Current practice
Michael is the co-head of Freehills’ Insurance Solutions and Product Liability practices.
Michael is a commercial litigator who has successfully represented clients involved in some of Australia’s largest disputes, as well as regularly providing front end corporate insurance and dispute resolution advice. His areas of expertise include:
- insurance coverage disputes, policy interpretation and negotiation
- directors and officers issues, mass torts and civil liability
- class actions, product liability and regulatory issues (especially concerning the financial services industry), and
- insurance and risk solutions for major projects and transactions.
Experience
Michael has advised some of Australia’s best-known organisations, including a number of ASX top 20 companies, as well as having represented clients involved in some of Australia’s largest and most complex corporate collapses, crises and disasters. Of these, the following recent examples have been reported upon publicly:
HIH Insurance Ltd—Michael led Freehills’ legal team which represented the directors and officers’ insurers of the HIH Group, a role which included representing the Chairman before the HIH Royal Commission, as well as other regulatory and litigation proceedings arising out of what is reported to be Australia’s largest corporate collapse.
ABC Learning —Michael advises and represents the Non-Executive Directors following the collapse of this company.
Ensham Resources—Michael represents Ensham in relation to its insurance recovery efforts, following the devastating floods in northern Queensland in January 2008.
United Medical Protection—Michael acted on behalf of the provisional liquidator of UMP, both in the successful negotiation of a bail out package from the Commonwealth Government and the rare result in which UMP traded out of provisional liquidation.
Moomba Gas Explosion—Michael represented and advised Santos in relation to the 2004 explosion which affected gas supplies throughout the Eastern States and the recovery proceedings which led to a full payout by its insurers.
Lend Lease—Michael regularly advises and represents the Lend Lease group of companies in relation to its insurance, risk transfer and liability issues, including the World Trade Centre clean-up litigation and the successful resolution of arbitration proceedings under a US $1 billion insurance policy.
Professional background
Michael holds a Bachelor of Jurisprudence and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Western Australia and a Master of the Science of Law from Stanford University.
Michael has acted both as a solicitor and barrister in commercial litigation and insurance disputes before State Supreme and Federal Courts of Australia, as well as being an accredited mediator of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and LEADR.
Michael is a past national director and Western Australia chairman of the Australian Insurance Lawyers Association (AILA) and is a current national director of LEADR (Association of Dispute Resolvers). He is also a board member of the RAND Corporation’s Institute for Civil Justice Board, as well as a member of the Federation of Insurance and Corporate Counsel
Michael has been rated in Band 1 for Insurance individuals by Chambers Global (2008 and 2009) and as a ‘leading individual’ in Insurance and Litigation by Asia-Pacific Legal 500. He was also awarded a ‘Best Lawyer International’ award for 2008 and 2009 in the Alternative Dispute Resolution, Insurance and Litigation categories. Clients describe him as ‘an excellent lawyer—one of Australia’s strongest in the insurance sector’ (Chambers Global, 2009).
