Carmen Sainsbury

Carmen specialises in insurance litigation with a particular focus on financial lines including professional indemnity, directors & officers, management liability, and financial institutions.

Carmen acts for a wide range of insurers and insured professionals across multiple industries. She regularly represents builders, engineers, and certifiers in construction professional indemnity matters, as well as professionals in design, medical, legal, real estate, property valuation, and financial services industries. She also advises directors & officers, financial institutions, fund managers, and allied health providers.

Carmen spent her early legal career working in a growing insurance practice in Sydney where she went on secondment in London to work as a foreign qualified lawyer for three years. Carmen has previously worked in-house for one of Australia’s largest insurers where she provided legal advice to a wide range of internal stakeholders across the insurance business focusing primarily on the professional indemnity claims team.

‘Barry Nilsson appealed to me as a firm of practitioners who hold themselves to a high technical standard and provide commercial advice which clients appreciate as practical and efficient. The firm’s fantastic culture and attitude towards inclusivity and diversity is a wonderful attribute.'

Carmen takes a strategic and commercial approach to every matter, enjoying the challenge of complex policy interpretation and coverage issues. She enjoys analysing intricate liability and causation questions and focuses on delivering advice that is efficient, practical, and aligned with her clients’ objectives.