Paul Graham

Paul is a Special Counsel in the Insurance team at Kennedys in Perth. He is an experienced insurance lawyer and commercial litigator with expertise in a range of insurance classes, including professional indemnity, management liability, directors' and officers' liability, property and business interruption, maritime, defence of regulatory prosecutions, and construction claims.

Paul has practised in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Australia, WA, predominantly in the areas of commercial, insurance, and marine litigation. Paul has considerable experience in acting for insurers on matters of policy interpretation and coverage advice.

Although he prides himself on a strong track record of excellent early-negotiated resolutions, Paul’s experience includes successful litigation at all judicial levels, from first instance through to appeal before the High Court.

Work highlights

• Advising the construction works insurer of an insolvent national construction firm on policy response to claims exceeding $5m arising from the groundwater inundation of a basement excavation during early works in the construction of an aged care facility. The claims under the policy were ultimately abandoned.
• Acting for a mutual and its local government Members in relation to business interruption when one of three major recycling plants in Perth was destroyed in a fire, resulting in substantial disruption to several local governments’ ability to deliver their resource recycling targets and increased cost of working in the millions in each instance. Resolutions were negotiated that saved both the mutual and its Members several millions of dollars.
• Advising insurers on cover (and assisting insurers in subsequent AFCA proceedings) for substantial extra costs of reinstatement for fire safety upgrade works required to a large residential strata complex in the course of reinstating extensive storm damage. That aspect of the claim was declined and the declinature was upheld by AFCA.
• Acting for a large national marine services company in arresting two vessels that had been left uncrewed in cold lay-up on the client’s cyclone moorings and owners refused to move them. The vessels were arrested through a novel application permitting service without attendance on the vessels due to concerns for the safety of the Marshall and futility of service aboard an uncrewed vessel (creating a useful pandemic precedent, and for autonomous vessels in future), moved to alternative moorings through court directions, and sold.
• Acting for a P&I Club and its member, the sub-charterer of a vessel at the end of a long charter party chain, in novel areas of title to bunkers and interference with contractual relations arising from the withdrawal of the vessel higher up the charter party chain. Litigation was pursued to successful conclusion in the Federal Court through to the High Court (where Paul appeared as junior counsel).
• Defending the former director of a livestock farming company, on instructions from his D&O insurer, against 27 environmental prosecution charges, which were successfully reduced to a single charge through submissions on the law and evidence that maintaining the balance of the charges was contrary to the prosecuting agency’s policy considerations.     

Qualifications/Education

• Bachelor of Arts (Law, English, Psychology) | University of Natal, Durban | 1992
• Bachelor of Laws | University of Natal, Durban | 1994

Admissions

• South Africa | 1997
• England & Wales | 2003
• Supreme Court of New South Wales, Australia | 2006
• Supreme Court of Western Australia, Australia | 2007
• High Court of Australia | 2007