Yvonne Lam

Full Profile

Yvonne is a Partner in Clyde & Co’s corporate group and is based in the Sydney office. She specialises in advising clients on corporate, commercial, and financial services regulatory issues, with a particular focus on the insurance sector as it has evolved over the past decade. Yvonne advises global and domestic insurers, reinsurers, underwriting agencies, brokers, and insurtech ventures on the full business lifecycle—from establishment of operations and regulatory licensing to distribution arrangements, governance, restructures, and mergers and acquisitions, including portfolio transfers. She has acted on landmark transactional matters in the Australian insurance industry and regularly guides clients through complex compliance and risk management challenges.

Her experience includes advising on regulatory investigations and responding to evolving risk and regulatory frameworks. Yvonne is recognised for delivering clear, commercially focused advice in a rapidly changing environment, and has represented clients in a number of regulatory investigations and inquiries conducted by ASIC, APRA and the Financial Services Royal Commission.

She has been a finalist in multiple national awards, including Lawyers Weekly New Partner of the Year (2025) and Women in Law Partner of the Year (2024), and served as the NSW Branch President of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association in 2025.

Experience

• Advising Arch on its acquisition of Westpac Lenders Mortgage Insurance (worth AUD 350 million) 
• Advising on the Australian aspects of Blackstone’s strategic partnership with Resolution Life (worth USD 500 million)
• Advising on the Australian aspects of the merger and integration of the ACE and Chubb businesses (worth USD 29.5 billion) involving regulatory approvals, a portfolio transfer, and management of operational issues.
• Acting for XL Insurance Company SE on the transfer of the AXA general insurance portfolio as part of the global merger of AXA/XL (worth USD 15.3 billion).
• Acting for Berkley Insurance Company in its acquisition of W. R. Berkley Insurance (Europe) Limited (Australian Branch), including the transfer of its entire portfolio.
• Advising Macquarie Life Ltd on the sale and transfer of its life insurance business to Resolution Life Ltd under the Life Insurance Act 1995 (Cth).
• Acting for Swiss Re in the transfer of the insurance and reinsurance business of Swiss Reinsurance Company Ltd, Australia Branch to Swiss Re Asia Pte. Ltd., Australia Branch.
• Acting for an ASX-listed Australian insurance company on strategy for response to Financial Services Royal Commission as a case study for the insurance industry public hearings and concurrent ASIC investigation 
• Drafting bespoke quota-share reinsurance agreements for various global reinsurance companies