Mark Darwin Mediation + Consulting

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• Advising companies in infrastructure, mining, gas and property industries on strategies for resolution and negotiation of major commercial disputes and ISR (property/BI) insurance claims. 

• Early career experience in workers’ compensation, CTP, public liability and professional indemnity insurance claims, handling issues of liability, double insurance, contribution and subrogation rights.

• Representing power stations, pipeline operators, dam operators, port owners and mining companies in a variety of contract disputes, land access disputes, pricing disputes and equipment failures, including issues involving force majeure, contamination of land and the costs of compliance with statutory remediation obligations (including the recovery of those costs under insurance policies). 

• Acted for coal mining companies following flooding of open cut coal mines to negotiate the settlement via mediation of 100s of millions of dollars in losses, involving issues of alleged uninsured property, non-disclosure, lack of reasonable precautions, and the application of the adjustments clause in the ISR policy. 

• Acting for both gold and iron ore miners on the failure of major equipment, tailing dams and sea walls in claims for property damage and business interruption losses, addressing a variety of insurance issues including design defects, faulty workmanship, average, co-insurance, non-disclosure, reasonable precautions, notifications, deductibles, sub-limits etc. 

• Acted in the landmark decision on the ‘subsequent damage’ proviso to the faulty workmanship exclusion after the collapse of a coal reclaimer originated in a faulty weld (the Court accepting that collapse damage was covered due to the proviso) – Prime Infrastructure v Vero QCA 

• Assisted a government and private sector alliance (Gold Coast Desalination Plant) to resolve several issues encountered during construction of a desalination plant, involving construction, design, insurance and contracting issues, including recovery of losses under first party PI cover due to professional errors and LEG2 exclusion issues. 

• Involved in the planning phase of various projects to workshop risk identification as part of the design of the insurance programs for the projects (and the subsequent audit of insurance programs of companies after incidents exposed potential gaps in cover). 

• Advising corporates, directors and auditors through regulatory investigations by the ACCC and ASIC and in the Financial Services Royal Commission. 

• Assisted with the resolution of both majority and minority shareholder and JV partner disputes including shareholder oppression claims and valuation issues. 

• More details of my career history and experience can be found on my Linkedin.