A special counsel in the insurance team, Olivera advises on liability exposure, quantum assessments, strategy and settlement recommendations. She acts for insurers, multi-national companies and individuals and is highly aware of the importance of her clients' commercial objectives when balanced against achieving positive legal and business outcomes in resolving matters.
Olivera instructs counsel at hearing, work with clients to progress matters to settlement discussions or hearing, as well as appearing and arguing interlocutory matters before the District and Supreme Courts.
Olivera is adept at identifying trends in clients' data to assist them to proactively manage claims. For example, she was involved in managing a self-insured multinational company's claims portfolio, covering slip and fall, motor accidents, property damage and food contamination. Olivera assisted in collecting, preparing, interpreting and reporting on claims data for the client, and made recommendations for preventative measures to minimise the occurrence of incidents and reduce overall claims costs and premiums.
Olivera regularly defends shopping centres in slip and fall claims, where she has often been able to pass on liability to the cleaners in circumstances where they have failed in their contractual requirements. This takes her clients out of proceedings at an early stage with a judgment in their favour or alternatively, a small commercial contribution.
Olivera has also defended claims relating to large construction sites involving multiple parties and multiple issues, including workers' compensation and recovery. She worked closely with the client to understand the facts and exposure at an early stage to inform settlement strategy, to minimise legal spend on a matter, particularly in large-scale Supreme Court matters. The matter involved investigating and assessing the extent of involvement of labour hire entities on her client's site, to impart a greater liability on the labour hire entity, and minimise her client's exposure.
Olivera holds a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Western Sydney and a Master of Laws from the University of Sydney. Olivera was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 18 February 2011 and is also admitted to practice in the High Court of Australia.