ROSAN SANTANGELO

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

Email rsantangelo@leeandlyons.com.au
Admission Date 17 December 1999

Professional Experience

Rosan commenced with Lee & Lyons in March 2011.  She was admitted in 1999 and has delivered solutions to insurers and commercial clients from a broad range of industries including construction, retail, manufacturing, government, health, agriculture and mining.

Her areas of practice include the following:

  • Insurance litigation (Professional Indemnity, Directors & Officers, Life Insurance/TPD, Public and Products Liability);
  • commercial insurance and risk management;
  • corporate governance;
  • competition and Consumer

Corporate Governance experience

In 2008 Rosan finished a CSA Graduate Diploma in Corporate Governance.

Work undertaken in this area includes:

  • deeds of Insurance, Access and Indemnity and accompanying Board documents. In addition to this, Rosan has provided clients with guidance as to whether their insurance arrangements are “Back to back” with the indemnities promised to Directors and Officers;
  • internal policy documentation including policies for dealing with bullying and harassment, OH&S issues, working with children and document retention;
  • operational risk management reviews; and
  • risk management internal audits ahead of the placement of insurance policies.

Industry specific legal experience includes:

Health Industry

Providing commercial and risk management advice for a major Health Insurer including the preparation of:

  • Insurance Risk Management Reports for submission to its Audit & Risk Committee and the Board;
  • Event Specific Risk Management Advice;
  • OH&S, risk management and systems policy drafting;
  • Board members Deeds of Access and Indemnity;
  • Advice on the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and its predecessor;
  • Advice on directors’ duties;
  • Preparation of the company’s revised Constitution;
  • Service Provider Contracts; and
  • The development of document management protocols.

Statutory Corporations

Rosan has advised re-insurers and a number of statutory corporations on their liabilities, under statute and at common law, in relation to fire management and has had the conduct of several major bushfire claims, the most recent of which involved 7 Supreme Court litigated matters arising out of a fire near Holbrook which burned for 6 days in 2006. Rosan has also provided risk management advice to statutory corporations regarding risk warnings and asset renewal programs.

Construction

Rosan work in this area has included litigation/dispute resolution and commercial advice on risk management, insurance and indemnity clauses in Design & Construct Agreements and PPP’s at the inception/negotiation stage.

Recent work done in this area includes:

  • commercial advice for major construction firms regarding the implications of insurance and indemnity clauses;
  •  litigation matters where parties had rights under a number of policies with different levels of cover and varying excesses;
  • professional Indemnity litigation (architects, engineers, builders);
  • liability claims;
  • risk management advice; and
  • Security of Payments Act litigation.

Life Insurance

Rosan has provided advice and had the conduct of litigation arising out of disputes over Life Insurance and Income Protection policies relating to:

  • non-disclosure and misrepresentation,
  • fraudulent misrepresentation,
  • whether an insurer has properly avoided Life policy under the Insurance Contracts Act;
  • the application and scope of TPD clauses which determine whether a condition is a disablement covered by the policy; and
  • claims involving the wrongful acts of insurance intermediaries and brokers.

Agribusiness

Rosan has had the conduct of crop damage, property damage and personal injury claims for insureds and insurers of agribusiness clients. These have recently included:

  • crop damage following hydraulic engineering works;
  • litigation arising out of a major bushfire in the Holbrook area;
  • litigation arising out of a major bushfire at Stanwell tops;
  • itigation arising out of property damage caused by the spontaneous combustion of dried distillers’ grain; and
  • the review of various Farm-pack policies on the question of indemnity for a number of major insurers.

General Insurance

Rosan has many years of experience in this area. The nature of the work that Rosan has performed includes:

  • advice to large corporate insureds in respect of alleged estoppels and misrepresentations by insurers;
  • advice on dual insurance/contribution;
  • advice on the application of the Insurance Contracts Act;
  • advice to insurers regarding the control of litigated proceedings; and
  • professional indemnity, product and public liability litigated claims.

Professional Memberships

  • Law Society of NSW
  • Society of Notaries Women in Insurance
  • Australian Insurance Law Association