Deborah has practiced for over three decades in insurance, with more than two decades of them as partner/principal.
She founded Gilchrist Connell’s Perth office – leading it from a small WA start-up to a thriving office catering to some of the world’s largest insurers and a host of specialist underwriters. Her leadership and successes saw her win the prestigious national Lawyer’s Weekly Partner of the Year award for Insurance 2017 as well as the Best Lawyers award for Lawyer of the Year 2020 – Professional Malpractice for Perth (and the same award for the 2024 year). Deborah is trusted by major, global insurer clients on their financial lines, liability, property, and recoveries claims.
Deborah has extensive experience in policy advice on indemnity issues, including notification issues, fraud, non-disclosure, waiver of subrogation and cross liability, illegality and partial coverage. She has advised insurers on new and updated personal lines and financial lines policy wordings and operational matters.
Deborah provides coverage advice and resolves claims in various courts and tribunals, appearing as counsel in interlocutory applications, mediations, settlement conferences and instructing Counsel at trial.
Deborah is a trained mediator and has presented to major industry forums. She was on the editorial board of the Australian Civil Liability newsletter for Lexis Nexis, and served in a similar role for the Health Law Bulletin for many years.
Her clients value her well thought out and clear advice, her effective negotiating skills and her accessibility. Her approach is to focus on the key issues separating the parties’ positions, then address them whether through investigation, communication or litigation. Collaboration is Deborah’s default approach, to achieve the best outcomes for the client in a cost-effective way.
Presentations
Awards and recognition
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