Company: DLA Piper
Job title: Senior associate
Sophie Hudson began her career with DLA Piper in 2012 following her move from the UK. She specialises in general and liability insurance and is well known and respected in the insurance industry and wider firm. She not only has excellent technical abilities (attention to detail and sound legal analysis), which enables quality service delivery, but she also understands the commercial needs of insurance clients, which resulted in her promotion to senior associate last year. Hudson’s work involves advising clients on complex legal arguments, often with multimillion-dollar implications. In the context of disputes arising out of the Canterbury earthquakes, she has acted on many residential insurance claims and successfully negotiated outcomes both in mediations and judicial settlement conferences. Hudson is just as committed to contributing to the wider legal profession and insurance industry. She is vice president of the Young Insurance Professionals, which puts on networking functions and educational events within the insurance industry, and she’s an ongoing contributing editor to Colinvaux's Law of Insurance in New Zealand, the leading insurance text in the country. Within the firm, Huson is a Change Champion, supporting the firm through a major change management programme which includes a shift to open plan and digital transformation.