Read a roundup of activities around the AILA-NZILA branches

Queensland

Brisbane hosted the Geoff Masel Memorial lecture in July.

More than 50 guests enjoyed the presentation by Ian Enright. The crowd was a good cross section of the insurance industry, with many younger members attending.
Feedback included:
• Outstanding
• Really interesting speaker on the history of insurance. Thank you.
• One of the most insightful lectures I have been to.
• Very interesting and unique area (ie the history/background to the insurance market)
• Very knowledgeable and engaging
• Fabulous speaker
• Very enjoyable
• Very scholarly and interesting
• Excellent speaker, very informative and entertaining
On August 18, barrister Kevin Holyoak presented a breakfast seminar on proportionate liability.

More than 90 legal and industry people attended the seminar at the Queensland Law Society.

Mr Holyoak said the High Court’s judgement in Selig v Wealthsure essentially found the apportionment of liability provisions of the relevant acts applied only to contraventions of those acts and not to other forms of breaches, exposing deep-pocket defendants and their insurers to the entirety of adverse judgements.

The court also ordered costs against the non-party insurer, which should be a warning to insurers who wished to assume conduct of trials and appeals on behalf of their insureds.

It is integral that lawyers and insurance professionals have a thorough understanding of the proportionate liability regime and the impact a decision like Selig v Wealthsure is likely to have on risk transfer strategies, claims management and reserving.

Pictured with Mr Holyoak (centre) are AILA Qld committee members, from left, David Jesser, Geoff Russell, Melanie Quixley and Rebecca Stevens.

On November 26, the Qld branch will hold a seminar and Christmas cocktails. Peter Axelrod, Special Counsel at Meridian Lawyers, will speak on: Drones: new rules, new challenges. Flight rules, safety, privacy and insurance. Toy, tool, annoyance and weapon: current issues and cautious forecasts.

New South Wales

It has been a busy time for the NSW sub-committees.

The Twilight Seminars have been an outstanding success. The August 5 seminar - Good faith and claims handling - was a “sell out”. Considering the size of Minter Ellison’s new premises, it was quite a feat.

The last in the series was Current trends in shareholder class actions: Issues for D&O Insurers, with UNSW Associate Professor Michael Legg speaking and Chubb’s Michael Park commentating.

Congratulations to the sub-committee for giving members an excellent range of topics and speakers for the 2015 series. Thanks also to Minter Ellison for providing the venue.

The Young Professionals held their first event for the year, Into the wild, at the Ivy. More than 400 YPs enjoyed a great night of networking. Congratulations to the sub-committee for arranging such a fabulous event.

The YP education sub-committee held at seminar examining critical thinking. It was well attended and received. Use of an innovative audience participation tool, Poll Everywhere, was widely embraced and added to audience engagement.

The YP education sub-committee aims to provide seminars tailored to insurance industry YPs with topics on innovative concepts.

Law for insurers - Busted by the boom – on September 16 aims to give YPs some basic aspects of law and a little of the legal world, particularly as it relates to their insurance work. The seminar is based on a scenario and will consider limitation periods, defences, cross claims, the Uniform Civil Procedures Act, and more. It will be from 4.30pm to 5.30 pm at Wotton + Kearney’s office, following by networking drinks.

The NSW AGM is on October 22 at Norton Rose. NSW Supreme Court Justice David Hammerschlag will speak to members, followed by a cocktail party.

The NSW branch’s Ron Shorter Award winner, Divya Pahawa, from Meridian Lawyers, and the Victorian winner, Alexander Morell, from Colin Biggers and Paisley, will repeat their presentations at the National Conference in Melbourne in October.

Tasmania

Thirty-seven attendees enjoyed a successful joint seminar with Unisearch on Friday 19 June 2015.

Guest speaker was John Arneil, Group Executive of Unisearch Expert Opinion Services.

Friday 7 August was a workers' compensation masterclass. A top class panel of speakers presented a range of topics on workers' compensation in Tasmania.

With the dust settled on 2010 and 2012 amendments to the Act, it was time to take stock and consider where workers’ compensation was at.

Presenters were:
• Steve Carey, Chief Commissioner, Workers’ Rehabilitation and Compensation Tribunal
• Nick Sweeney, partner at Page Seager Lawyers
• Leigh Mackey, partner at Ogilvie Jennings Lawyers
• Raymond Benson, principal at M&K Dobson Mitchell Allport Lawyers
• Mathew Wilkins, partner at Page Seager Lawyers
• Cameron Blight, Health and Wellbeing Adviser, WorkSafe Tasmania
• Sandra Taglierl, barrister at Derwent & Tamar Chambers

Chief Commissioner Carey concluded the masterclass with an hour-long interactive session. It was a wonderful opportunity to hear from him outside the tribunal setting.

A wind-down session with drinks and canapes followed the masterclass.

Western Australia

Members in Western Australia were treated to another masterclass organised by Greg Pynt and presented on 22 May 2015.

Speakers were high quality and the day left attendees with food for thought and some insight into the state of insurance law in the UK after an interesting two hander with Professor James Davey and Professor Rob Merkin.

The WA committee was delighted with the response to a women-only function on 12 June. More than 100 of Perth’s female legal and insurance community enjoyed the networking opportunity and a motivating talk on improving gender differences.

The speaker, retired District Court Judge Antionette Kennedy, was uniquely placed to comment on the roles of women in the insurance and legal industries. She was WA’s first female judge. Her anecdotes were a reminder of the 1970s and 1980s gender inequality and that feminism is not a dirty word when it comes to that last push to achieve equal employment opportunities and salary rates for males and females.

A July breakfast seminar was presented by barrister David Clyne and occupational physician Dr Brian Dare on applying and interpreting Workcover WA’s whole person impairment assessments. The assessments are referenced to the AMA Guidelines for Permanent Impairment fifth edition and have been part of the WA workers’ compensation scheme since 2005. Interestingly there have been only a handful of cases testing the relevant level of impairment.

Victoria

AILA Victoria is gearing up for the Sporting Chance National Conference on 14-16 October, however that has not detracted from the busy annual program and opportunities for Victorian members to participate.

June and July saw successful events such as Spotlight on Lloyd’s, presented by Chris Mackinnon and hosted by Thompson Geer before a full house.

There was a similar reception for finalists of the Ron Shorter Award, hosted by CBP. Congratulations to finalists Danielle Blaschuk, of Catholic Church Insurances, Laura Gaffey, of Gilchrist Connell, and CBP’s Alexander Morell for their incredible performances. Well done Alex for winning the award. For more details, see the AILA president’s message.

Seminars in September and November will cover topics including the Victorian Workcover Authority, the Transport Accident Commission and a Year in Review.

All eyes will be on the flagship event for the year, the National Conference. Don’t forget to register as it is a conference not to be missed.