Wotton Kearney is pleased to announce 34 lawyer promotions – including four new partners, 11 special counsel and 7 senior associates – effective 1 July 2023. These well-deserved promotions reflect the calibre of the firm’s home-grown talent across key insurance lines and areas of strong growth, including cyber and technology, health, commercial litigation and pro bono.

Our new partners are:

  • Tom Cavanagh (Sydney, Financial Lines) – Tom is particularly known for his financial services professional indemnity expertise and D&O coverage work. His experience spans advising on shareholder class actions, regulatory investigations by ASIC, financial services complaints including ACFA complaints, financial services remediation schemes and coverage issues arising from them.
  • Leanne Ho (Sydney, Pro Bono) – Leanne is an expert human rights lawyer and leader in the pro bono sector. She has been an integral part of building W+K pro bono practice’s reputation for meaningful, high-quality legal services and developing the strong and well-respected Community Footprint program we have today. Leanne leads our human rights and law reform work.
  • Stephen Morrissey (Sydney, Technology Liability) – Stephen specialises in advising local and global insurers, and their insured clients, on technology liability claims (defence, coverage and recoveries following cyber claims). This is a key area of our rapidly expanding Cyber & Technology practice.
  • Shane Swinerd (Wellington, Property) – Shane specialises in material damage, business interruption and general liability matters. He has an impressive track record in providing advice on complex coverage issues and handling high-value litigation.

Our other promoted lawyers are:

  • Special Counsel – Tully Anders (Melbourne, Property, Energy & Infrastructure), Sam Barker (Melbourne, Property, Energy & Infrastructure), Sophie Crowther (Melbourne, General Liability), Amanda de Souza (Sydney, General Liability), Chad Farah (Sydney, General Liability), Manja Lalovic (Brisbane, Financial Lines), Ryan Loney (Melbourne, Financial Lines), Sam McNally (Sydney, General Liability), Natalie Orola (Brisbane, General Liability), Dena Paterson (Sydney, Property, Energy & Infrastructure) and Lauren White (Sydney, General Liability).
  • Senior Associate – Rachel Baker (Melbourne, General Liability), Matt Boyce (Brisbane, General Liability), Alana Davison (Sydney, General Liability), Mikaela Mahony (Sydney, Financial Lines), India Mason-Cox (Sydney, Property, Energy & Infrastructure), Renata Romeo (Melbourne, Commercial Litigation) and Bryce Stevens (Brisbane, General Liability).
  • Associate – Tom Arranga (Melbourne, Health), Emma Atkins (Melbourne, Financial Lines), Gina Groskops (Sydney, Financial Lines), Meg Kaye (Melbourne, Health), Claudia Kelly (Sydney, General Liability), Seth Lee (Sydney, General Liability), Regina Nguyen (Melbourne, General Liability), Jorge Nicholas (Melbourne, Financial Lines), Hamshini Sathiyamoorthy (Sydney, Financial Lines), Michelle Sin (Sydney, General Liability), Carmen Yong (Sydney, Financial Lines) and Denisa Zezulka (Canberra, General Liability).

It is fantastic to see Wotton Kearney continuing to grow so strongly. Our growth is a testament to our People First culture and our commitment to recognising emerging talent and growing the ranks of our senior specialists in key insurance lines, cyber and technology, commercial litigation and pro bono.

These latest promotions take W+K’s numbers to 76 partners and more than 350 lawyers in total across eight offices.