Full Profile

John has extensive experience across various areas of insurance law.  In particular, he is recognised by the local and London insurance markets for his strong professional indemnity practice, acting for a wide range of professionals across various industries.

He is frequently sought out as both coverage and defence adviser for complex directors and officers and financial institutions claims.  Of note, he has recently advised a major Australian stockbroker on establishing a redress scheme for investors who have defrauded by a rogue trader. He is also advising a financial advisory firm on its exposure to over 2,000 individual claims.

In the class action space, John is currently acting in defence and monitoring counsel roles in some of Australia's most prominent securities, D&O and general liability class actions.

John is also a recognised leader in the cyber security and cyber incident response space, with one of Australia’s leading cyber response teams. His team have advised on over 700 cyber incidents in recent times, including on some of the most high profile and complex incidents, both locally and globally.

John is a core member of the firm's resilience team.  The team delivers solutions to clients with the aim of building organisational resilience

Clients say John is accessible, easy to work with and always provides a pathway through complex issues. He is recognised by Legal 500 2021 as a 'Next Generation Partner' for insurance and is recommended for Class Actions and Litigation; Best Lawyers in Australia 2021 for insurance law; and Doyle's Guide 2021 as a leading lawyer in Professional Indemnity (NSW). John has recently been named as a recipient of a Five Star Excellence Award in the category: Insurance Lawyers by Insurance Business and Australasian Lawyer.

John is recognised by Insurance Business Australia as a 5-Star Insurance Lawyer.

Experience

• D&O: Defence - acting for a number of directors in relation to the collapse of the Forge Group.

• Securities Class Action: Coverage - acting as coverage counsel in a securities class action brought against the directors of an ASX listed telecommunications company alleging misleading and deceptive conduct in various capital raisings.

• EPL Class Action: Coverage - advising on coverage in an EPL class action alleging mis-categorisation of their employment status and sham contracting.

• General Liability Class Action: Coverage - acting as coverage counsel in the class action arising from the detainment of refugees on Manus Island.

• D&O Class Action: Coverage - advising on the availability of indemnity to the directors of an international construction conglomerate relating to a Securities Class Action and an AFP investigation into allegations of bribery arising from the construction of gas pipeline in Iraq.

• D&O Class Action: Coverage - advising insurers on the availability of indemnity to a corporate advisory firm for a Securities Class Action arising from the merger of two of Australia's largest mining entities in 2008.

• Professional indemnity: Insurance brokers - advising a global broker in relation to its potential exposure arising from a claim made under an ISR policy for property damage and business interruption losses in excess of AUD 180 million.

• Professional indemnity: Engineers - acting for architects, engineers and surveyors in defending negligence claims in relation to a number of infrastructure projects.

• Professional disciplinary - acting for solicitors, barristers, accountants, auditors and health professionals in relation to proceedings before their regulators.

• Professional indemnity: Financial planners - advising a financial advisory firm on its exposure to over 2,000 individual claims.

• Financial Services - advising on the availability of indemnity to one of Australia's largest banks for a claim brought by ex-customers alleging duress and mismanagement of the sale process of their shares seeking damages in excess of AUD 2 billion.

• Copyright infringement - advising insurers on a copyright and patent infringement case relating to a pharmaceutical devise which is said to have given rise to losses in excess of AUD 20 million.

• Cyber: Incident response – advising an ASX listed company in response to a high profile data breach which involved investigations and inquiries by regulators.

• Cyber: Incident response – advising renowned Australian technology company following a network hacking incident that resulted in the theft of its entire customer database including both personal and financial information.

• Cyber risk review – advising a large charitable organisation on a comprehensive cyber risk review encompassing over 1,200 individuals sites.

• Cyber: Recovery – advising a large utility company in a recovery action against IT vendor following network interruption incident.