We are delighted to announce that Jessica Chapman, a lawyer in W+K’s Sydney Financial Lines team, has won the Australian Insurance Law Association’s (AILA) inaugural Gill Award, which recognises lawyers for their research on issues that could affect the industry’s future.

In her award submission, Jessica wrote and presented on: Decrypting crypto: The state of play and how insurers can catch up to the cryptocurrency boom. Jessica sees the cryptocurrency industry’s massive value as an opportunity for insurers worldwide and thinks cryptocurrency exchanges would be willing to pay big premiums to mitigate the significant risk of large-scale hacks. She acknowledges there are risks in covering cryptocurrency exchanges, and related companies, but believes these can be mitigated. For example, suggesting insurers could hold their own crypto-assets and write policy limits in cryptocurrency as opposed to flat currency.

The Gill Award honours AILA founder, Michael Gill. Jessica’s AUD10,000 prize will enable her to attend an international insurance law association (AIDA) event and present her paper to an AIDA working party.

You can read more here in AILA’s full media release.

Congratulations Jessica!