Travis Toemoe specialises in large scale litigation across the energy & resources and construction industries. Travis also has a strong background in advising on insurance issues - both contentious and non-contentious.
Insurance
Travis is the head of the KWM Insurance practice and leads a busy practice combining both front-end insurance advice and a variety of insurance disputes across Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. Specialising in high-value insurance disputes, Travis has enjoyed a tremendous growth in the practice on account of his conduct of several significant insurance litigation mandates including his continued advice on the most complex disputes to the Legal Practitioners' Liability Committee, various of the big 4 banks and the high-profile Star COVID-19 insurance case. Travis also provides front-end insurance advice on policy wording, potential claims coverage, insurance wording for large contracts, and due diligence for major transactions and multi-national corporations including D&O, PI, ISR, Public Liability and Cyber insurance related advice.
Construction
Travis also has a significant constructions disputes practice with a focus on large infrastructure disputes across Australia and increasingly overseas. He has advised on many of the disputes on the Royal Adelaide Hospital project (involving both contractor and client claims), road infrastructure disputes in NSW, New Zealand and South Australia, energy disputes in Western Australia and NSW, and disputes over desalination projects. These disputes have involved arbitration, litigation and alternative dispute resolution processed.
Travis is held in high regard not only by clients and within the industry, but by his fellow partners and colleagues.
Chambers Quotes 2023
Travis specialises in the handling of major insurance disputes but is also active across a wide range of advisory and transactional mandates. Client: “He is very practical, very technical, very responsive and highly collegiate.”
Travis' work highlights include:
- The Star: acting for The Star Entertainment Group Limited (and other entities in The Star group) in its claim against the insurers of its Industrial Special Risks (ISR) insurance policy for business interruption losses suffered in connection with COVID-19.
- Advising many of Australia's top-tier law firms and their insurers on their most significant professional indemnity claims.
- Acting for the Builder of the Royal Adelaide Hospital project in a range of disputes including arbitrations over defects, Supreme Court litigation, and expert determinations.
- Westconnex: advising the CSJ joint venture on a range of construction and insurance issues following its completion of its D&C contract on Sydney's WestConnex M4 east project.
- Large multinational: acting in relation to its pursuit of the EPCM contractor on a failed project to expand an underground mine.
- Major international insurer: acting for the Australian arm of this insurer in a dispute with its reinsurers over the extent of reinsurance cover available for a group life policy. This dispute resulted in the successful negotiation of extended reinsurance cover for the relevant group life policy.
- Glencore: acting on a range of revenue related matters including the market-leading tax transfer pricing case of Cobar Management v Commissioner of Taxation
In addition to his busy practice, Travis co-chairs KWM's gender working group with Rachael Lewis and is involved in the firm's indigenous pro-bono practice.
