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Insurance Defense Branding Needs a Face Lift and You’re the Surgeon When I started at Marquette University Law School, I had no clue what I wanted to do. At that point, I had competed in mock trial for seven years, so I knew that I wanted to do something that would get me in a courtroom, but I was not sure what that would look like. I considered just about every litigation practice area under the sun. For a couple of weeks, I wanted to do labor and employment law. Then I realized I obviously had a passion for health law. Scratch that, I was going to be a criminal defense attorney. After some time, I discerned that maybe I should wait until I have some work experience to make any decisions. I was fortunate enough to get matched with Church Mutual Insurance Company for an internship through the State Bar’s Diversity Clerkship Program the summer following 1L. While at Church Mutual, I primarily did work for the in-house legal department, but I got to sit in on the claims roundtable meetings. To prepare for the first meeting, I read the pre-trial report that was sent by the attorney working on the case. Immediately, I realized that I did not want to be reading the reports; I wanted to be the one writing them. Insurance was interesting, but I knew that I wanted to be in a position to be in the courtroom. To learn more about the intersection of insurance and the law, I took the Insurance course offered at Marquette the following fall. I loved the course, but I realized that I did not particularly enjoy reading insurance policies. At that point, I had already accepted a position for the summer after 2L at The Everson Law Firm doing insurance defense work, and I was a little nervous. I thought that I would be stuck reading and analyzing insurance policies all day, because that is what I thought insurance defense work was. After my first couple weeks at Everson, I realized that I was very wrong. Turns out, I really enjoy insurance defense work. I was not reading insurance policies all day, instead I was observing attorneys in depositions and mediations, researching interesting legal issues, and even drafting deposition summaries to send to the insurance adjuster. I appreciate how each case is like a puzzle, and our job is to put the pieces together to get the entire picture. I value that any case could end in a trial. Recently, when I looked back to think about my concerns regarding insurance defense work, I realized that they stemmed from the same issue. Insurance defense needs better branding. Many law students have misconceptions about insurance defense that may lead to them not considering the practice area at all, even when the actual work aligns with their interests. The remainder of this article will outline ways that current insurance defense attorneys can present insurance defense work to make it more appealing to law students. I. Insurance Defense Categorization The first issue with insurance defense branding is the name. When I heard insurance defense, I thought of coverage and bad faith litigation. Now, I know that is not all the insurance defense world has to offer, but that was my understanding at the time I was interviewing at an insurance defense firm. To remedy this issue, I would encourage insurance defense firms to consider using a different term to identify that the firm defends personal injury claims. It would perhaps look like describing your practice as insurance and personal injury defense, instead of just insurance defense. This minor change will help law students better understand the nature of your practice when determining whether they are interested in exploring a future with your firm. For example, a student who enjoyed torts and is interested in litigation may not submit an application at an insurance defense firm under the misconception that it is coverage work when they would have applied to a firm that described their practice as personal injury defense. It is important to remember that many law students do not have any experience in the legal field and being more clear about something as minor as your practice area description can make the legal field—and your law firm—more accessible for those students. II. Emphasize People The biggest misconception that I had about insurance defense work, which arose from a general misunderstanding of the nature of the work, is that it only involves interactions with insurance companies. I imagined days filled with calling adjusters, reading insurance policies, and not much else. I cannot say that is what all law students think, but there is a belief by many law students that insurance defense work is working for large insurance companies to help them spend as little money as possible, with few other considerations. While it is undeniable that part of an insurance defense attorney’s job is to limit the insurance company’s liability, there are other important considerations to which law students are more sympathetic. For example, not all law students understand that there is often an insured client that we represent in addition to the insurance company. So, as much as it is the attorney’s job to limit the insurance company liability, the insurance defense attorney also has a valuable and much more personal job of ensuring that the insured client is informed and well-represented. To me, that aspect made a significant difference in my motivation to do the work. As law students, we always hear that we will be helping people out in some of the worst, most stressful situations of their lives. This motivates us to do the work because many of us went to law school to help people. I always struggled with extending this logic to insurance companies. It cannot really be the worst, most stressful situation of an insurance company’s life if they deal with lawsuits nearly every day. However, it can, and probably is, the worst, most stressful situation of an insured client’s life. Many of them are being sued for more money than they could ever pay, and they are scared about their future and their livelihood. Being able to extend this motivation to insurance defense work through the individual client has made a profound difference in my enjoyment and my anticipated longevity in insurance defense work. One way to make sure that law students see the impact on the insured client is to include your summer law clerk in client communications. I have sat in on phone calls with clients that range from initial calls, informing them of representation and answering questions to calls gathering information for discovery responses. These calls have allowed me to see first-hand the impact that insurance defense attorney has on the insured client, and in turn motivates me to one day practice personal injury defense. III. Connect with Law School Organizations It is also necessary to consider how to connect with law students. The most efficient way to connect with law students who could benefit from learning more about insurance defense is through the student organizations at the law school. Student organizations are an efficient way to connect with students because the organizations are specific to different areas of law, so you will connect with students who are already at least somewhat interested in your area of work. By connecting with, for example, the Trial Lawyers Association at Marquette, you are connecting with students who are already interested in litigation. For firms that do medical malpractice defense, the Health Law Association could be a great way to connect with students who may not even consider insurance defense as an aspect of health law. No matter your firm’s specialty, there is likely at least one organization that can connect you with students who are interested in learning more about insurance defense and your day-to-day as an attorney. In addition, there are plenty of events to attend. I cannot speak for the University of Wisconsin Law School, but at Marquette Law School, most organizations host at least one networking event and one attorney panel a year. Many organizations will do multiple of each event. While it may not be easy to get on a panel, organizations are always looking for more attorneys to attend the networking events. I imagine that right about now you are thinking something along the lines of, “Why would a law student want to listen to me?” The answer may seem silly, but the truth is that law students are excited to talk to just about any lawyer. At the end of the day, law students understand that they do not know anything about practicing law. Any opportunity to learn what the practice of law actually looks like is incredibly valuable to a law student. We spend so much time learning the legal concepts that it can be easy to lose sight of the end goal of practicing law. Interactions with attorneys help us keep sight of our future through it all. IV. Consider Becoming an Adjunct Professor Another way to connect with law students is by being an adjunct professor. To preface this section, I understand that being an adjunct professor is no small feat. It requires a significant amount of time that you probably do not have. However, you would be hard pressed to find a law student that was not positively impacted by an adjunct professor. As I mentioned earlier, we understand that we know very little about the actual practice of law. Having even a couple of hours a week where we are being taught by people who are still actively practicing law is valuable. As an adjunct professor, you can inform students on the nature of insurance defense work, but more importantly, you can show them that an insurance defense practice can be complex, fulfilling, and sustainable. Every single day we see advertisements for personal injury firms and attorneys that have been around for decades, but we rarely see any representation from the defense side. Even if you are teaching a class unrelated to or broader than insurance defense, it is beneficial for students to regularly see an insurance defense attorney who enjoys the work that they do. Also, being an adjunct professor allows you to be a resource for student questions about insurance defense. Most law students are not comfortable going to a networking event or an interview and asking a question that feels “stupid” or “too basic,” but they may feel comfortable asking that same question to a professor who works in the field. By being this resource, you can help clarify the common misconceptions surrounding insurance defense work and encourage students to consider the area of practice more than they may have otherwise. V. Demystify Billing To many young law students, billing time is a completely foreign concept. We do not know anything about it other than what we hear from older students and attorneys, which is that it is the worst. I think it is fair to say that billing is not going anywhere, so it is important to give law student clerks and young attorneys resources to make billing easier. One resource that I was grateful to have was a half-hour meeting with a partner about billing. During that time, she walked me through the basics, and she was also able to give me some tips like how long certain tasks typically take and shortcuts in our billing system to make entering time quicker. She also set clear expectations for what my time entries should look like and made herself a resource if I have questions as I begin billing my time. After that meeting, she also sent me copies of full billing statements from each of the partners, so that I could get a feel for the descriptions of time entries. Now, billing is not fun by any means, but it is manageable because I was given the resources to make it easier. Something as simple as a handout of what activities go under typical billing codes could be incredibly helpful for a law student or young attorney. Ease of billing time may not impact you, but for a law student or young attorney it can be the difference between staying in insurance defense and moving to a practice where there is no billing time. VI. Conclusion Insurance defense work has a major branding issue. Many law students do not understand the nature of the work, and those that do may have misconceptions that are preventing them from exploring their interest in this area of the law. To encourage law students’ interest in insurance defense, attorneys who enjoy the work need to connect with law students and share what insurance defense practice looks like and what insurance defense attorneys do on a day-to-day basis. Once an interest has been realized, to retain those attorneys, firms should create resources to help them manage the less appealing aspects of the work, like billing. At the end of the day, you, as an insurance defense attorney, can make this field more appealing and accessible to law students; it just requires a rebrand. Author Biography: Anna S. Osborn joined The Everson Law Firm in May of 2025 as a Summer Associate. She is a rising third year law student at Marquette University Law School. Prior to working at Everson, Anna spent a summer as a legal intern at Church Mutual Insurance Company, S.I.. She received her bachelor’s degree from University of Missouri-Kansas City, where she coached and competed on the undergraduate mock trial team.
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