Colin Porter's arrival at TressCox in 2005 marked a turning point for the Firm's insurance practice, particularly in Sydney. The Firm was first established in 1897 and has a strong reputation in Sydney's legal market. In the insurance sector, it has provided legal services to a number of insurers for many years and is regarded as one of the top insurance-focused law firms. 

Australian insurance law specialists all felt the collapse of HIH in 2001 keenly. TressCox (then known as Tress Cocks and Maddocks) weathered the change better than most due to its strong reputation in the market.

"The development of any firm or practice area has its peaks and troughs" says Colin Porter.  "The firm has shown a continuing strong commitment to the insurance market in various ways. We are well-placed in the league tables and have very ambitious plans for the future".

Although Colin would not be drawn on the precise nature of those plans, it is clear that TressCox is a name to watch.  It is perhaps not surprising that Colin should have a long term view. Before moving his family to Sydney, he had been a partner in two of the largest law firms in London and has spent over 20 years of his life servicing the international insurance market with a particular focus on reinsurance, D & O, PI, financial lines and construction and property issues.  Colin had been involved in resolving some of the most difficult and far-reaching issues that affected the insurance and reinsurance market during his time in London.  At TressCox, his brief is to lead the insurance group to new heights with similarly focussed work.

He joined already well-known names at the Firm and others have joined since. In Sydney, Ron Heinrich has been one of Sydney's pre-eminent insurance lawyers in his 40 years serving the insurance community. Alistair Little has been involved in numerous high profile insurance cases as has John MacLennan.  Torq Murray joined the firm in 2006 and has strong ties to the insurance market. Like Colin, Torq has a particular interest in risk management issues. In the Melbourne office, John Petts leads a team handling a range of insurance cases. He was joined by partners, Jason Newman, formerly of Mills Oakley, in 2005 and Nigel Watson, formerly of Hunt & Hunt, a couple of months ago. In Brisbane, several partners have insurance caseloads, with Chris Gasteen and Andrew Cheetham being particularly specialised in the area.

Although the insurance sector in Australia brings challenges for lawyers, not least in relation to pricing, TressCox looks forward to strengthening its position and becoming the firm of choice for an increasing number of those both needing and offering legal services.
 
There has been much discussion in recent times about the suggested advantages and disadvantages of top tier firms and boutique firms in relation to servicing insurance market needs. Colin's view is that TressCox can offer a client the best of both worlds. The firm has offices in three states and strong links with ALFA, the international insurance-focused law firm network and can provide a full service of clients' needs.
 
"The real value of that full service support is sometimes forgotten. It must be remembered that all insurance claims arise in a context and a full understanding of that context is often essential to achieve the best outcome for the client", says Colin. "The largest firms are sometimes so large that the advantage of the firm's breadth is lost when you get down to individual lawyers acting in particular business areas, unless the team acting is expanded and costs for the client are increased correspondingly. At TressCox, we have a relatively informal set up that allows us to provide our clients with the best of both worlds."
 
The strength of TressCox's offering has been evidenced recently in both the litigation and merger arenas. 

In March, judgement was handed down in a mammoth piece of litigation in favour of TressCox's client, the international reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter.  The team defending the claim for more than $200 million was led by Alistair Little. A myriad of difficult and sometimes highly technical issues arose and the case took up 108 days of the New South Wales Supreme Court's time.

In May, the Federal court approved the merger of UNITED Medical Protection Limited and the Medical Defence, two of the leading medical professional indemnity defence organisations.  The new group is known as the Avant Mutual Group and has gross assets in excess of $1.3 billion insuring over 50% of doctors in Australia.  Ron Heinrich led the team at TressCox acting for UNITED.  Ron said, "This was a challenging project as it involved the merger of two mutual companies.  This required the amendment of tax legislation and liaison at the highest levels of Government, Treasury, ATO, ASIC, APRA and ACCC.  TressCox's blend of specialist skills in mutuals and schemes of arrangements combined with its extensive knowledge of the health industry means it was uniquely placed to provide a tailored package of expertise to meet UNITED's specific needs."

In August, TressCox acted for the insurer in the landmark case of Garcia -v- CGU Workers Compensation (NSW) Limited which confirmed that the tortious duty of good faith does not exist in Australia.  "Insurers can breathe a sigh of relief and know that they are not exposed to any claims for exemplary or punitive damages arising from alleged breaches of a suggested common law duty of good faith," said Alistair Little who led the team that achieved this ground breaking victory.

TressCox is currently involved in a number of other high profile market issues that re-affirm its name at the forefront of the insurance market in Australia and internationally.