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Ben Dodgshun
Partner, Melbourne
I have a broad-based, commercial litigation and dispute resolution practice with particular expertise in land tax, property development, leasing, business/share sale, and consumer law disputes.

Ben is a leading commercial litigator and public sector lawyer with over 15 years of experience in handling commercial, corporate and property disputes, land tax challenges and administrative law matters.

Ben's expertise is externally recognised, including in the Best Lawyer list for litigation since 2009, and for his public sector experience as a "Leading public and administrative law solicitor" in Victoria in Doyle's Guide.

Ben has acted in matters for EnergyAustralia, Dexus, Lendlease, Stockland, DHL, Mirvac, University of Melbourne, Heinz, Optus, Crown Casino, Hertz and AGL. He specialises in handling disputes in the following sectors:

  • Corporate and commercial – share sale, asset sale and general corporate disputes, including change of control and oppression claims;
  • Property – real estate, property development, hotel, rent review, land access and leasing disputes; and
  • Technically complex disputes in the energy, life sciences, insurance, engineering, ACCC/consumer protection, franchising and shipping sectors.

Ben has acted over many years for landowners in the State's most important and precedent-setting land tax and land valuation disputes, successfully challenging valuations for landmark sites such as the Port of Melbourne and the Southern Cross Station and securing land tax refunds for clients such as Toll, DP World, Lendlease, Mirvac and Intercontinental Hotel.

Ben also is a trusted advisor to the Victorian Government, acting in a range of public and administrative law disputes and is the firm's Client Relationship Partner for the State of Victoria. He has successfully defended Victorian Government Departments and agencies – including the State of Victoria, Department of Transport and Planning, Department of Health and the Department of Treasury and Finance – in significant challenges and claims, and advises on statutory construction and other administrative law areas.

Career highlights

Land tax / land valuation disputes

  • Port of Melbourne Corporation and a group of its tenants, including Asciano, DP World and Toll - a landmark land tax challenge to the site value of the Port of Melbourne. The outcome of this challenge was a decrease of the annual taxable value of the land by more than $400m.
  • Southern Cross Station - land tax dispute against the State Revenue Office in VCAT and on appeal in the Supreme Court of Victoria, reducing the total taxable value of the land by over $70m.
  • WSTI – a landmark case in which involving a successful challenge a land valuation of a historical building, resolving contentious issues to the proper approach to heritage properties, and upholding the outcome on appeal to the Victorian Supreme Court.
  • Intercontinental Hotel – successful challenged land tax assessments on the Collins St site, reducing the taxable value of the land to $1, having regard to the planning and heritage constraints.

Corporate / commercial disputes

  • EnergyAustralia – a Supreme Court of Victoria claim seeking over $1b in damages for breach of warranty and alleged non-disclosures under an asset sale agreement transaction by a purchaser of underground gas storage facility.
  • McDonnell Dowell – a $20m share sale warranty dispute arising out of a sale of a subsidiary in the Federal Court of Australia.
  • Salter Brothers – successfully defended a claim worth in excess of $15m brought by three investors in a real estate investment platform seeking compensation and refunds of investments under the ASIC Act and Corporations Act based on alleged misleading and unconscionable conduct.
  • Inoviq – a $30m claim for an ASX listed company in the Supreme Court of Victoria in a dispute with a shareholder over alleged breaches of share sale agreement obligations to develop a lung cancer treatment, involving complex share valuation issues.
  • ACCC Australian Consumer Law and other regulatory proceedings for clients such as Heinz, IAG and Optus concerning allegations of misleading or deceptive conduct and other statutory claims.
  • Confidential arbitration for a large European safety consulting organisation – an arbitrated dispute over the acquisition of an Australian company. The dispute involved alleged breaches of warranties and misleading conduct about EBITDA and cash flow projections.
  • Confidential arbitration between major international energy industry participants – an arbitration in Brisbane administered by the Singapore International Arbitration Centre relating to alleged breach of a share sale agreement and misleading or deceptive conduct concerning the sale of significant gas assets, with combined claims in excess of $US1 billion

Property disputes

  • Land development disputes - acting for national property development clients such as Lendlease, DHL, Frasers, Brookfield Multiplex, Mirvac, in providing dispute and risk management strategy/advice on property and development contractual disputes. Ben's work includes advising on managing risk and disputed issues arising during development and acting in back-end litigation.
  • Commercial and retail leasing disputes for institutional landlords – managing institutional landlord disputes for clients such as Dexus, Stockland, GPT, Vicinity, Growthpoint, Goodman and Charter Hall in various disputes with tenants, managing disputes from pre-litigation strategy through to court proceedings.
  • Complex sale of commercial property disputes – acts in high value land sale disputes, including advising on termination risks and acting in disputes following from failures to complete. Recent examples of this work include acting in a dispute over the sale of a retirement village land worth approximately $40m in which the sale did not complete, involving allegations of repudiation and wrongful termination by the vendor.
  • Crown Casino – successfully defended a claim against a restaurant tenant claiming in excess of $20m in a loss of profits claim based on alleged pre-lease misleading conduct, including overturning an adverse judgment first instance decision in VCAT and acting in subsequent appeals, including successfully defending the decision in the High Court of Australia.
  • Pacific Hotels / QIC – successfully overturned a $30m VCAT rent review determination decision worth approximately in the Victorian Court of Appeal concerning the proper approach to valuation of hotel sites with gaming machines.

Administrative law / public sector

  • Mackenzie & Ors – successfully defended the Department of Transport at trial and on appeal to the Court of Appeal and High Court of Australia in a long running administrative dispute brought by local residents challenging environmental approvals for a major infrastructure project on a range of administrative law grounds.
  • Thorpe – acted for the State of Victoria and the Minister for Transport in a challenge to major road upgrade project by reason of alleged non-compliance with the Aboriginal Heritage Act seeking declarations on invalidity of the approved cultural heritage management plans and whether prior work breached the Aboriginal Heritage Act. This work also included acting in urgent interlocutory injunctions seeking to stop work and defending resisting contempt proceedings.
  • Department of Health – acted for the Department in a prosecution brought by Worksafe arising the Hotel Quarantine program.
  • KFBL – acted for the State of Victoria in breach of statutory duty claim brought by a bus operator claiming damages in excess of $30m arising from the suspension of operating licences
  • Onus – acted for the State of Victoria in a series of Federal Court challenges involving the Commonwealth Minister for Environment and applications for declarations under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Protection Act. This work included successfully resisting injunctions sought against the State of Victoria seeking to stop work pending the outcome of related challenges.
  • Freedom of Information Act matters - acted for a range of Victorian Government Departments and agencies (including Department of Health, Department of Finance and Treasury, Department of Education and Department of Transport) on contested FOI matters, including advice on exemptions, assisting in preparation of reasons and acting in appeals in VCAT, including successfully defending agency decisions / overturning adverse OVIC decision (see, for example, Department of Health v Lovell (Review & Regulation) [2024] VCAT 998, Davis v Department of Health (Review and Regulation) [2023] VCAT 493, QEX v Department of Health (Review and Regulation) [2022] VCAT 349)
  • University of Melbourne - Ben has worked with the University of Melbourne on a range of matters, including regulatory issues and compliance reviews. Ben has also assisted the University of Melbourne with civil disputes arising out of commercial partner programs, funding agreements and leasing/licence disputes.

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