RCEP - Australia

Wotton + Kearney

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Wotton + Kearney is recommended for general liability, financial lines and complex property, energy and construction claims. It’s also growing its capabilities in cyber insurance, general liability and class actions with the recruitment of Amanda Beattie (from King & Wood Mallesons) and Cheryl Phillips (from Minter Ellison), both in early 2023. Name partner and chief executive David Kearney and Cain Jackson, who is head of financial lines, are the group's key senior partners. Andrew Moore is an expert in D&O and financial institution claims, management liability issues and environment claims. Charles Simon is well placed to advise on catastrophic losses, and building and construction-related incidents, as is Adam Chylek for indemnity disputes.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘The team collaborate well and the partners allow access to associate lawyers. This is important for development and future pipeline of legal professionals.’

Key clients

  • AIG
  • Allianz
  • AXA XL
  • Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance
  • Chubb Insurance Australia
  • DUAL Australia
  • Liberty Specialty Markets (LSM)
  • Zurich Australian Insurance

Work highlights

  • Acting for the Sydney Olympic Park Authority in the Opal Tower class action proceedings.
  • Acting for a large global market of more than 20 insurers that provided the Contract Works project insurance for the construction of the onshore facilities for Inpex’s Ichthys LNG project in Darwin.
  • Defending representative proceedings brought in the Supreme Court of NSW on behalf of potentially thousands of owners of residential lots at Spring Farm, NSW.

Lawyers

Leading individuals

Cain Jackson

Cain Jackson

Wotton + Kearney

Cain is the Managing Partner of Clients + Markets. He has a particular focus on high value, complex D&O, professional indemnity and financial institutions coverage and defence work. Large multi-national insurers, the Lloyd’s insurance market and ASX-listed financial services groups engage Cain for his concise, commercial and strategic advice. He has been described by industry commentators as “one of the most impressive people” operating within the insurance industry who also praise the way he handles D&O, liability and professional indemnity issues and his “huge involvement in class action matters.” Cain has acted in many high-profile class actions, including TPT v Myer, the first securities class action to run to judgement in Australia. He is currently retained by primary insurers to advise on some of Australia’s largest securities class actions as well as acting in a defence or coverage role in numerous high-profile directors and officers and professional indemnity claims.

David Kearney

David Kearney

Wotton + Kearney

David Kearney co-founded the firm in 2002. The vision then was to be the pre-eminent insurance law firm in Australasia and whilst W+K has moved into aligned markets, the firm remains on track to achieve that goal. As W+K’s CEP, he leads the firm in its response to transforming insurance and legal services industries. He practised insurance law for over 25 years in most classes of commercial insurance. Recognised internationally for his expertise, David has been ranked as the only Eminent Practitioner in insurance law in Australia by Chambers Asia Pacific since 2016. The Legal 500 Asia Pacific has consistently rated David as a Leading Individual and Insurance Business Magazine has again included David in its highly regarded annual “Hot List” of key influencers in the sector. David is passionate about continuing W+K’s development as a successful legal business. In 2019, he engineered the firm’s move to a corporate structure, mindful of the investment required to succeed in a transforming market for legal services. In 2022, he led a partial sale of the business to private equity firm Straight Bat, a first for legal services in this region. Apart from the success of the firm he co-founded, David is most proud of the quality of talent which has progressed through the business to partial ownership, and of W+K’s Pro Bono and Responsible Business Program, Community Footprint.

Andrew Moore

Andrew Moore

Wotton + Kearney

Andrew has worked in the insurance sector since 2010 when he joined the Auckland team. Andrew has completed secondments with three international insurers assisting their Contracts, Outsourcing and Data Protection team and their claims teams respectively. Andrew specialises in first party losses advising local and international insurers and reinsurers on complex indemnity disputes in New Zealand and the South Pacific including Fiji. He also regularly advises on subrogated recoveries. Andrew has been recognised as a ‘Next Generation Lawyer’ by The Legal 500 Asia-Pacific since 2016, an ‘Up and Coming’ individual in Chambers Asia-Pacific 2022 and was named in the inaugural NZ Lawyer Rising Stars list for 2020.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

David Kearney, Cain Jackson, Charles Simon, Adam Chylek

Other key lawyers

Amanda Beattie, Cheryl Phillips, Andrew Moore