Raylee Hartwell

Partner | Sydney, Australia
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Profile

Raylee is Partner in Kennedys’ Sydney office, where she brings over two decades’ experience in insurance law and litigation with a special interest in professional indemnity and medical malpractice.

Raylee is equally adept in both low-value, high frequency claims and high-value, complex, multi-party class actions and well known for early triage, particularly assessing her clients’ liability, appropriateness of their joinder and whether to settle or contest. She is recognized for her sensitivity to insureds’ needs and appreciates that litigation is a highly stressful time, particularly for those who are inexperienced. She understands the importance of minimising reputational damage. She is also highly experienced in regulatory complaints and coronial inquests.

Her clients include Australian and International Insurers, ASX-listed companies, including the largest private hospital groups in Australia, aged care facilities and medical centres and pathology laboratories, as well as some of Australia’s largest insurers. Raylee is the lawyer of choice for a number of insurers and private hospital groups and is frequently with into policies, particularly scheme arrangements.

Raylee presents regularly at conferences on a range of dispute resolution, insurance and risk management topics. Her presentations include expert evidence, insurance issues for the construction industry, the duty of medical practitioners to warn and issues arising from catastrophic claims in insurance.

Raylee is a member of AILA and the Association for Women in Insurance.

Raylee also contributed to the fourth edition of Kennedys’ Global Legal Handbook, one of our most popular guides, which outlines the main legal and procedural issues that case handlers may encounter when dealing with claims across 53 jurisdictions globally.

Raylee Hartwell is a go-to contact for professional indemnity and clinical negligence claims.
The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021

Related articles

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2023 Guide to Australian Insurance & Reinsurance Laws and Regulations

25/05/2023

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22/12/2022

News

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13/10/2022

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Market recognition

2022

  • Leading Individual for 'Insurance (Australia)'
    The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2022

2021

  • Leading Individual and Recommended Lawyer for 'Insurance (Australia)'
    "Raylee Hartwell is a go-to contact for professional indemnity and clinical negligence claims."
    The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021
  • Recommended Lawyer for 'Dispute Resolution: Litigation (Australia)'
    The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2021

2020

  • Notable practitioner for 'Insurance defence (Australia)'
    "Raylee Hartwell stands out for her expertise in the professional indemnity sphere in general and in that of medical malpractice in particular, offering extensive experience in the handling of a variety of clinical negligence, D&O and general liability claims."
    Chambers Asia Pacific 2020
  • Recommended Lawyer for 'Insurance (Australia)'
    The Legal 500 Asia Pacific 2020

2018

  • Leading Individual for “Insurance” (band 4)
    Client notes that she is “available at all times, approachable and always in absolute command over proceedings.”
    Chambers Asia Pacific 2018

2016

  • Recommended Lawyer for “Insurance”
    “Raylee Hartwell is a “tenacious litigator”.
    The legal 500 Asia pacific 2016

Awards

Work highlights

  • Acting for various aged care providers in litigated and unlitigated claims and complaints and coronial matters, many of which are confidential, high-profile cases, widely reported in the media
  • Medical malpractice claims in a variety of jurisdictions, including highly complex Supreme Court matters which have gained significant media attention.
  • Acting in one of the leading cases in Australia concerning the ownership of medical records between a facility, a patient and a medical practitioner.
  • Acting for an aged care facility for civil claims arising from the murder of two residents by an employee.
  • Acting for an economic research group and its insurer in landmark Federal Court proceedings, relating to traffic volume forecasting work conducted by AECOM on behalf of RiverCity Motorway Group owner operators of the “Clem7” tunnel in Brisbane. The matter settled in May 2016. Our client did not contribute financially to the settlement.
  • Acting for Australian insurers on several high profile s.6 cases before the NSW Supreme Court, including one case involving an accountant who was named in the Project Wickenby tax investigations and another involving unauthorised neck manipulation performed by a health practitioner.
  • Acting for Executive Directors in one of Australia’s highest profile insolvent trading cases arising from the collapse of a significant mining group. Our clients were ultimately released from the proceedings, without cost.
  • Acting for a geotechnical engineering company in significant property damage and personal injury claims arising from the collapse of a cofferdam, and in the associated WorkCover prosecution. This matter became the leading case on the interpretation of insured vs insured clauses found in ISR policies.
  • Acting for architects/design managers in relation to significant claims arising from the Kogarah gas explosion and the defence of the associated WorkCover prosecution. Judgment was entered in the insured’s favour.

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