innovation Cup.

If you’ve been following the Law Society updates for long enough, you’ve probably heard something about the Innovation Cup Competition. But you might not have thought about why YOU should enter the competition yourself.

Set up in 2018, the Innovation Cup has run for five years and in that time, we’ve had a wide range of winning ideas, including a key dates calendar, a client communications questionnaire, a ‘notice to quit’ calculator for commercial leases and an examination of title checklist.

Simply stated, the goal of the competition is to inspire new risk management ideas from within the profession.

So why should you participate? Let’s look at some of the reasons.

1. You could win money

I couldn’t start this any other way. This is the first, most obvious—and possibly the most important reason for lots of people!

You should participate in the Innovation Cup because the winning entry is rewarded with a £1,500 cash prize provided by insurers RSA. Keep it under your hat but we don’t usually see a huge number of entries, so your chances of winning might be higher than you think!

The underwriters offer the cash prize for good reason. RSA understands the value of effective risk management and its importance in ensuring the sustainability of the Master Policy. The risk management idea that wins is developed with the aim of helping to improve systems and processes within individual firms and reducing risk at an individual firm level.

2. Your idea could be developed into a professional product

Have you ever wished something exists that would really help you in your daily practice, but you don’t have the technology or design skills to create it yourself? If only you could find a way? Here’s your chance. All you need is the idea. If it wins, it will be developed by Lockton, the brokers for the Law Society’s professional indemnity insurance Master Policy. Often, the best ideas are the simplest ones – think of the frisbee or the humble paperclip! Equally, don’t let that hold you back if your idea is more complex; we can help bring it to life.

3. You could end up helping the whole profession

If you win the competition, you won’t just be helping your firm. You’ll also be bringing benefits to the profession.

To understand why, think of the big picture. Plenty of firms will be just like yours and will have similar systems and processes in place. If you have an idea on how you can improve your own working processes and reduce risk, other firms might benefit from that idea too. And if your idea is developed into a risk management tool, it could be adopted by firms across Scotland.

We’ve seen previous tools used extensively across the profession: the notice to quite calculator has been downloaded hundreds of times since its introduction.

4. You’ll help spread the word

We want to encourage solicitors to share their ideas about what will really help them in their daily practice. Why not bounce your idea off a colleague before submitting it? That might help generate more ideas.

By entering the competition, you’ll be sharing your idea. Even if unsuccessful, your idea can help to spread the word about the importance of risk management generally. It will be considered by the competition panel (Law Society, RSA, and Lockton representatives). Many of the submissions that haven’t won have still ended up forming the basis of articles and blogs.

5. It’s good for your CV

It certainly won’t do it any harm. The Society and Lockton will publicly recognise the winning entry and the final product will be promoted across the profession.

Even if you don’t win, you’ve still suggested an idea on how to improve your working practice. Be proud of that. It shows that you are innovative and that you look at ways to improve things. That is something that employers value.

So don’t delay, submit today!

Matthew Thomson is a Client Executive in the Master Policy team at Lockton.

T: 0131 345 5573; E: matthew.thomson@lockton.com