The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has appointed four new ombudsmen, including one who will focus on general insurance matters and another who will concentrate on life insurance.

Corporate lawyer Evelyn Halls will cover insurance, a spokesman for FOS told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

Ms Halls was formerly a partner in the corporate group at Herbert Smith Freehills, advising companies, managed funds and statutory bodies on transactional and corporate governance issues.

She also spent several years in the firm’s revenue law group, advising on tax and stamp duty matters. Ms Halls is a two-time Olympic fencer.

Nicole McCutcheon will focus on complex investment, life insurance and superannuation.

She has assisted FOS with drafting determinations in these areas for the past two years and before that was litigation counsel at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), working in enforcement.

Ms McCutcheon started her career at Minter Ellison and has also worked for the UK Financial Services Authority on secondment from ASIC.

Justi Tonti-Filippini and Michael Pearce have also joined FOS.

Ms Tonti-Filippini has worked as an in-house lawyer for a major bank and was a special counsel at Ashurst, specialising in retail banking and financial services.

Mr Pearce is a barrister, practising commercial law, including bank, finance and credit law.

FOS has 13 ombudsmen, two lead ombudsmen and Chief Ombudsman Shane Tregillis.