Fiona is a Special Counsel in our Life Insurance Team and has extensive experience in the insurance and financial services sector.
Experience & expertise
Fiona is recognised as one of Australia’s leading practitioners in life insurance and superannuation disputes, with more than 25 years’ experience advising life insurers, superannuation trustees and financial services providers across multiple Australian jurisdictions. She is particularly known for her strategic and commercially focused approach to complex disability, trauma, death and TPD claims disputes.
Fiona has acted in a number of significant litigation matters, including cases that have become leading authorities in the life insurance sector. Her experience spans disputed claims, policy construction, legislative interpretation and complex regulatory and compliance issues affecting insurers and trustees.
She regularly advises on matters arising under the Insurance Contracts Act 1984, including underwriting, non-disclosure and misrepresentation issues. Fiona also provides guidance to trustees and administrators regarding their obligations under trust deeds and superannuation legislation.
Clients value Fiona for her clear, pragmatic and outcome-focused advice. Her extensive industry experience allows her to deliver commercially workable solutions that effectively manage legal, regulatory and reputational risk.
Fiona is also recognised for her contribution to the broader insurance industry and is a regular presenter at leading industry conferences and forums, including ANZIIF and ALUCA events. She frequently presents on developments and emerging issues in life insurance law and claims management.
She holds degrees in Law and Economics from Macquarie University and is an active member of the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance and the Australasian Life Underwriting and Claims Association.
Work highlights
Fiona has acted in a number of significant life insurance disputes that have resulted in leading authority decisions in the sector. These cases continue to inform judicial reasoning on policy construction, TPD assessment, non-disclosure, and the interpretation of medical and occupational definitions under life insurance policies. Matters in which she has been involved include:
- Alexander Raymond Walton v The Colonial Mutual Life Assurance Society Limited [2004] NSWSC 616
- White v The National Mutual Life Association of Australasia Limited [2003] NSWSC 1209
- Dr Gregory Moore v NMLA [2011] NSWSC 416
- Hitchens v Zurich Australia Ltd [2015] NSWSC 825
- Burke v MetLife Life Insurance Limited [2019] NSWSC 1777
- ACN 074 971 109 Pty Ltd & Pegela Pty Ltd v The National Mutual Life Association of Australasia Ltd [2006] VSC 507 and [2011]VSC 519.
Professional background
