Suzanne is a litigation and dispute resolution lawyer with over 10 years' experience primarily in insurance law advising both local and international insurers, with a focus on financial lines and professional indemnity.
Suzanne has extensive experience providing coverage advice and as defence counsel in litigated and non-litigated disputes.
Experience
Prior to joining Lander & Rogers, Suzanne spent 9 years with an international law firm in Sydney in the insurance team. In 2016 Suzanne completed a 5 month secondment with a local claims handling agency where she gained significant experience in managing claims and exposure to different insurance policies. More recently, Suzanne was employed by a Big 4 professional services firm as a Legal Counsel in the Disputes Team of the General Counsel's Office.
Suzanne's areas of expertise include:
- professional indemnity including financial lines and claims against lawyers;
- financial services;
- coverage;
- construction including claims against builders, architects, engineers and certifiers;
- subrogated recoveries; and
- commercial litigation
Career highlights
Suzanne's career highlights include:
- acting in the defence of Supreme Court of Queensland proceedings on behalf of an accountant being sued by a former client for tax advice provided relating to the treatment of franking credits;
- acting for employees of an audit company issued with section 19 examination notices by ASIC in relation to audit work undertaken by them of a company in liquidation;
- acting in the defence of a claim brought in the Supreme Court of New South Wales against a professional indemnity insurer by a deregistered financial advisory firm seeking indemnity for 83 separate claims brought by former clients alleging misleading financial advice;
- providing advice to insurers on the application of a Rectification Costs Extension clause in a Management Liability policy for a large rectification costs claim made by an insured builder;
- acting for a certifier in Supreme Court of New South Wales proceedings brought by an Owners Corporation involving numerous defendants arising from retrospective fire safety compulsory works ordered by the local council;
- acting as coverage and monitoring counsel for excess layer insurers in a claim for compensation and defence costs brought by a lender in relation to a compensation scheme for customers provided with negligent financial advice across a number of years;
- acting for a builder in a subrogated recovery action against an engineering subcontractor for damages arising from the subcontractor's defective structural design of a warehouse;
- acting for a solicitor in Supreme Court of New South Wales proceedings involving a claim brought by the solicitor's former client in negligence and for breach of fiduciary duties with respect to advice provided about entering into a loan; and
- acting for a solicitor in District Court of New South Wales proceedings involving a claim for a personal costs order pursuant to section 99 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) by a former client.