Grace Hailstones

Associate | Melbourne, Australia
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Profile

Grace is an Associate in Kennedys’ Financial & Professional Lines Insurance team in Melbourne. She acts for Australian and international insurers, underwriters, corporate insureds, construction professionals, business owners, property managers, financial advisors, and allied health professionals. Her experience in both a defence and coverage capacity extends to:

-    professional indemnity, construction and directors and officers claims;
-    claims against financial institutions; and
-    regulatory and disciplinary matters.

Grace also works across Melbourne’s General Liability insurance stream. She defends personal injury matters (including Wrongs Act claims and workers’ compensation) as well acts in first and third-party property damage claims.

Prior to joining Kennedys, Grace worked at a preeminent national insurance firm and completed a secondment with a third-party administrator for a London-market insurer.

Grace is a member of the Law Institute of Victoria, Women in Insurance (Victoria) and the Australian Professional Indemnity Group (APIG).

Qualifications and admissions

Qualifications

  • Bachelor of Laws / Bachelor of Justice (First Class Honours) | Queensland University of Technology | 2020
  • Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice | College of Law | 2021

Admissions

  • Supreme Court of Queensland | April 2021
  • High Court of Australia | January 2024

Work highlights

  • Advising an insurer in relation to a corporate insured’s entitlement to coverage with respect to Class Action proceedings brought by individual policyholders and proceedings issued by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission in the Federal Court of Australia.
  • Successfully defending registered psychologists and osteopaths under instructions from their insurers in relation to notifications to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency regarding allegations of professional misconduct, with AHPRA ultimately electing to take no further action in relation to the complaints.
  • Defending a claim against a property manager (and a contribution claim from a co-defendant) issued in the County Court of Victoria in relation to personal injuries allegedly suffered by the plaintiff tenant at a residential property managed by my client. The claims against my client were dismissed on a bear own costs basis prior to mediation.
  • Successfully pursuing subrogated recoveries on behalf of local and London insurers following significant property damage, including achieving resolution pre-litigation.

Services

Sectors