Full Profile
He is one of the founding partners of Clyde & Co’s Australian operation having joined from one of Australia’s leading law firms. He is the former head of that firm’s insurance & reinsurance practice group, having been involved in its growth and development from a small insurance practice in Perth to a national and regional force in the industry.
He litigates disputes on behalf of insurers and reinsurers in virtually all areas of insurance, but with a particular emphasis on financial lines, directors and officers, professional indemnity, property and reinsurance, advising clients, partners and legal staff on complex, high profile insurance issues. He has been involved in many of the country’s leading pieces of litigation, arbitration and mediation.
He is a leader in alternative dispute resolution and was an inaugural member of the NADRAC Council advising the Federal Attorney General on alternatives to litigation. He is the past national chairman and a current board member of Leading Experts in Alternative Dispute Resolution (LEADR), an honorary LEADR life member and an accredited mediator on LEADR’s advanced panel.
Oscar emigrated from South Africa to Australia in 1986, having formerly headed up the insurance and reinsurance practice of one of South Africa’s leading law firms.
Oscar is recognised by Best Lawyers 2021 as a leading lawyer in Insurance Law and Litigation.
Experience
- Royal commission – Advising in respect of Gen Re’s involvement in the royal commission enquiring into the collapse of HIH/FAI
- Claims made following royal commission – Advising Gen Re in relation to the claims made by the liquidator of HIH/FAI following the royal commission and representing them throughout the litigation and the successful negotiation of a mediated settlement
- Reinsurance – Advising National Indemnity in relation to reinsurance claims arising in relation to the collapse of HIH/FAI
- Property – Acting for one of Australia’s leading insurers in litigation against its insured in a large claim against multiple parties following a fire at the premises of Optus
- Construction – Acting for one of Australia’s leading insurers in litigation against its insured engineer in respect of the design failure of a SAG mill at one of Western Australia’s largest gold mines
- US inquiry – Instructed to investigate and advise on the operations of a global insurer pursuant to the Spitzer inquiry
