Founder & Board Member
Nathan Hepple
Nathan is a Founder and Board Member of HBA Legal, a Director of Lion Underwriting and, as part of Big 5 Investments, he personably backs smart and ambitious entrepreneurs to scale their businesses for long term success.
Nathan is always thinking outside the box; his broad leadership experience has equipped him to be a keen listener and problem solver, working with people in a supportive and candid way to bring out their best.
Nathan’s legal expertise lies in insurance litigation, representing major insurers, self-insureds and large Australian companies with significant deductibles. Over many years, he has built relationships in London that have given HBA an enviable reputation as a valued business partner amongst stakeholders placing risk into the Lloyd’s market and their underwriters.
After 14 years practising in big name law firms, Nathan co-founded HBA Legal, determined to “find a way to give clients a better law firm experience”. For years it had grated on Nathan that the more inefficient a lawyer was, the more the client was billed for the job. Nathan had witnessed it all, having first entered law firm environments straight out of high school in 1998 (obtaining his law degree via distance education, while working full time across both plaintiff and defendant law firms). Nathan was driven to reinvent a new law firm model and HBA was born on NewLaw principles, offering fast, efficient, and commercially savvy legal solutions.
Nathan later went on to co-create Paratus Claims (third party administration) and Pillion (legal technology solutions), to create the HBA Group.
During the time that HBA Legal was owned by global claims management business Crawford & Company, Nathan held a global role within Crawford Legal Services and sat on the Australian Executive Committee.
In 2020, Nathan teamed up with three insurance industry peers to create Big 5 Investments, an investment syndicate focused on backing early-stage companies, led by enthusiastic founders, with products or services that boast a clear point of difference.
In 2024, Nathan was appointed to the Board of Lion Underwriting.
Today at HBA, Nathan guides the business management of the firm. He is committed to supporting the Executive Leadership Team to maintain HBA’s strong team culture.
Personal Awards/ Accreditations
Legal background
Nathan spent his early career years with firms such as Sparke Helmore, Minter Ellison and DibbsBarker.
Among Australian self-insured companies, Nathan is still considered one of the best at defending public liability claims made against them. His track record extends to thousands of ‘slip and fall’ matters including the precent setting case of Woolworths Ltd v McQuillan [2017] NSWCA 202, which is seen as a breakthrough case on the question for the test of “reasonable inspection”.
Nathan was the instructing partner on a number of other notable cases, working with the wider HBA team, to secure defendant wins in Iacopetta v Woolworths Ltd [2015] NSWCA 87, Vincent v Woolworths [2015] NSWSC 435 and Andreou v Woolworths [2013] NSWDC 83.
While Nathan no longer works on legal matters day-to-day, his experience makes him an invaluable brains trust to HBA’s wider casualty team.
Why clients like him
Nathan’s focus on design of models for managing risk to avoid litigation, is highly valued by HBA clients.
He is approachable and authentic, with creative problem solving skills that deliver the best outcome in the most efficient way. He is a keen listener, while being supportive and candid.
Nathan is known for thinking outside of the box and is not constrained by doing things a certain way because “that’s how they’ve always been done.”
