Athena Markides

Insurance & Reinsurance

Athena has extensive experience in insurance matters. She has advised, drafted pleadings and represented parties in coverage disputes as well as professional liability and recovery proceedings.

Most recently, she has advised and acted for parties in relation to coverage issues arising from the Covid-19 pandemic. As such, she is very familiar with both the relevant legislation and the science in this area.

She has also advised and acted for parties in claims involving Consumer Insurance (Disclosure and Representations) Act 2012 and the 2015 Insurance Act, as well as in pre-Insurance Act claims involving material misrepresentation, non-disclosure, moral hazard, fraud, fraudulent device, breach of contract and dual coverage.

Athena spent a year on part-time secondment to a leading London insurance firm, where she worked closely with a team of solicitors on high value and international insurance matters, negotiations and claims involving coverage and recovery elements. This reinforced Athena’s understanding of the needs of her instructing solicitors and of their clients and how best to deliver for both.

Selected Cases

• Drafted a protocol for Insurers for the assessment of Covid-19 business interruption claims in light of their standard policy wording.
• Acted for insurers who successfully declined cover on the basis of fraudulent/reckless breach of the duty of fair presentation under to the Insurance Act 2015 (settled out of court).
• Acted for insurers who successfully declined cover for misrepresentation pursuant to CIDRA 2012 (settled out of court).
• Acted for insurers who declined cover for misrepresentation/non-disclosure (pre-insurance Act) in relation to a landlord’s policy. This case raised issues including agents’ knowledge (and whether this can be imputed to a landlord) and Nelsonian blindness.
• Acted for insurers in a claim concerning the interpretation of a home insurance policy.
• Advised on dual coverage (the interplay between EL and PL policies) in a claim in which an employee was injured whilst undertaking work for his employer which ostensibly fell outside the course of his employment.
• Advised on the interpretation of a motor insurance policy, in particular the scope of a fraud exclusion.
• Advised in a matter involving alleged broker’s negligence.
• Successfully represented an insurer which had declined cover following the insured’s failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent the theft of a musical instrument.
• Advised on the effects of the Third Party (Rights Against Insurers) Act 1930 in a claim where the defendant company was in liquidation.

Awards

• Lincolns Inn BPTC Lord Denning Scholarship (2010)
• Lincolns Inn Hardwicke Entrance Award (2009)
• Cambridge European Trusts Scholarship (2009)
• Trinity Hall Dr Cooper Law Studentship (2009)
• Trinity Hall Alan King-Hamilton Bursary for Excellence (2009)
• Winner of the Cambridge University De Smith Mooting Competition (2009)
• Winner of the Trinity Hall Law Society Moot (2006 & 2009)

News

• Athena Markides, Chair of the Young Barristers’ Committee, to co-chair at the Annual Bar & Young Bar Conference 2019
• Robert Stokell, Anna Laney, Daniel Shaw, and Athena Markides to lecture on advocacy at the University of Cambridge

Read more

Events

• Athena Markides, Chair of the Young Barristers’ Committee, to co-chair at the Annual Bar & Young Bar Conference 2019

Articles

• Athena Markides writes article on Interplay between Civil Liability (Contribution) Act 1978

Qualifications

• BA (Hons), University of Cambridge (2005 – 2009)
• Erasmus Exhange, Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands (2007 – 2008)
• LLM, University of Cambridge (2009 – 2010)
• BPTC, BPP Law School (2010 – 2011)

Memberships

• COMBAR
• LCLCBA
• PNBA
• PIBA
• TECBAR
• European Circuit

Athena is also an elected member of the Bar Council and a member of the Young Bar Committee and EU Law Committee.