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We are pleased to announce that we are continuing our strategic growth, expanding our operations in Australia with the addition of a new office in Melbourne and a new team led by lateral hire partner, Michael Kavanagh.
The Melbourne office will complement our Sydney office which opened in 2006 and increases our footprint in the Asia Pacific region.
We currently operate a national practice from Sydney, including acting for several key clients in Melbourne. The new office places us in a much stronger position to support clients that run claims and claims teams in multiple jurisdictions.
A number of our significant local and global clients are in Melbourne and we are very excited about working more closely with them. The addition of a local team will give clients access to a broader range of skills and additional resources particularly in high growth areas like casualty, liability, cyber and insurtech.
Michael, who becomes our eighth lateral partner hire this year, spent the previous 16 years at Lander & Rogers where he led their Casualty team. Michael has a proven reputation in casualty work, advising on litigated and non-litigated claims for insurers, claims handlers, brokers, insureds and loss adjusters. His clients include some of the world’s largest insurers, energy, property and utility companies.
Michael will be joined in Melbourne by an experienced team including special counsel Nicholas Blackmore, who will transfer from our Hong Kong office. Nicholas, who qualified in Australia in 2000, advises on information technology, commercial and regulatory matters for insurers and large corporates, including in the manufacturing and logistics, and media and communications sectors. His expertise includes insurtech, cyber risk and data protection and regulatory advice.
Michael and Nicholas will be joined by two senior associates, Emily Unger and Uki Murphy, and lawyer Angela Woodward – all of whom join from Lander & Rogers with general insurance and personal injury experience. Emily specialises in acting on behalf of insurers in casualty claims, with a focus on personal injury; Uki’s areas of expertise include public liability, including personal injury and property damage, and policy coverage advice; and Angela predominantly practices personal injury and medical negligence law.
The Melbourne office will become the seventh office to be added to our global network this year following the addition of five US offices as part of our merger with US firm Carroll McNulty & Kull in May, and an office opening in Mexico City in January.
This latest office opening reinforces our commitment to the Australian market by expanding our capacity to service national clients, and by recruiting talented and experienced insurance specialists who have the industry expertise that our clients demand. The expansion of the Australian practice aligns with the firm’s global strategy to be the go-to firm for the insurance sector and to provide the best on the ground capability where our clients need it.
Matt Andrews added: “I am delighted to welcome Michael, Nicholas, Emily, Uki and Angela to Kennedys, to help us build what I am confident will quickly become a leading insurance practice in Victoria, complementing our office in Sydney.
“We are planning to grow our Australian practice further to mirror the broad range of areas we cover in Sydney and around the world, and this is an exciting first step.”
The Melbourne office will be located at: 140 William Street, Melbourne, VIC 3000.
In the first half of this year, we followed a formal association in Italy with an office opening in Mexico. We most recently completed a merger with US firm Carroll, McNulty & Kull and announced another merger with UK commercial litigation specialists berg.
Insurance and reinsurance
Australia