Wotton Kearney, Australasia’s leading insurance and risk law firm, has announced the promotion of 34 lawyers across the firm, effective 1 January 2024. This includes 3 new partners, 10 special counsel, 9 senior associates and 12 associates across its offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.

The firm’s promotions are reflective of Wotton Kearney’s ongoing accelerated growth, people-first culture, and investment in nurturing talent, and span some of its key practice areas – general liability, financial lines, health, pro bono, property, energy & infrastructure.

W+K’s new partners are:

  • Cindy Lim, General Liability, Canberra – Cindy is an experienced insurance lawyer who has practised almost exclusively in common law litigation throughout her career. She advises on a broad range of insurance claims and has a particular focus on public liability, professional indemnity and institutional abuse.
  • Gemma Burke, General Liability, Canberra – Gemma has significant experience in defending statutory classes of insurance claims, as well as public liability, medical negligence and historical abuse claims in the ACT, NSW and Victoria. She also has expertise in the class actions space, having spent almost four years working on contamination class actions filed in the Federal Court of Australia.
  • Maryan Lee, General Liability, Sydney – Maryan has over 17 years’ experience in insurance litigation and specialises in complex personal injury, property damage and pollution claims, and is widely regarded in the market for consistently achieving successful outcomes for clients.
    With deep knowledge of the construction & infrastructure industries, Maryan regularly advises large commercial insurers on policy coverage/dual insurance, liability, quantum and contribution in claims including significant domestic and commercial fires, product liability, catastrophic injuries and pollution.

The firm’s other promotions include:

  • Special counsel – Brendan Kennedy (Financial Lines, Sydney), Emmeline Granger (Financial Lines, Melbourne), Eveline Rygorowicz (General Liability, Adelaide), Jesse Pereira (General Liability, Sydney), Jessica Smith (General Liability, Melbourne), Matt O’Donnell (Financial Lines, Brisbane), Rachel Walls (General Liability, Canberra), Samantha Younane (Financial Lines, Melbourne), William Yeo (General Liability, Sydney), Yen Tan (Financial Lines, Sydney).
  • Senior associate – Alexandra Robinson (General Liability, Sydney), Anna Zeltzer (General Liability, Melbourne), Bailey Neate (Property, Sydney), James Gornall (General Liability, Sydney), James Kefford (Financial Lines, Melbourne), Miranda Lakiss (General Liability, Sydney), Nick Darwen (Financial Lines, Sydney), Simon Nickolas (Financial Lines, Sydney), Subashini Sinnan (Financial Lines, Melbourne).
  • Associate – Caley McDonald (General Liability, Brisbane), Declan See (Property, Brisbane), Georgina Irving (General Liability, Adelaide), Ioanne Gianniotis (Property, Sydney), Josh Mills (General Liability, Melbourne), Kapil Bazil (General Liability, Sydney), Keely Gage (Health, Melbourne), Liam Hanley (Property, Brisbane), Michaela Manila (General Liability, Sydney), Olivia Tan (Pro Bono, Sydney), Richard Marshall (Financial Lines, Sydney), Tamaki Brinkworth (General Liability, Perth).

Founded in 2002, these latest promotions take W+K to 79 partners and over 360 lawyers across its nine offices in Australia and New Zealand.