Ruth Overington

Partner

Melbourne, Australia

Ruth has more than 20 years’ experience advising clients involved in major class actions, regulatory investigations, insurance claims and contractual disputes.

Ruth currently acts for defendants in complex and often multi-party litigation including class actions issued in the Federal Court of Australia. the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Ruth regularly defends cartel class actions, consumer class actions, product liability class actions, mass tort and environmental class actions as well as financial product class actions.

Ruth acts for clients in the financial services, technology, automotive, energy and the consumer products sectors.

Ruth also represents clients in regulatory investigations and provides advice and representation on insurance issues to companies and their directors and officers.

Background

Ruth holds a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne. She also holds a Master of Laws from the University of Melbourne. Ruth is admitted to practice across Australia.

Market Recognition

Ruth is regularly recognised a class action expert in various publications and was awarded the “Lawyer of the Year” in Class Action Litigation in Melbourne in 2022 in The Best Lawyers in Australia publication.

Experience & expertise

Selected matters

acting for AusNet Services in its defence of the three largest class actions to arise out of the Black Saturday bushfires in 2009 (Matthews v AusNet Services, Rowe v AusNet Services, Merceica v AusNet Services);
acting for UBS AG in its defence of a class action in relation to the sale of FX instruments;
acting for Toyota Motor Corporation Limited in its defence of a product liability class action in relation to the use of Takata airbags;
acting for large Australian financial and insurance institutions in their defence of a class action concerning the sale of consumer credit insurance;
acting for large Australian financial institutions in their defence of a class action in relation to the provision of consumer motor vehicle asset finance;
acting for a large Australian property trust in relation to alleged claims of breach of trustee duties;
acting for AusNet Services in its defence of two class actions arising in relation to bush fires which ignited in 2014;
acting for Lufthansa Cargo AG in its defence of a class action in relation to the sale of air cargo;
acting for a large aged care provider in relation to a technology dispute;
acting for various corporations involved in schemes of arrangements;
acting for a large digital advertising company in relation to various contractual disputes;
acting for a large consumer products company in its defence of an allegation of breach of the continuous disclosure obligations;
acting for a large energy company in relation to a mud volcano in Indonesia.