Michael Tehan |Partner

Michael’s substantial Government practice demands a detailed understanding of administrative and public law and statutory interpretation. Michael has significant experience in this area, advising diverse Commonwealth, State and Territory government entities for more than 25 years. He has advised on whistle blower obligations, freedom of information issues, privacy, procedural fairness, public sector employment obligations, anti-discrimination and equal opportunity law, and defended judicial review applications in the Supreme Court and Federal Court.

Michael has significant public and private sector experience in the industrial implications of major workplace restructuring. He has advised on transmission of business obligations, the application of various industrial instruments, and on industrial issues arising from restructuring, downsizing and outsourcing. He has particular expertise in highly unionised industries, as well as major change implementation and management in public sector organisations.

Michael has particular expertise and extensive involvement in the education sector. For almost 20 years he has provided strategic advice to the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development on wide ranging sensitive matters. They include inter-governmental relations, statutory interpretation, policy formulation and implementation, whistle blower protection, FOI, and discrimination cases brought by students and teachers. He has advised and acted in numerous disciplinary action cases against teachers on issues ranging from poor performance to sexual misconduct.

Michael also deals widely in industrial and employment law matters, unfair dismissal, industrial disputes, test cases before Full Benches of Fair Work Australia and its predecessors, and negotiation advice in enterprise agreements. In the past and currently, Michael has been active in local school councils and a number of leading educational and professional institutes and advisory bodies.

Michael is a leading Australian employment lawyer. He advises both private and public sector employers across the full spectrum of employment-related matters.

His expertise includes the preparation of employment agreements, executive contracts, leave obligations, interpretation of awards and enterprise agreements, disciplinary and termination issues, anti-discrimination and sexual harassment, post-employment restraints and transmission of business issues.

In litigation, his practice spans unfair dismissals, breach of contract claims, discrimination matters and responses to adverse action and general protection proceedings.

Michael is a key advisor to several Commonwealth and State agencies including Victoria's largest employer, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (50,000 employees).

Michael advises wide ranging public and private sector organisations on all aspects of discrimination law. He has defended employers, education providers, not-for-profit and religious bodies, government agencies, and public and private companies. These cases involved varied discrimination allegations such as disability, race, age, sex, sexual harassment, and union membership. Michael has also acted for government departments on highly sensitive, media-scrutinised termination and discrimination matters.

Michael is a long-standing advisor to Commonwealth and State Departments, statutory corporations and business enterprises. He is independently recognised for his government expertise and committed to the highest quality legal services. His principal areas of practice are in public sector industrial relations and employment, discrimination, constitutional, administrative and education law.

Michael is the firm’s Client Relationship Partner for the Victorian Government acting in some of its most sensitive industrial, employment and discrimination matters. His government clients value the scope of his legal expertise and his deep understanding of overlapping law, policy, politics and administration issues.

For his services in public administration, he has been appointed as a Fellow of the Victorian Division of the Institute of Public Administration Australia.

Michael has a substantial and highly regarded industrial relations practice. He is a key strategic adviser to large government and private sector employers on all aspects of industrial relations. These include enterprise bargaining strategies and agreement negotiation, responses to industrial action and disputes, freedom of association and Fair Work Australia proceedings.

Michael is highly valued for his strategic advice in sensitive industrial and union demand matters. He has litigated in numerous difficult industrial disputes in all Commonwealth and State courts and tribunals, including the 1989 pilots' strike, the 1998 waterfront dispute, the three week strike at Boeing in 2007, and the 2009 Australia Post Christmas dispute.

Michael's leading employment and labour law practice extends to occupational health and safety responsibilities. He has drafted incident notices for clients and has defended employers in prosecutions for alleged breaches of occupational health and safety laws.