Lawyers
Lauren McKeown
Phone: +61 8 9492 2222 | Email: lauren.mckeown@jmck.com.au
Areas of practice: Insurance
Lauren completed a Bachelor of Science (Health and Safety) at Curtin University of Technology in 2001 and a Bachelor of Laws (Graduate) Degree at the University of Western Australia in 2007. She was admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in February 2009.
While completing the final year of her undergraduate degree, Lauren worked for QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited in the capacity of underwriting assistant and workers' compensation claims officer. Following graduation in 2001, Lauren commenced in the role of Risk Management Adviser with QBE Insurance (Australia) Limited Workers' Compensation Team, where she was responsible for undertaking and reporting on, occupational safety and health audits, covering a broad range of industries.
Upon completion of full time tertiary studies in law, Lauren worked for GIO General Limited and a workers' compensation case manager. In this role Lauren was responsible for the ongoing management of workers' compensation claims, including injury management, requesting and evaluating factual investigations, and attending the Conciliation & Review Directorate (now the Dispute Resolution Directorate) and informal conferences. She was also responsible for training junior staff in workers' compensation claims management.
In July 2005 Lauren commenced employment with Downings Legal in the capacity of law clerk/advocate and, from November 2007, articled clerk. She joined Sparke Helmore Lawyers in the capacity of articled clerk in May 2008 and commenced employment with Jarman McKenna in the capacity of solicitor in July 2009.
Whilst working for Downings Legal and Sparke Helmore, and since commencing with Jarman McKenna, Lauren's work has included file review and strategy consideration, drafting letters of instruction to practitioners and investigators as well as general correspondence to parties regarding a wide range of matters, interviewing and proofing witnesses in preparation for dispute resolution conferences and researching diverse areas of workers' compensation and public liability law in order to provide comprehensive advice with respect to the current law to both clients and solicitors on a day to day basis.
Lauren also has experience in the arena of workers compensation self insurance and was at one time directly employed by a large self insured employer as a workers' compensation claims officer. In this role Lauren was responsible for the day to day management of workers' compensation claims and occupational safety and health issues as well as attending the Conciliation and Review Directorate (now the Dispute Resolution Directorate), preparing training for staff with respect to occupational safety and health, undertaking site audits at various locations throughout the metropolitan area and statistical reporting to senior management.