I provide employers with commercial and strategic advice on all aspects of employment and work health and safety law. Originally from Canberra, I have practised at top-tier firms in both Perth and Sydney.

I specialise in employment litigation and have represented employers in proceedings in the Federal Court, Federal Circuit Court, the Supreme Courts of WA and NSW, and the Fair Work Commission. This includes defending breach of contract claims by executives, pursuing urgent restraint of trade and injurious falsehood injunctions against ex-employees, general protections and unfair dismissal claims.

I also have a particular focus on advising employers on complex and sensitive workplace investigations arising under relevant public sector misconduct, whistleblower and public interest disclosure legislation, including fraud and integrity issues.

I also have a strong WHS focus, regularly advising employers managing serious safety incidents, regulatory incident investigations, and resulting prosecutions and civil litigation.

I specialise in working with State and Commonwealth government-owned corporations. I undertook a secondment as in-house Senior Legal Counsel at NBN Co in Sydney between 2014 and 2017. I also work with clients in the tertiary education, mining and resources, financial services and construction sectors.

Career highlights

• Advised a national construction company in 2018 in obtaining urgent injunctive relief against a former employee relying on the rarely-used tort of injurious falsehood.
• In 2018 acted for a government corporation in a general protections claim by a former employee in the Federal Circuit Court, and successfully argued an application to have the proceedings summarily dismissed.
• Acted for a national agribusiness company in successfully obtaining a restraint of trade injunction against a former employee in 2016.
• In 2015, I appeared on behalf of a Commonwealth government corporation and successfully defended an unfair dismissal claim by an ex-employee in the Fair Work Commission.
• Advised various tertiary education institutions and international companies in relation to sensitive and complex internal investigations regarding whistleblower, fraud and integrity issues.
• Advised various clients in the construction, resources and telecommunications sectors in relation to workplace fatalities, including urgent incident management and response, regulatory and internal WHS incident investigations and resulting regulator prosecutions and civil litigation.