Government

(including PPPs and asset sales) 

Major projects require support across the whole project lifecycle, from project inception, project design, structuring and strategic advice, project approvals, environment and planning, project risk identification and allocation, procurement methodology selection, transaction documentation, project tool box and manual preparation, project execution and contract administration, defect close out and claims/ dispute resolution. Our extensive experience allows us to support governments seeking innovative solutions and commercial and strategic support on their most complex projects and transactions. We have a strong history of successfully advising on PPPs and also on the purchase and sale of assets and large-scale government privatisations.

We have successfully advised governments around Australia on high profile, complex and strategically important major projects. We pride ourselves on the relationships we have built across government and our intricate knowledge of key objectives and drivers for government in major project procurement.

Our government clients benefit from the experience our lawyers have gained working for both the government and the private sector on successful bids for complex and large-scale projects across a broad range of industries including roads, rail, airports, ports, healthcare, education, energy, water and telecommunications. We use our understanding of the private side's risk profiles to bring our government clients' contracts to market quickly, streamlining the procurement process and optimising value for money.

Our team will:

• Successfully manage the whole lifecycle of a major project
• Bring lessons learned from common claims and disputes that arise on major projects to mitigate risk in the delivery phase
• Anticipate and advise on the complex issues that often arise on major projects and provide cost efficient and commercial outcomes that balance the diverse interests of stakeholders
• Deliver insights on major project regulation, risks and trends as market leaders.

Governments face unique issues and challenges in managing governance, commercial and corporate requirements. These include complex services agreements, commercial transactions, consultancy agreements, mergers and acquisitions, insurance, funding and grant agreements, intellectual property, information technology, joint ventures and procurement.

We provide solutions to help governments comply with all relevant legal and regulatory state and federal frameworks, including those governing the use of IP, relating to privacy and data (including the Notifiable Data Breach scheme) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our interdisciplinary technology, privacy, data protection and cyber security legal experts, provide support on large scale ICT procurement and outsourcing transactions, advise on local and international privacy, data protection and cyber security risks and issues, and assist with crisis and reputation management.

We understand the challenges associated with governance and commercial law and are cognisant of the pressures faced by the government in resolving related matters. We work closely with our clients to:

• Ensure effective and compliant handling of both large scale and routine corporations and commercial law matters
• Mitigate future risks by implementing effective agreements and contracts
• Ensure contracts and agreements are appropriately structured to deliver the required policy outcomes and meet our clients' objectives
• Apply technical corporations and commercial law to the 'real world' to ensure strategic objectives are met.

Government clients require support for the complex and strategically important issues relating to the machinery of government and the structure and functioning of legislative and decision-making processes. We have advised a large number of government departments (both at the State and Federal level), statutory authorities and other public sector organisations for more than 40 years on all aspects of statutory interpretation, good decision-making, privacy, FOI, merits review and judicial review challenges, regulatory practices and powers, and delegations.

We also bring strong litigation and dispute resolution credentials to the table, robustly defending administrative decisions for government clients in tribunals and courts.

We provide practical and strategic support to government agencies in managing FOI and access to information requests. Our specialist team understands the challenges of balancing transparency and accountability of open government with the need to protect sensitive information and obligations of privacy, confidentiality and secrecy. We are familiar with, and have advised on, cutting edge issues in public law, including the benefits and risks of use of new technology in government decision-making, and contracting for the provision of external services to assist with government decision-making.

Heath & ageing

Advisors to the government sector require a sophisticated understanding of policy, regulation, compliance, risk, funding and data management. Our team can assist with the day to day issues of managing a health service, solutions for health projects, serious incident management, implications and impact of health innovations and understanding how complex government policy and legislative requirements apply.

Competition

We offer our clients deep experience advising both public and private clients on anti-competitive and unfair market practices, mergers and acquisitions, market regulation and consumer law. Government clients require specialist experience in the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), including competition and consumer protection.

Tax

Our work within the public sector has been wide ranging - including complex large scale urban renewal, land and housing development and infrastructure projects, public private partnerships and social and affordable housing developments.

There are unique challenges and opportunities that distinguish government from the private sector. We have direct oversight of current and emerging tax issues and compliance concerns of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

Our national Workplace team has played important advisory and advocacy roles in some of Australia's most high profile employment, industrial relations, safety and prosecution matters. The team has a reputation for providing sound, strategic advice and applying technical skills to the 'real world' of the workplace.

We offer a highly experienced legal team with long-standing, deep relationships with Commonwealth, State and Territory governments.