Insurer sheds staff in relocation

After-the-event legal expenses insurer Litigation Protection (LPL) has laid off two staff at its London office, which is only being retained as a venue for business meetings.

The company, headed by Brian Raincock, has moved all operations to its Arundel office. Two of the four staff were given seven days' notice to quit and a third is already serving out his notice. The fourth, part-time consultant Peter Blackmore, will continue to work for LPL.

Raincock said: "This is not a question of relocating but of consolidating, because we need our expertise in one place."

He said LPL was to extend its range of services next month by launching a series of courses training lawyers in risk evaluation and the intricacies of conditional fees.

In the spring, LPL sister company Legal & Contingency was sold to a management buy-out team headed by underwriter Peter Brocklehurst.