Read a roundup of activities around the AILA and NZILA chapters

New South Wales

The NSW chapter is well into its social and educational offering for the year. 

The Twilight seminar committee has completed its successful series. This year's seminars were:

• Mann on insurance law developments and trends
• Tort law temperature – a casualty update
• Mitigation costs cover: current market practice
• From Re City Equitable Life to safe harbours – themes in development of the law for directors & officers
• Third-party claims against insurers: the new landscape
• The talking book – professional liability update

Thanks to Twilight committee members for their hard work in producing such high-quality, informative seminars. 
In addition to the spectacular Vivid light show at the 35th anniversary event at the Park Hyatt, the following events dominated the calendar:

• Sold out ­– joint seminar with RDG: Aggregation in defective building material cases
• Unfair contract terms to apply to insurance policies: How will it work? The experts debate
• Insurtech: What the heck?
• The 9th annual YP luminaries dinner
• Sir Ninian Stephen masterclass

Thanks and congratulations to the liaison committee at CBP for hosting this NSW's Ron Shorter Award finals on 26 July, judged by NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison; Susan Donaldson, Head of Claims, Australia, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance; and André Louw, chair, JLT Australia. 
Congratulations to Scott Simmons for his winning speech and to the other finalists, Emma Fair and Bailey Neate, for their outstanding speeches.

AILA TecHub's launch and inaugural seminar were in Sydney on 26 July.
 
Hosted by Kennedys, the event was well attended and the audience heard from Daniel Fogarty and Andy Jamieson, two experienced insurtech specialists, who discussed challenges and opportunities presented by digital and other technological transformations and their impact on the insurance industry.

AILA TecHub aims to:

• maintain discussion around those challenges and opportunities
• stimulate ideas by facilitating further seminars, forums and white papers
• partner with insurtech bodies and associations to advance knowledge and learning in the area.

Victoria

It has been a busy few months for AILA Victoria with three successful events.

The Ron Shorter Award – Victorian, SA, NT and ACT final – was on 19 July.

Finalists were:
Ananya Tiwari (Proclaim): Insurer to the poor, how insurtech is helping to make a business case for micro-insurance
Mowan Lee (VMIA): How alternative capital will transform the future of insurance
Ben Tollner-Atkinson (Barry.Nilsson): Directors & officers' liability insurance and climate change, turning up the heat on directors' duties

All three presentations were entertaining, relevant and of exceptionally high quality. Each included a call to action for the industry to reflect on changing dynamics and consider ways to modernise and improve. 

Ananya Tiwari was the winner. Thanks to the judging panel and barrister John Tesarsch who entertained the audience with his wit, legal knowledge and literary skills while the panel deliberated. It was wonderful to have friends from Adelaide, Darwin and Canberra join the coaching workshop session in the competition's fourth year in Victoria. 

The next event was the Geoff Masel Lecture on 31 July: The Ipp legislation: Has the game been worth the candle?

Richard Douglas QC delivered an authoritative, thoroughly well prepared and highly informative paper about legislative reforms throughout the states and territories to give effect to the Ipp recommendations. He considered, on balance, that the legislative reforms were ‘working' and had achieved their desired aims throughout the jurisdictions, apart from the notable exception of laws for the apportionment of liability between joint tortfeasors involving claims for alleged failures to exercise reasonable care, which were problematic and in need of re-evaluation (see cover story in this issue).

The video seminar in HWL Ebsworth's Melbourne offices provided Victorian insurance law practitioners with a valuable opportunity to hear from one of Australia's leading silks on this important and developing area of liability law.

Continuing AILA Victoria's long association  with the NPLA, a joint event was held on 7 August ­– Recipe for disaster: ACCC v Thermomix.

Speakers were Frances Williams, Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Brisbane; Michael Thompson QC, Victorian Bar; and  Daniel Gialanze, Willis Towers Watson. Chair was Alexis Taylor, from Lander & Rogers.

The seminar was a fabulous success, demonstrating the synergistic benefits of having an experienced speaker panel comprising a solicitor, a barrister, and an insurance broker, each conversant in dealing with product liability and/or safety recall-related risks within their respective areas of expertise.

The seminar was aided by the presence of a Thermomix appliance and focused on the potential regulatory fallout, including pecuniary penalties exposure, of manufacturers and distributors that fail to react in a timely manner to product defects, especially those requiring implementation of effective safety recall strategies.

Drinks and canapes were enjoyed after the seminar, enabling people to mingle and continue the product liability discussion in a relaxed forum.  

Queensland

The last few months have been very busy for the Queensland chapter.

It has held two highly successful, well-attended seminars aimed at YPs.

The first was hosted by Carter Newell on 21 June, entitled Building your brand.  Participants were asked to challenge their understanding of their own brand and look to prominent role models.

The second was hosted by Wotton Kearney on 2 August and discussed The neuroscience of leadership. Both events were free for YPs.

On 1 June, in true Qld style, the chapter celebrated 35 years of AILA with a throwback to the long lunch at the Breakfast Creek Hotel. A great afternoon of networking was had by all.

On 31 July, Richard Douglas QC presented this year's Geoff Masel Lecture. A big thank you to Richard for an insightful presentation, which was broadcast live across the eastern seaboard (see cover story in this issue).

The annual Insurance Law Intensive was on 24 August. Many well-qualified speakers and interesting topics were lined up for the full-day event.