Alison Elmes

Special Counsel | Melbourne, Australia
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Profile

Alison is a Special Counsel in Kennedys’ Insurance team in Melbourne. She has over 20 years’ experience of providing strategic advice to a broad range of Australian and global insurer clients in Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia.

Alison specialises in complex, multi-party and high value professional indemnity, management liability, construction, directors and officers claims, as well as general liability, recovery, catastrophic injury claims, coronial inquiries, historical child abuse, medical negligence and allied health claims. She is also engaged for coverage advice work, and has represented both individual and corporate insureds in regulatory and professional disciplinary matters.

Alison has managing litigation across many jurisdictions, including the Supreme (including the Court of Appeal) and County Courts of Victoria, the Federal Court and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), as well as matters in New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.

Alison has also held a number of in house roles, including as a senior claims specialist and in house claims counsel for a large commercial insurer, and has secondment experience including as Claims Portfolio Manager at the Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA) and most recently as Head of Claims for VMIA. She is also a sessional member of VCAT and appointed to hear cases in the Building, Residential Tenancies, Civil, Owners Corporation and Human Rights lists of VCAT.

Qualifications and admissions

Qualifications:

  • Bachelor of Arts (Hons) and Bachelor of Laws | The University of Western Australia

Admissions:

  • Supreme Court of Western Australia | 1999
  • Supreme Court of New South Wales | 2003
  • Supreme Court of Victoria | 2005
  • Federal Court of Australia | 2005
  • High Court of Australia | 2005

Industry:

  • Member of AILA and APIG

Work highlights

  • Defending proceedings in the Federal Court brought against an insured financial advisor who was sued by former clients for advice provided in relation to a mezzanine finance scheme. The proceedings were successfully defended to judgment.
  • Providing extensive coverage advice to an insurer under a contract works policy. The insured commenced proceedings against the insurer for the total limit of indemnity under the insurance policy (in excess of AUD50 million), and the insurer denial was successfully defended to judgment.
  • Representing a national firm of commercial plumbers sued in a multi-party Supreme Court dispute over the alleged failure of copper piping in a mixed hotel and residential complex.
  • Acting for an insured architect who was the subject of ACCC enforcement proceedings. A negotiated outcome was achieved with the ACCC which was approved by the Federal Court, and which reduced and contained the potential exposure of the architect (and its insurer) to significant fines and other penalties, and legal costs.
  • Acting for an insured director of a not for profit organisation against whom it was alleged there had been the misappropriation of public funds.
  • Advising a large insurer on complex coverage issues arising out of claims made by policy holders sued in Class Action proceedings in the Federal Court.

Services

Sectors