• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Woodina Online Login or register    07 3222 9400

Woodina Underwriting Agency

Woodina Underwriting Agency

Our core business has been Professional Indemnity, General Liability and IT Liability, but we have recently expanded into Accident & Health.

  • Home
  • About us
    • Woodina Underwriting
    • Woodina Law
  • Products
    • Accident & Health
    • General Liability
    • Professional Indemnity
    • Specialist Risks
  • Claims
    • Claim Form
  • Documents
  • Contact

Woodina Law

About Woodina Law

Woodina Law Pty Ltd is an incorporated legal practice that specialises in insurance law, particularly responding to professional indemnity and public and product liability claims against our insured clients. We currently provide legal services nationally and exclusively to Woodina Underwriting Agency Pty Ltd and its insureds. Woodina Law is a vibrant Brisbane based company with a progressive and innovative attitude.

We pride ourselves on being a leading provider of legal services and claims management in the insurance industry through proactive, efficient and cost effective provision of high quality in-house legal services. Our insured clients can be confident that they will be treated with respect and understanding and that we will strive to bring them, and their insurers, the best possible results.

Areas of Practice

The team at Woodina Law specialises in providing its associated company, Woodina Underwriting Agency Pty Ltd, its various Lloyds syndicates and its insureds and broker clients with insurance law advice based on the areas currently underwritten by the underwriting agency. Its primary role is to assist in investigating and resolving or defending professional indemnity claims and public or product liability claims against the insured clients of Woodina Underwriting .

To the Lloyds syndicates, Woodina Law offers provision of legal services from notifications of claim or circumstance, early and accurate reserving, regular advice and clear communication.

Our direct relationship with the insured from notification allows our broker clients to be involved as little as they would like in the claims process but regardless of their level of involvement, we ensure we keep them informed of key developments in the claim.

For our insureds, we offer excellent, efficient and proactive legal services, usually as part of their paid premium, creative problem solving, reduced defence outlays and associated competitive premiums with Woodina Underwriting . Having an experienced lawyer on board at notification increases speed of payments of valid claims, reduces claim frequency due to proactive negotiation and significantly reduces defence costs, usually limited to the rare occasion when counsel or an expert need to be briefed.

Our cost effective and experienced in-house claims model is our point of difference. Many other underwriting agencies have in-house claims managers but not in-house lawyers with extensive experience in the area. Due to the significant reduction in defence costs, Woodina Underwriting can offer competitive premiums to insureds, despite claims against them.

We keep defence and claims costs low by:

including the cost of our in-house legal professional fees in the insured’s premium;

only briefing out direct to counsel and experts where necessary;

handling notifications and claims proactively, with early negotiation or obtaining early expert opinion;

settling meritorious claims quickly;

being extremely efficient in the management of our file load.

immediate involvement in the notification of a circumstance;

Our in-house service enables us to maintain closer relationships with insureds, due to direct access between lawyer and insured from the start, with brokers being kept informed of key developments on claims.

In addition, our low internal legal costs mean that if a matter is worth fighting to trial, we can avoid commercial settlements and fight, as we will not be hampered by the legal costs of an external law firm.

Our People

Michael Wood Collapse

Michael Wood
Legal Practitioner Director

 (07) 3222 9401
 michael.wood@woodina.com.au

Michael has 30 years’ insurance experience. Starting as an insurance lawyer at Morris Fletcher & Cross in Brisbane in 1985, he moved to London in 1990. He became a Partner at Waltons & Morse in 1993 and a Partner of Eversheds in 1996, specialising in PI insurance. In 1997 he launched his own PI underwriting agency called PI Direct, later Martello Professional Risks. The agency was unique in its approach, writing business both direct and through brokers, with an inhouse claims model saving on defence costs. It grew to 50M pounds gross premium and was sold to Royal Sun Alliance in December 2006. Michael had purchased a wholesale Australian PI insurance brokerage called PI Direct Insurance Brokers in 2004. After returning to Australia in 2011, Michael started Woodina Underwriting Agency in January 2012 and sold PI Direct Insurance Brokers into Steadfast in 2013.

Maria Kearney Expand


Maria Kearney
Special Counsel

 (07) 3222 9407
 maria.kearney@woodina.com.au

Maria has over 20 years’ experience defending professional negligence claims and other financial lines claims in Australia and the United Kingdom. Maria joined Woodina in 2018 after spending 10 years in the Insurance and Corporate Risk Group at Minter Ellison. She has previously headed up the claims and litigation team of one of the UK’s largest professional indemnity underwriting agencies.  Maria is a committee member of the Queensland Chapter of the Australian Professional Indemnity Group, a member of the Australian Insurance Law Association and a member of the Women in Insurance Association.

Alison Corcoran Expand

Alison Corcoran
Special Counsel

 (07) 3222 9402
 alison.corcoran@woodina.com.au

Since her admission to practice law in 2001, Alison has specialised in litigation, dispute resolution, insurance claims and insurance advisory work. Alison has over 16 years’ experience, including one year at Picton Howell in London and 11 years within the Minter Ellison Insurance and Corporate Risk Group. Alison has defended claims against various professionals, such as accountants, directors, engineers and other construction professionals, as well as acting in public liability, ISR and life insurance claims and appearing in Commissions of Inquiry, Inquests and regulatory prosecutions.

Alison is a past President and Treasurer of the Queensland chapter of the Australian Professional Indemnity Group.

Ingrid Lehmann Expand

Ingrid Lehmann
Associate

 (07) 3222 9414
 ingrid.lehmann@woodina.com.au

Ingrid was admitted in 2009 and has over 7 years’ legal experience in professional indemnity insurance and commercial litigation, as well as some experience in insolvency and franchising, including 6 years in McInnes Wilson Lawyers’ Insurance and Commercial Litigation team and a 6 month secondment as a claims solicitor with Lexon Insurance Pte Ltd. Ingrid completed her Masters in Commercial Law in 2015. She has defended claims against various professionals, such as lawyers, financial advisers, accountants, real estate agents, valuers, engineers, architects, draftsmen, certifiers, building and pest inspectors.

Footer

Woodina Underwriting Agency Pty Ltd

AFS Licence No. 418755

Postal address:
GPO Box 3313
Brisbane QLD 4001

Street address:
Level 13, 100 Edward Street
Brisbane QLD 4000

Sydney address:
Suite 414, Level 4,
185 Elizabeth Street,
Sydney NSW 2000

Get in touch

(07) 3222 9400
(07) 3222 9499
Enquiries: info@woodina.com.au
Proposals: proposals@woodina.com.au
Claims: claims@woodina.com.au

  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2019 Woodina Underwriting Agencies. Website by