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Directors & Officers Liability

- OUR EXPERIENCE -

Market Leaders

We are recognised as market leaders in the D&O field.

We have advised on many of the most prominent class action claims in Australia, major financial institution remediation programs (regulator driven or otherwise), significant claims against insureds brought by regulators, and also on major litigated claims in the Federal Court of Australia and in State Supreme Courts across Australia.

Examples of our work

Our recent involvement in major D&O claims on behalf of insurers includes:

Advising and acting for the fifth excess D&O insurers in the Dick Smith class action claim arising from the collapse of Dick Smith in 2016

Advising and acting for the primary layer D&O/entity securities insurer in the UGL securities class action claim arising from UGL’s November 2014 announcement of the need to review the financial performance of its involvement in the Ichthys Project in the Northern Territory

Advising and acting for the first and second excess layer insurers in the Worley Parsons class action claim, which involved allegations of breach of continuous disclosure obligations/ misleading or deceptive conduct by Worley Parsons concerning its anticipated FY2014 profit

Advising and acting for the primary layer D&O/entity Securities insurer in the Sirtex Securities Class Action claim, which involved allegations Sirtex misled the market in 2016 concerning the actual and anticipated sales in FY2017 of its cancer treatment product and by allegedly failing to disclose insider trading of shares in Sirtex by its former CEO

Advising and acting for insurers in the Woolworths Securities Class Action claim arising from a downgrade announcement made by Woolworths in February 2015 regarding anticipated FY2015 profit, and an investor strategy meeting held by Woolworths in May 2015 on the same topic

Acting for excess Side A D&O insurers of RCR Tomlinson Limited in respect of Class Actions brought following delays and cost overruns on solar farm projects, capital raising and subsequent appointment of administrators

Acting for excess layer insurers of CIMIC Group Limited in indemnity proceedings concerning claimed losses arising from the disclosure and investigation of allegations of corrupt business practices and the resolution of subsequent Class Action proceedings

Advising and acting for Chubb as primary insurer in the Surfstitch Securities Class Action claim in connection with significant earnings downgrades in 2016, which settled in 2021 for a publicly disclosed amount of approximately $6.5 million 

Advising and acting for the second excess D&O insurers in the Vocation Securities Class Action claim, which involved allegations of breaches of continuous disclosure obligations/misleading or deceptive conduct and settled in 2021 for a publicly disclosed amount of approximately $50 million

Advising and acting for an excess layer D&O/entity Securities insurer in the Billabong Securities Class Action claim arising from earnings downgrade announcements in 2011, which settled in July 2016 for a publicly disclosed amount of approximately $45 million

Advising and acting for various insurers in the Leightons Securities Class Action claim arising from its $1.1 billion write-down in April 2011, which settled in May 2014 for a publicly disclosed amount of approximately $70 million

Appearing for and advising directors in connection with the conduct of board investigations and examinations, inquests and investigations conducted by regulators including ASIC, ACCC and ICAC

Advising and acting for various insurers in the CBA Securities Class Action claim arising from the AML/CTF civil penalties claim brought against CBA by AUSTRAC (which civil penalties claim resulted in a penalty of $700 million imposed by CBA by Yates J in July 2018)

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