Skip to main content
article thumbnail

Angela Yates

Partner

Brisbane

+61 7 3225 5980

Angela is a trusted specialist insurance lawyer and commercial litigator with over 20 years experience in insurance law. She has extensive experience in professional indemnity and public liability claims with a particular interest in complex and commercially sensitive disputes.

EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE

Angela has acted in the defence and resolution of claims against a broad range of professionals, incorporated associations, companies, schools and local governments in all types of professional indemnity and public liability claims and disciplinary complaints and proceedings. She has defended claims against, for example, solicitors, barristers, architects, engineers, financial planners, accountants, certifiers, brokers and real estate agents.

Trained in alternative dispute resolution processes such as mediation, Angela regularly appears at mediations and other out of court dispute resolution processes and has extensive experience conducting negotiations in order to resolve claims wherever possible in the best interests of her clients prior to litigation.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Some of Angela’s major cases include:

  • Conducting multiple high profile claims on behalf of a religious institution and a major insurer arising from the sexual abuse of students by a teacher. Angela successfully defended various EPL claims by the staff terminated following the discovery of the abuse, and also successfully defended a litigated defamation claim arising from media statements published following the discovery of the abuse
  • Defending a law firm in a high value multi party claim arising from the allegedly negligent performance of the firm’s retainer in relation to a cross border banking transaction with complex liability and jurisdictional issues
  • Defending an architect in a high value multi party claim arising from the allegedly negligent performance of the architect’s retainer in relation to the design of a luxury home in a north Queensland residential development
  • Defending a structural engineer in a high value litigated claim arising from the design of a prestige unit development in northern Queensland
  • Defending the excess layer insurer in a high profile litigated solicitor’s negligence claim and achieving a resolution with which the client was “thrilled”
  • Extricated a barrister from a professional negligence proceeding following the making of a Calderbank offer within 2 weeks of receiving instructions.The offer was accepted in circumstances which avoided the barrister being named in a litigated joinder application
  • Defending a structural engineer in a Supreme Court professional negligence proceeding to a successful final judgment. The matter ended with an indemnity costs order in the engineer’s/insurer’s favour based on a strategically pitched Calderbank offer made early in the proceedings.

Recognition

Awards

Ranked in the peer-reviewed Best Lawyers® in Australia list for:

  • Insurance Law since 2021
  • Professional Malpractice Litigation since 2021
  • Litigation 2025

Ranked as Recommended Lawyer – Professional Indemnity in Queensland by Doyle’s Guide since 2021. 

Expertise

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Arts, 2000, University of Queensland
  • Bachelor of Laws, 2000, University of Queensland

Memberships

  • Australian Insurance Law Association
  • Australian Professional Indemnity Group
  • Queensland Law Society