Australian Liability Conference
8 November 2022

Special Counsel

Lander & Rogers

Judy Truong is a Special Counsel in the General Insurance Group at Lander & Rogers Lawyers in Sydney.

With over 18 years' experience in insurance, Judy began her career with AIG as a financial lines underwriter and then financial lines and casualty claims officer before joining private practice focusing on casualty and property claims. 

Partner

Hall & Wilcox

Ahranee is a specialist liability lawyer with particular expertise in personal injury claims. She has vast experience advising domestic and Lloyds’ of London insurers. She regularly advises on the operation of insurance policies and provides risk management advice.

Ahranee acts for a variety of construction professionals including builders, project managers, scaffolders, crane operators, formworkers and labour hire. She advises on worker-to-worker and complex catastrophic injury claims, nervous shock and dependency claims, contractual disputes and defends workers’ compensation recoveries.

Ahranee also advises a diverse range of businesses in other industries including hospitality, retail, property, health, leisure and sport.

Ahranee is a former President of The NSW Association for Women in Insurance.

She is a recommended public and product liability lawyer in NSW in Doyle’s Guide to the Australian Legal Profession and has been listed in The Best Lawyers in Australia in Insurance Law every year since 2020.

Managing Director

QEC Global

Marty Denham is an electrical compliance consultant and forensic electrical fire investigator with 38 years experience. He is managing director of QEC Global. Marty has investigated a wide range of electrical accidents, shocks, faults and fires with over 1500 incidents investigated.

Marty has qualifications in electrical engineer and forensic fire investigation and provides electrical fire causation expertise to several Australian and international standards committees. He has provided expert witness evidence in Coronial, Civil and Criminal proceedings before the Federal Court, Courts in Queensland, Victoria, NSW and WA , and arbitration proceedings in NSW and a QLD Mining Board Enquiry.

Head of Claims

Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, Australia

Susan Donaldson is Head of Claims for Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, Australia. Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance commenced in Australia in 2015, being the Berkshire Hathaway group’s foray into the primary property, casualty and specialty lines market. With responsibilities across Australia, Susan’s team handles claims in executive and professional lines, casualty, property, marine, healthcare, surety and accident and health. The claims approach is underpinned by fundamental do-the-right-thing attitude.

Susan is a lawyer, who started her career in insurance litigation with Moray & Agnew before becoming an dedicated claims manager, with major global insurers, heading up Financial Lines Claims had being a technical resource in Asia Pacific for third party claims. Susan is a believer that insurance can and should do good in the world and allows people to take risk, build business, travel and invest, whilst having a safety net.

Susan is a yogi, a traveller, a mum, a very slow runner and an English lit major with not enough time to read so is now a devotee of audio books. Susan is active in the insurance industry through seminars, presentations and in mentoring programs for young professionals.

Senior Underwriter, Casualty

Liberty Specialty Markets

Cameron began his insurance career in Newcastle NSW with a large domestic insurer. From there he has held a number of underwriting roles with both an international insurer, and a Lloyd's syndicate, where he worked in both Casualty and Delegated Authorities, in the Sydney and Melbourne markets. In 2018 he joined the Sydney Casualty team of Liberty Specialty Markets.

Partner

Wotton + Kearney

Aisha has practiced exclusively as an insurance litigator for 15 years and has developed a specialisation in product liability and property damage claims, both on the casualty (liability defence and subrogated recoveries) and first-party property (coverage) side. His practice includes claims across the construction, manufacturing, engineering, transport, mining and energy sectors.

He has acted in a number of high-profile class actions and in complex multi-party litigation, including the Bonsoy (soymilk) litigation, the 2009 Black Saturday Victorian bushfires and 2018 St. Patricks Day bushfire claims, and most recently the landmark Lacrosse litigation involving combustible ACP cladding.

Director

Taylor Fry

Danielle is an actuary with extensive experience in the assessment of long-tail insurance liabilities, advising government, regulators and self-insurers in all aspects of accident and workers compensation.

She has supported state regulators across multiple jurisdictions to improve compulsory third party scheme performance and worker dispute resolution systems. Her government work has included advice on funding for people with catastrophic injuries, and valuing dust diseases claims and levies.

Danielle has guided state treasuries in managing their workers compensation funds, and assisted self-insurance clients through challenging periods of legislative reform.

Principal and Practice Group Leader – Melbourne Litigation

Meridian Lawyers

Robert has 22 plus years’ experience in, amongst other areas, liability claims acting for occupiers, both private and commercial, including in the context of infrastructure and building projects, supermarket distribution centres, abattoirs, and other large-scale manufacture operations.

Robert and his team have a particular expertise in common law and associated VWA recovery claims on behalf of occupiers (“host employers”) where there are large labour-hire workforces. He also has a significant experience in the strict legislative requirements and timeframes that apply under the Victorian Workers Compensation regime.

Head of Long Tail Lines

AXA XL

Rory joined what was the Catlin Syndicate at Lloyd’s in 2002 in the London Casualty team, working on an International client base. In 2004 he was seconded to Sydney to assist with the launch of Catlin Australia and in 2010, he relocated full time to Australia to open the Melbourne office and lead the Australian Casualty team.

Rory retained his leadership of the Casualty portfolio following the acquisition of Catlin by XL Group in 2015 and became Asia Pacific Head of Casualty in 2017 and a member of the International Casualty Leadership Team, a position he retained for AXA XL.

Most recently, Rory was appointed Head of Long Tail Lines, Australia and now is responsible for all Professional Risks and Liability lines written by the Australian Underwriting team.

Casualty Manager

General Reinsurance – Property & Casualty

Nick is an insurance specialist with 30 years experience in the industry. At General Reinsurance, Nick is the Casualty Manager responsible for the broader range of casualty products.

Nick has a background in property and casualty reinsurance as well as direct insurance. His past executive roles have included marketing, underwriting and claims management.

Nick has spoken regularly at seminars in Australia, New Zealand and Asia. He has also previously held the post of Specialist Lecturer at the University of Technology, Sydney, lecturing the Liability subject within the post-graduate course “Executive Certificate in Insurance”.

Service Delivery Manager Producing Office, IP

HDI Global SE, Australia

Rinnah has 30 years of experience in insurance and started her career at Pioneer Insurance Company in the Philippines. From there she moved to Aon, initially in Manila, and later at Aon’s Sydney office.

Rinnah acquired her experience and knowledge in international programmes (IP) when she joined Zurich in 2011 and was mainly responsible for managing both produced and received IP businesses. Most recently, Rinnah joined HDI in January 2020 as the Service Delivery Manager Producing Business, International Programmes.

Partner, Insurance Law & Litigation

Lander & Rogers

Charles manages the firm’s Construction and Engineering practice. He is the lead advisor to insurance clients in construction and engineering; professional indemnity; and property sectors. He handles some of Australia's largest and most complex construction and engineering disputes and he is regarded as a policy coverage specialist.

Charles has specialised in construction and engineering and property insurance since entering private practice in 1994 in South Africa and maintained his focus after immigrating to Australia in 2003. Charles' extensive experience is complemented by his strong interest in product liability in construction products.

He represents and advises a wide range of construction principals, contractors and consultants on risk and insurance. Insurance industry clients trust his policy wording and interpretation.

Charles is recognised in The Best Lawyers in Australia and in Chambers Asia Pacific for his expertise in insurance law.

Practice Leader

Gallagher

Angela is a risk and insurance advisor who has spent most of her career specialising in the construction and infrastructure sector, working with clients to understand risk and to manage the financial impacts of risk to minimise project volatility and balance sheet exposure.

Angela has worked with various parts of the Government at both a State and Federal level and also with a variety of project consortiums, contractors, subcontractors, financiers and developers across many of Australia’s largest infrastructure projects.

Angela joined Gallagher 3 years ago to enhance the construction expertise within the business helping clients to navigate complex risk and insurance challenges. Prior to joining Gallagher Angela spent 16 years with Aon and Marsh in similar roles.