Sam Tempone

• Successfully negotiating the recovery of about $25 million for three insurers and 250 plaintiffs in the Victorian Supreme Court regarding property damage and farming losses arising from the 2018 Terang and Garvoc bushfires.
• Successfully acting for three major insurers and 400 plaintiffs in the Supreme Court of Tasmania regarding property damage losses arising from a bushfire totalling almost $30 million (Prestage v Barrett [2021] TASSC 27). This trial was the Supreme Court of Tasmania’s first electronic trial. Sam had sole responsibility for developing and managing the electronic Court Book throughout the four week trial.
• Assisting in acting for five major insurers and their customers in the Supreme Court of Western Australia against Western Power, its contractor and a landowner in relation to the 2014 Parkerville bushfire. This included leveraging technology to assist in the review and management of over 20,000 discovered and subpoenaed documents and a voluminous electronic Court Book.
• Sam also assisted in acting for his clients in preparing for the Court of Appeal and High Court proceedings that followed the Parkerville bushfire trial.  The High Court of Australia ruled 5-0 in favour of our clients, finding all three defendants liable for the substantial property damage losses incurred by our clients (Electricity Networks Corporation Trading as Western Power v Herridge Parties & Ors [2022] HCA 37).
• Acting for two major insurers in the Supreme Court of New South Wales regarding property damage losses arising from a bushfire.  Sam recovered about $2.6 million in damages and costs for his clients, which resulted in significant distributions for uninsured loss to farmers and business owners who were not in a position to seek recovery of these amounts on their own.
• Acting for a major insurer in the Supreme Court of Victoria and recovering over $1.4 million (including 100% of costs) regarding property damage losses arising from a bushfire. 
• Acting as a damages assessor following the settlement of the Kilmore East and Murrindindi Black Saturday bushfires class actions. Sam completed over 100 economic loss and property damage assessments and insurance payment summaries. Sam assisted his insurer clients recover over $180 million.
• Acting for a start-up company in a subrogated recovery action in the Supreme Court of Victoria in relation to property damage and consequential economic loss totalling more than $10 million.  This included defeating a strike-out application brought by the defendants.
• Acting for QBE in a dispute relating to arson. Sam successfully obtained a compensation order and judgment against the convicted third party.

• Advising numerous Australian businesses in relation to a significant ransomware attack against a managed service provider. The incident involved the exfiltration of about 8 terabytes of data, along with publication on the dark web.  In this matter, we utilised machine-learning technology to expedite the review of personal information in a cost effective and efficient manner, saving significant costs and minimising regulatory risk.
• Advising an Australian organisation in relation to a significant ransomware attack.  With hundreds of client organisations potentially impacted, we engaged with the Department of Home Affairs to effectively communicate with key stakeholders.  This allowed our client to have a co-ordinated response to potentially affected government agencies, reducing the burden on our client and its response team. It allowed our team to effectively manage crisis management and focus on data breach analysis (involving the physical review of over 12,000 documents) and forensic investigation.
• Advising an Australian Financial Services Licence holder in response to an investigation commenced by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner arising from a business email compromise.
• Providing advice to a leading insurer in relation to its obligations relating to personal and sensitive information under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
• Acting as incident response provider/breach coach and/or legal advisor in the event of cyber security incidents or data breaches, providing an urgent triage and assessment of the incident and risks.
• Managing the incident response process, including the engagement of cyber security and other expert vendors, along with directing IT forensic investigations. 
• Cyber insurance coverage advice to leading Australian cyber insurers.
• Providing privacy and other legal advice in respect of actual or suspected data breaches or security incidents, including drafting notifications to and engaging with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and individuals affected by data breaches.

• Acting for homeowners whose rental properties were significantly damaged by the driver of a motor vehicle (who claimed the accident was inevitable). 
• Acting for QBE in indemnity disputes regarding hail storm damage to domestic homes.
• Acting for QBE in a multi-million dollar indemnity dispute with an insured who suffered fire damage to its leaf dryer plan.

• Acting for a number of insurers regarding motor vehicle collisions, detainment of vehicles by repairers and indemnity disputes. Sam has appeared at countless directions hearings, mediations and pre-hearing conferences relating to motor claims.

Australian Law Awards 2024
Finalist | Senior Associate of the Year

Lawyers Weekly 30 Under 30 Awards 2023
Finalist | Insurance