Australian Liability Conference

Judy Truong is a Partner at Lander & Rogers Lawyers in Sydney. With over 19 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.

Derham is the Head of Liability for Crawford Australia having held that position for over 20 years. In addition to leading the team of 23 liability specialists across Australia, he is still very much a working loss adjuster.

One of Derham’s areas of focus is Product Liability. He has managed hundreds of such files for the local and London market, with particular areas of expertise including packaging, motor vehicle parts, plastics, beverages and food ingredients.

About 15 years ago Derham was entrusted with his first Product Contamination and Recall claim from a local underwriter. At that time this was still very much a niche policy, and in the early stages these claims were a significant learning experience, both for he and the insurers. Since that time he has managed, or assisted with some of the most high profile product recall claims in Australia.

Derham and his team are very much relied upon by Insurers who write this business to respond at short notice to new recall notifications and to assist the Insured’s with what often becomes one of their most challenging hurdles to overcome from a cashflow and reputational perspective. It is that particular challenge which he enjoys the most.

I started my career in the NSW Police more than 30 years ago, where I primarily worked as a detective. I specialised in counter-terrorism investigations in the early 2000’s – and from there worked on the investigation of the movement of people and money across boarders in joint agency task forces.

Since that time I’ve primarily worked in financial crime, finishing my career in the Fraud and Cybercrime squad. The final task force I ran was called Strike Force Ravens, an investigation targeting the systemic fraud in CTP insurance schemes.

For the last six years I’ve been a financial crime consultant where I’ve divided my time between forensic accounting and insurance consulting.

I commenced as the inaugural CEO of the counter fraud function at the ICA in June this year.

Donna has more than 20 year’s experience in the insurance industry, having held positions with both Australian and Internal Insurers. She has extensive experience in specialist insurance areas including Contaminated Products Insurance and Product Recall.

Donna joined Liberty Specialty Markets in 2008, bringing several years of crisis management experience to the launch of the Liberty Crisis Management solutions product suite for Asia Pacific. She is based in Melbourne and her emphasis is on development of new business and the education of clients and brokers on Product Recall Insurance.

Donna is a senior associate with ANZIIF.

Colleen has specialised in insurance law and litigation for 20 years. In that time, Colleen has developed expertise across various lines of business including class actions, subrogated recoveries and commercial property insurance.

For the past 5 years, Colleen has acted defence counsel in the light rail nuisance class action against Transport for NSW in the NSW Supreme Court. Prior to that, she worked as defence or monitoring counsel in class action proceedings concerning the Springwood, Mount Victoria and Currandooley bushfires.

Colleen also specialises in subrogated recoveries and manages a large portfolio of recovery claims for national and international insurers. These matters include litigated claims for recovery of significant losses arising from train derailments, industrial fires, water ingress events and machinery damage or failure.

Estelle has played a role in some of Australia’s high-profile insurance milestones – she was the actuarial expert to the HIH Royal Commission and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

She worked with the State and Federal Governments on the Liability Crisis back in the early 2000s and more recently advised an Interjurisdictional Working Group of States and Territories on solutions to the availability of adequate insurance cover for NGOs providing critical out of home care services.

Estelle was the President of the Institute of Actuaries of Australia in 2015 and in 2012 was named Actuary of the Year. She has been a member of the Board of the National Disability Insurance Agency since 2017.

Dr Samuell is a forensic psychiatrist with extensive experience in psychological injury claims. He is also an award-winning published economist, with completed doctoral research on identifying and remediating dishonesty in life insurance that was recognised by the American Academy of Actuaries as making an outstanding contribution to public policy.

He has served as the medical representative to the former Workcover advisory board and was appointed by the Prime Minister and Cabinet to advise the Department of Industry on government innovation and science policy. He was recently appointed to the department of economics at Canberra University.

With more than two decades in legal practice, Julian has broad experience across different areas of class actions practice, including complex product liability claims as well as shareholder claims and other types of class actions. 

Julian is currently leading a shareholder class action against Boral Ltd, a shareholder class action against Treasury Wine Estates Ltd and a shareholder class action against Downer EDI Ltd. 

Julian’s past major cases include the DePuy ASR hip implants class action, which resulted in a landmark settlement of $250 million in 2016, as well as a separate class action concerning the LCS Duofix knee implants class action which settled in 2012.  

In addition Julian led the class actions on behalf of Australian motorists whose cars were affected by the Volkswagen, Audi and Skoda diesel emissions issue. The settlement of those cases resulted in $124 million plus legal costs being paid to more than 40,000 eligible claimants. Among other cases, Julian also worked on the AWB shareholder class action, the OZ Minerals shareholder class action and a cartel class action against Amcor/Visy. Julian also initiated and worked on a class action against the NSW Government over the false imprisonment of children by police, which later settled and resulted in compensation being paid to many children. 

Julian is also a regular presenter and panellist at conferences on class actions practice, procedure and policy issues, and his academic work has been published in The Cambridge Handbook of Class Actions (edited by Brian T Fitzpatrick and Randall S Thomas; 2021) and in the Journal of Personal Injury Law. 

Before joining Maurice Blackburn in December 2007, Julian had four years’ experience as a criminal defence lawyer at the Aboriginal Legal Service in Redfern and Wollongong. He also previously worked as a lawyer at the NSW Crown Solicitor's Office and also spent two years working at the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. 

Angela has over 20 years’ experience in the Insurance Industry during which time she has partnered with many clients and stakeholders to navigate complex risk and insurance challenges on various D&C and PPP Projects in Australia across residential, commercial and infrastructure landscapes.

Angela provides insight into project risks, policy drafting and response to develop risk transfer strategies to protect the return on investment, minimise volatility of revenue streams and ensure financial stability of the project.

With over two decades experience at the New South Wales Bar, David maintains a practice in commercial law, commercial insurance litigation and building and construction / infrastructure litigation. In the sphere of insurance and construction law, he is often briefed in indemnity disputes and disputes concerning the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 1999 (NSW) and the Design and Building Practitioners Act 2020 (NSW).

David has appeared in an extensive list of reported cases. He is routinely briefed in disputes that are complex and factually dense. He has also appeared in seminal cases, including class actions, and has gained considerable experience in insolvency disputes and common law matters. Given his wide range of expertise and multi-disciplinary skill-set, David is also available to appear in family law matters.

David is briefed by a wide range of law firms in his areas of practice, including on behalf of major Australian and international insurers, corporations and individuals. The majority of his work is conducted without a leader, and he often appears with a junior against Senior Counsel. He appears predominately in the Commercial List and the Technology and Construction List in the Equity Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, as well as in the New South Wales Court of Appeal and the Federal Court of Australia.

David has been consistently ranked by his peers in legal directories for his high calibre work in commercial law, construction / infrastructure law and insurance law. He is the only barrister from New South Wales to be recommended in the construction / infrastructure and insurance law categories, demonstrating his unique blend of knowledge and technical skills. David is also available to appear as a Mediator.

Nicholas started his career in legal practice before moving into in-house insurer roles dealing with large Professional Indemnity, Liability and Financial Lines claims with some major Australian insurers over a period of 12 years.

Nicholas then joined reinsurer Gen Re in 2002 where he has been managing a mixed portfolio of large and complex reinsurance claims in Property and Casualty for over 22 years. He is also actively involved with the Australian Insurance Law Association and led the NSW Chapter as President in 2020 and 2021.

Nicholas regularly undertakes claims audits of Gen Re’s insurer clients to provide constructive feedback on claims processes, reserving and management and he also provides strategic advice and guidance to the Gen Re Executive team on all claims related issues affecting Gen Re. In his spare time he enjoys the outdoors and he is a keen skier, meticulous formal gardener and traveller.