Associate - Financial Lines / Property Damage

This job is with Kennedys, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.
Kennedys is seeking a motivated Associate to join our Insurance practice in Sydney, working directly with partner James Melvin on financial lines, property damage, and third-party property matters.
About Kennedys
Kennedys is a leading global law firm with a strong Australian presence since 2006. Our fast-growing offices across Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Brisbane offer excellent career development opportunities in a collaborative, international environment.

The Opportunity
Join our Sydney team working directly with James Melvin on complex financial lines, property damage, and third-party property matters. You'll handle high-value coverage disputes for financial institutions, professional institutions, corporate service providers, and directors and officers (D&O), while also defending professional liability claims, monitoring claims in other jurisdictions, arbitrations and subrogated recoveries.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop specialist expertise in financial lines and property insurance law at a reputable global firm.

Our Clients

• General insurers and reinsurers
• Lloyd's syndicates
• Global composites
• Self-insured PLCs

What You'll Do

• Manage high-value coverage disputes for financial institutions
• Handle D&O insurance matters
• Manage property damage and third-party property claims
• Defend professional liability claims
• Provide clear written advice to clients on coverage and liability issues
• Support international arbitrations and subrogated recoveries
• Conduct legal research and draft legal documents
• Communicate with clients, counsel, and stakeholders

What We're Looking For

• Law degree with 1+ years PQE
• Background or interest in insurance, financial lines, property, or commercial litigation
• Strong legal research and drafting skills
• Excellent written and verbal communication
• Ability to work autonomously with appropriate supervision
• Strong organisational abilities and attention to detail
• High level of professionalism and integrity
• A team player ready to contribute to a collaborative environment

Ready to advance your career at a leading international firm? We'd love to hear from you.
Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys.

About Kennedys
Kennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,750 people worldwide across 48 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field.

Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.

We're a fresh-thinking firm, and we're not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.

What do we have to offer?
We welcome high-performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you'll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference.

Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive and distinctive. Our values are at the core of who we are and what make us a great firm to work with and for.

The Firm recognises the value of investing in our people's development and believes our culture and values contribute to the quality of our work and of our client relationships. With a culture of on-the-job and experiential learning, peer to peer learning, mentoring, resources and tools that enable you to drive your career, we can support your development in your current and future roles. A variety of other opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices.

We strive to celebrate diversity, empower our people and ensure everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. We've created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust, where diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority. We recognise that many of our people want to work for an employer that is aligned to their values, which is why we are building an inclusive culture, decarbonising our operations and supporting our people to thrive at work. Our people are the key to driving this change and helping us to make a difference to our clients, our people and the communities in which we live and work.

Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested.