My approach is to combine high quality legal advice with a strong understanding of my clients’ objectives in order to provide solutions that are useful, commercial and easily implemented. My clients appreciate my sound practical judgement, and my ability to think calmly, clearly and outside the box.

I have almost 20 years of experience advising a broad range of public and private sector organisations in relation to the full range of employment / industrial matters. Amongst other things, this regularly includes partnering with clients in relation to developing / implementing industrial relations strategies, negotiating enterprise agreements, managing industrial disputes, implementing organisational restructures, enforcing / defending alleged breaches of post-employment restraints, liaising with regulators in relation to compliance / remediation and navigating day-to-day issues that arise in relation to their employees (including the implementation of performance management and disciplinary processes, responding to bullying allegations, terminating the employment of employees, dealing with employees with mental health issues, training employees in relation to appropriate workplace behaviour and conducting workplace investigations).

I am also an expert litigator, with extensive experience in successfully defending (or otherwise resolving) high-profile litigation against organisations and their senior executives in various jurisdictions.

Career highlights

• Advising EnergyAustralia on its successful defence (both at first instance and on appeal to the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia) of the general protections claim brought against it by a senior executive, one of the most high-profile employment claims in recent years. In addition to the result vindicating the actions of EnergyAustralia and its then Managing Director, the decision had ground breaking implications for the application of the general protections provisions in the Fair Work Act and the capacity for employer's to defend such claims (Shea v EnergyAustralia Services Pty Ltd [2014] FCAFC 167; Shea v TRUenergy Services Pty Ltd (No 6) [2014] FCA 271).
• Leading the Victorian Government’s IR workstreams on the $7.9 billion modernisation of the Victorian Motor Vehicle Registry (ie procurement of private sector joint venture partner and transition to joint venture structure), $2.86 billion commercialisation of the Victorian Land Titles Office and successful long term lease of the Port of Melbourne to a private sector operator. In each case, this involved providing advice regarding legal and strategic matters associated with: (a) the design, negotiation and implementation of workforces to support the division of responsibility between the Victorian Government and private sector operators; (b) the implementation of transitional arrangements to ensure the undisrupted provision of relevant services; and (c) sophisticated and proactive communications and stakeholder management plans.
• Providing legal and strategic advice to the Australian Building and Construction Commission in relation to its successful landmark High Court appeal resulting in a unanimous judgement, overturning the earlier decision of a five member Full Court of the Federal Court regarding the correct approach to determining civil penalties (Australian Building and Construction Commissioner v Pattinson & Anor [2022] HCA 13).
• Advising Fire Rescue Victoria in relation to the first intractable bargaining declaration application (and subsequent workplace determination process) under the new intractable bargaining regime under the Fair Work Act 2009.
• Representing Deliveroo in a range of proceedings regarding the legal status of its riders, including a successful appeal to a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission which overturned an earlier finding that Deliveroo's rider was an employee and instead held that he was properly characterised as an independent contractor (Deliveroo Australia Pty Ltd v Diego Franco [2022] FWCFB 156). Ultimately, this decision confirmed the validity of Deliveroo's business model at the time such that it could continue to engage riders as independent contractors with greater certainty and confidence. The Full Bench's decision was one of the first to apply the new principles set out by the High Court in CFMMEU v Personnel Contracting Pty Ltd [2022] HCA 1 and ZG Operations PTY Ltd v Jamsek [2022] HCA 2 in relation to when a worker will be an employee as opposed to an independent contractor, and certainly the first decision considering the application of these principles to the 'gig economy'.
• Advising the Department of Education in relation to the design and implementation of procurement process to give effect to the Department's reforms regarding the engagement of cleaning service providers at Government schools (including delivering increased compliance with minimum terms and conditions of employment and maximising the ongoing employment of individuals engaged by current service providers).
• Advising a broad range of public and private sector clients – including the Department of Defence (Cth); Australian Tax Office; Department of Education and Training (Victoria); EnergyAustralia; AGL; Patties Foods; VicForests; WorkSafe Victoria; Yarra Valley Water – on legal and strategic issues related to enterprise agreement negotiations with highly unionised workforces, including managing protected and unprotected industrial action
• Advising EnergyAustralia in relation to a protracted industrial dispute in the context of enterprise bargaining at the Yallourn Power Station. In circumstances where the negotiations involved five unions covering operational and maintenance employees, we assisted EnergyAustralia to establish a strong bargaining position by: (a) pursuing strategic legal proceedings (in the Fair Work Commission, Supreme Court of Victoria and Federal Court); (b) implementing various practical measures to mitigate the effects of industrial action being taken by employees / unions; and (c) imposing financial pressure on employees through the taking of employer response action in the form of an indefinite lock-out. The combined effect of these various measures ultimately resulted in EnergyAustralia being able to broker a deal with the relevant unions in which it was able to maintain key flexibilities / managerial prerogative.
• Acting for each of Acting for DP World, Herald and Weekly Times, Port of Melbourne Corporation, WorkSafe, EnergyAustralia and Australia Post in seeking orders from the Fair Work Commission that industrial action stop and/or employees return to work.
• Acting for Kmart in seeking orders from the Fair Work Commission in relation to the transfer of industrial instruments associated with the transfer of employees from Target.
• Working with a broad range of public and private sector organisations to assess compliance with obligations regarding employee entitlements under applicable legislation and industrial instruments and, where required, implementing necessary steps for the purpose of remediating identified underpayments. This regularly involves advising on the interpretation of complex industrial entitlements involving multiple industrial instruments / legislation; partnering with data diagnostics experts to conduct detailed audits of potential underpayments; providing strategic advice in relation to remediation / rectification processes; advising and representing organisations in negotiations / investigations conducted by the Fair Work Ombudsman; and advising in relation to associated communications with employees, unions and other stakeholders.

Education
LLB (HONS) (UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, 2007); BA (UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE, 2007); POST GRADUATE CERTIFICATE IN LEGAL PRACTICE, SKILLS AND ETHICS (MONASH UNIVERSITY, 2008)

• High Court clarifies scope of adverse action protections
  

  Qantas' outsourcing decision breached adverse action protections, which the High Court clarified extend to protecting future workplace rights.

• Full Bench overturns finding that Deliveroo rider was an employee
  

  In the most significant decision regarding the characterisation of workers in the gig economy since the High Court's decisions in Personnel Contracting and Jamsek earlier this year, a Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission (FWC) yesterday overturned an earlier decision that a Deliveroo rider was an employee and instead concluded that he was correctly characterised as an independent contractor. This article highlights the key conclusions of the Full Bench in relation to how various contractual obligations will weigh in favour of workers being either employees or contractors, together with the implications of these conclusions for the engagement of workers both in the gig economy and more broadly.