The Forum of Insurance Lawyers has appointed Mark Huxley (pictured) as its new chief executive, effective October 1, 2026, succeeding Laurence Besemer, who has led the organisation since its first CEO appointment in 2009.
Basemer will remain at FOIL until the end of the calendar year to ensure a smooth handover.
Huxley brings almost five decades of experience across insurance and wider financial services, spanning frontline claims within Lloyd's syndicates, regulatory and operational roles, outsourced claims management and strategic consultancy.
After around 20 years working front-line in Lloyd's claims and business management, he co-founded one of the UK's first outsourced professional claims management businesses, before building a career as an entrepreneur and adviser across the market. He has worked with FOIL specifically since 2018 as a London Market FOIL special adviser.
FOIL represents around 8,000 insurance lawyers and paralegals across 61 corporate member firms and 17 Trade & Industry Partners, making it a significant voice in the defendant insurance legal community. The appointment lands as the sector navigates rapid change, with AI and automation, fraud, regulation, litigation funding, costs and wider economic pressures reshaping the landscape for insurers and their legal advisers, themes FOIL's current leadership has already flagged as immediate priorities.
Huxley said he was delighted to take on the role and build on the strong foundations Besemer created over 17 years, calling FOIL a hugely respected organisation and describing himself as proud to take it into its next chapter. He said his career within the insurance market gives him a wider view of the sector, while his years working with FOIL have given him a deep understanding of its members and the issues that matter to them.
Huxley identified engagement and communication as a central focus for his tenure, both externally and within the organisation itself.
"Effective representation comes down to communication. FOIL has a voice, and I want to make sure that when it speaks, people listen. Just as importantly, I want everyone within FOIL to feel that they have a voice, that they are relevant and that the organisation reflects the issues that matter to them," he said.
He also highlighted the importance of FOIL's Trade & Industry Partners, whose support underpins much of the organisation's work, saying he wants their contribution to continue being recognised and valued as FOIL evolves.
Beyond his business activities, Huxley is active in the civic life of the City of London, representing entrepreneurship and innovation, and supports charitable initiatives focused on social inclusion, including education, access to employment and neuro-inclusion.
Since becoming FOIL's first CEO in 2009, Besemer helped establish the organisation as an independent and respected voice for the insurance legal community, strengthening its position with government, regulators, insurers and wider industry stakeholders. Under his leadership, FOIL expanded its reach across a much broader range of insurance classes and specialist legal areas, extended into new territories including Ireland, and broadened its membership to include the in-house legal community.
Besemer said he is proud FOIL has established such a solid place at the table with government, insurers and the wider industry, calling it the result of many years of work building a reputation as an independent voice and trusted partner. He said Huxley knows FOIL extremely well, understands both the market and the organisation, and brings his own ideas and perspective, adding that he is confident FOIL is in very good hands.
Huxley's appointment as CEO sits alongside FOIL's existing elected leadership structure: Bridget Tatham, a partner at Browne Jacobson, became FOIL's president for 2026, succeeding Howard Dean of Keoghs, who used his own presidential term to prioritise civil justice reforms including the Personal Injury Discount Rate, fixed recoverable costs and the digitisation of court services.
As the organisation enters its next chapter, Huxley will also build on FOIL's work through "Tomorrow's FOIL," which supports insurance lawyers in the first five years of their careers, including encouraging new talent into insurance law and extending outreach to students.
Huxley's appointment reads as a deliberate choice for continuity rather than reinvention. Eight years as a special adviser gives him an unusually detailed working knowledge of FOIL's internal priorities before taking the top job, in a way an external hire would need years to build.
That matters given the scale of what he is inheriting, a membership body speaking for 8,000 lawyers across dozens of firms at a moment when AI, litigation funding and regulatory change are all live issues simultaneously. His own emphasis on communication and ensuring members feel heard suggests the priority for FOIL's next phase is less about redefining its remit and more about making sure a genuinely large and varied membership stays aligned as those pressures intensify.
