Hall & Wilcox

Insurance

Ilona has more than 15 years’ experience with her practice focusing on both statutory and common law claims across both Victorian and Tasmanian workcover legislation. She has acted for both agent insured and self-insured clients that operate in a range of industries, including manufacturing, retail and banking. Ilona also has experience in acting for clients in the commonwealth compensation jurisdiction.

With an approach that addresses each claim holistically, Ilona ensures that her clients’ business needs are reflected, whilst also gaining an understanding of the industries in which they operate. She recognises the benefits of early resolution of workers’ compensation claims without resorting to protracted litigation for both her clients and the injured worker. With this in mind, Ilona’s strategy is to be proactive and negotiate settlements as early as possible.

A strong team player, Ilona enjoys working alongside her clients, and managing claims and strategy collaboratively, which often includes liaising with different client representatives of a particular self-insurer. Clients often call upon her to give verbal strategic advice prior to the lodgment of a claim and during the lifecycle of a claim for compensation. Having insight into the operations of a client can assist with putting the right strategy into place early on and in some cases in anticipation of a claim being lodged.

Understanding her client’s frustrations and common problems they faced led to the development of CLEAR. CLEAR stands for common law early assessment review and is a web based application that Ilona designed to assist clients identify common law claims early and to be proactive rather than reactive in the defence of such claims. Ilona won the WorkSafe Innovation Award for CLEAR in 2019.

Ilona has experience with secondments and assisting self-insured clients with establishing processes and systems in relation to day to day claims management as well as providing strategic claims management advice.

Ilona was a winner of the Australasian Lawyer’s Elite Women 2021 which recognises the top 50 Leading Women in Law. She has also been recognised in The Best Lawyers in Australia every year since 2021 and is a Recommended Lawyer in the Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2022 in Insurance Law. In 2020, Ilona was a Partner of the Year – Biglaw finalist in Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Awards.