Michelle specialises in the financial lines of commercial insurance, particularly complex and multi-party litigated and unlitigated disputes. She has over 15 years' professional experience gained in leading national and international insurance practices in coverage, monitoring and defence work.
Experience
Michelle advises Australian and London insurers, reinsurers and insureds in all aspects of indemnity and liability in contested claims against ASX-listed and private companies and their controllers, as well as in ancillary regulatory investigations. Michelle is regularly involved in high-profile securities class actions, public inquiries and examinations in the Supreme and Federal Courts in the context of misconduct and/or corporate collapses in the financial services industry.
Michelle has acted for a broad range of professionals, including accountants, brokers, financial advisers, mortgage originators, solicitors, engineers, real estate agents, valuers, fund managers and trustees. With an acute sensitivity to the legal, commercial and reputational risks for both insurers and insureds, Michelle has a resolution-focused approach balanced with determined advocacy where required.
Michelle's areas of expertise include:
- professional indemnity
- directors & officers' liability
- class actions
- financial institutions
- Royal Commissions.
Career highlights
Michelle's experience includes:
- advising the lead insurer of a major supermarket chain in a claim by shareholders for alleged continuous disclosure obligations and misleading and/or deceptive conduct
- advising the lead insurer of a casino operator in connection with regulatory enforcement and securities class actions regarding alleged contraventions of anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing laws
- advising insurers of a major financial institution in connection with claims for excess charging in credit applications associated with flexible commissions schemes
- advising reinsurers of major superannuation trustees in connection with allegedly conflicted remuneration
- acting for a major bookmaker on a subrogated recovery action against a major accounting firm for allegedly negligent auditing services in connection with an acquisition of an Australian subsidiary of an international betting giant
- advising insurers of an underwriting agency in a multi-million dollar fraud and fidelity claim.