Agenda setting for Cutts

If Dan Cutts has his way, we'll be hearing a lot more from him during his year as president of the Forum of Insurance Lawyers. Due to be voted into the role at today's annual general meeting, the director of insurance at Weightmans will be heading up a markedly different organisation from that of only two years ago. He believes Foil is now poised to lobby hard, shape agendas rather than follow them and improve policy making for the benefit of its members and their clients.

Mr Cutts is, however, quick to point out that this somewhat bullish attitude is less to do with any estimation of his own personal influence and much more to do with the body's beefed up resources, which mark the culmination of several years' hard work. He is convinced Foil can now effectively counteract the often persuasive claimant lobby in government consultations and do justice to its new tagline: 'Foil — the voice of the wider public interest'.

In making these claims, Mr Cutts pays tribute to the considerable efforts of his two predecessors in taking the organisation to its current position of strength.

"Henry's [Bermingham] year was the 'big conversation', evaluating where we were, with significant time spent with stakeholders — namely the law firms and insurance industry," he explains. "At the end of his year, we had to get the membership to buy into the bigger vision of Foil at the AGM and then Anthony's [Hughes] year has been focused on the implementation of this."

Achieving that vision required members to vote last year in favour of enhanced financial investment that would support and maintain a new infrastructure — including the recruitment of professional support lawyer Shirley Denyer, as director of information, and a permanent chief executive. Other notable hires over the past 12 months have included Carmela Clarke as full-time executive director and ex-president Claire McKinney as director for change.

Mr Cutts details the tangible benefits already being enjoyed by having a professional support lawyer in place: "Over the past year, we have responded to every relevant consultation and done so after discussions with the membership. So rather than being ad-hoc responses, we have consulted first. That's a great resource for us, which we can now take forward and use to a greater degree to create an even bigger voice.

"It has also enabled us to update members through our comprehensive monthly newsletter The Voice, which sets out relevant legal issues, how we have responded to them and, where possible, detail the discussions we have held in a lobbying environment."