We are pleased to announce 25 lawyer promotions in Australia and New Zealand, including five new partners, two special counsel and 13 senior associates, effective 1 July 2022.

In our 20th year, it is wonderful to see Wotton + Kearney continuing to grow so strongly. The promotion of new partners Cassandra Wills (Brisbane), Patrick Thompson (Sydney), Yen Seah (Melbourne), Ronnie Mok (Brisbane) and Edward Burrell (Sydney) adds to our growth story. We now have 62 partners, including Marie-Clare Elder, Claudine Watson-Kyme, Peter Leman, Caroline Laband and Misha Henaghan, who joined in January 2022.

Cassandra Wills and Patrick Thompson are the latest partners to join our General Liability team.

Cassandra specialises in public liability claims, routinely advising on coverage, liability and recovery prospects under various policies of insurance. She has extensive experience dealing with personal injury and historical abuse claims under both PIPA and the WCRA.

Patrick specialises in public sector litigation and has an extensive background in professional indemnity and public liability claims, including assisting clients to navigate the sensitivities of the abuse claims sector. He acts primarily on behalf of government entities, including police, health, ambulance and child welfare agencies.

Our Financial Lines team is also being boosted with the promotion of Yen Seah and Ronnie Mok.

Yen’s practice focuses on claims arising under directors and officers, professional indemnity, and management liability policies of insurance. She has extensive experience in acting as coverage and monitoring counsel in large-scale, high value litigation, including shareholder class actions.

Ronnie is known for his expertise in professional indemnity, management liability, and directors and officers liability. With broad industry experience, he manages large-scale disputes that often involve multiple parties and stakeholders, and complex liability and quantum issues.

Our Major Loss Property team is being further strengthened with Edward Burrell’s promotion. Edward, who previously worked in-house at a Tier 1 D&C contractor, specialises in coverage advice and claims strategies for mega-losses and other large-scale litigation in the property and construction sectors.

Congratulations also to our other promoted lawyers:

• Special Counsel – Christy Mellifont (Melbourne, Financial Lines) and Karren Mo (Melbourne, Financial Lines).
• Senior Associate – Jessica Chapman (Sydney, Financial Lines), Maddison Fairthorne (Melbourne, General Liability), Isobel Howie (Sydney, General Liability), Lily Kidman (Sydney, General Liability), Petra Kolovos (Melbourne, Financial Lines), David Lucas (Sydney, Property, Energy & Infrastructure), Julia Marchesi (Melbourne, Financial Lines), Connor Molloy (Sydney, General Liability), Sarah Sackville (Sydney, General Liability), Natalie Sinclair (Sydney, General Liability), Jeremy Thomson (Wellington, Financial Lines & General Liability), Vicki Thorpe (Melbourne, General Liability) and Kristyn Winner (Sydney, Property, Energy & Infrastructure).
• Associate – Jemma Callanan (Sydney, General Liability), Kaila Hart (Sydney, Financial Lines), Andrew Salinas (Sydney, Financial Lines), David Smith (Auckland, Financial Lines) and Louis Van Bergen (Perth, General Liability).