Find Lawyers in Melbourne, Australia for Litigation
Select a location from the list below to find the best legal talent for your needs.
Litigation - Melbourne, Australia
About this Practice Area
Simon has a well earned reputation as an outstanding litigator and is respected throughout the profession. He is consulted by some of Australia’s most successful businesses, families and individuals for his strategic advice. Simon has established a thriving commercial litigation practice and has secured exceptional results for the firm’s clients in all major jurisdictions. Simon practices principally in the area of Commercial Litigation and carefully guides his clients through the...
Noel advises his clients on commercial disputes and related matters including banking and finance, insolvency, the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), ASIC and other regulatory issues. Noel’s clients include public and private companies, banks and other financial institutions, insolvency practitioners, manufacturers, and a significant number of large and small businesses and accountants.
Garry Bigmore QC is acknowledged as a leader in his field. Garry is recognised as an authority on bankruptcy and reconstruction law, and a leading commercial litigation and dispute resolution senior counsel. Garry was articled to the Deputy Commonwealth Crown Solicitor, admitted in 1973, joined a small CBD firm in 1976, spent the eighties as a solicitor in sole practice and merged with J. M. Smith & Emmerton in 1990. Appointed Queen's Counsel in 1994 (the first solicitor to be so appointe...
Nancy Collins is a commercial litigation lawyer with a particular focus on private family wealth disputes. Her expertise lies in this complex area of law, together with family trust, deceased estates, and business and commercial disputes. Nancy co-founded King & Collins understanding that people going through a stressful legal experience want the combination of personal attention and expertise that only a small, specialist firm can offer. Nancy understands the emotional impact of these ki...
Graydon leads the Hall & Wilcox Litigation and dispute resolution team. He acts on behalf of a number of national and overseas clients on large and complex commercial litigation matters and advises on all aspects of dispute resolution. He has particular expertise in contract disputes, negligence cases, regulatory matters including ASIC and ACCC investigations, coronial inquests and commissions, and product liability. He has advised clients in both the private and public sector. Clients ap...
David is a litigation and commercial lawyer with more than 20 years of experience. Hispractice is focused on complex commercial and contractual disputes in various Australian jurisdictions as well as providing his clients with general commercial and business advice. He has wide-ranging experience across many industries, including real estate, energy & resources (including renewable energy), manufacturing and construction, and IT. His experience has been built on being fortunate enough to ...
Chris’ major area of practice is intellectual property litigation. He has more than 30 years experience in patent, trade mark, design, copyright, trade practices and confidential information litigation on behalf of both applicants and respondents. He has also acted in patent and trade mark oppositions before IP Australia. Chris joined the firm in 1989, becoming a partner in 2001. Chris has successfully acted in a number of significant matters before State Courts and the Federal and High...
Wayne is a leading litigation and insolvency expert, with over 20 years' experience, specialising in large and complex commercial disputes in all jurisdictions, including commercial arbitrations. These disputes have incorporated insolvency related disputes, shareholder and partnership disputes as well as major construction and intellectual property litigation. Wayne’s focus is on delivering the best possible commercial outcomes when it comes to litigation and dispute resolution, and cli...
Alex King is a disputes, litigation and insolvency lawyer. He has a broad client base, which includes private clients, family-based businesses, publicly listed companies, large institutions and government bodies, in Australia and overseas. Alex recognises that his clients’ commercial imperatives are often unsuited to the costs and inconvenience of full-scale litigation and works with them to explore ways in which a dispute or litigation might be resolved quickly and commercially. Howeve...
Andrew Kirby is an experienced and successful trial advocate with extensive experience in banking and finance matters, insolvency, property, equity, corporations, and insurance. He has conducted numerous trials in the Supreme, Federal and County Courts, as well as VCAT. Andrew is also available to be briefed for urgent injunctions, applications and appeals. Andrew brings expert experience to his commercial and banking and finance cases having worked previously as an investment banker in Londo...
Kim is a partner in the firm's Dispute Resolution & Litigation practice, with a particular focus on insolvency, complex commercial disputes, and class actions. In insolvency-related matters, she regularly acts on behalf of insolvency practitioners, advising on all matters arising in the administration or liquidation of the company and has conducted applications to Court for directions, undertaken liquidators’ examinations, prosecuted proceedings against directors, advisors and other...
Katherine’s primary expertise is in corporate insolvency, the PPSA, contractual disputes, misleading and deceptive conduct, and building and construction litigation in an insolvency context. Katherine partners closely with her clients to achieve their best strategic outcome efficiently and effectively. She proactively seeks an early favourable outcome. Where this is not available, emphasis on commerciality and strategic decision-making drive her management of formal disputes. Katherine&...
Ben Phi is one of Australia’s leading plaintiff class action lawyers, having achieved overhalf a billion dollars in settlements. While he has specialised in shareholder class actions, Ben’s expertise extends across all areas of complex, high value and multi-party litigation. This includes financial advice and product claims, shareholder and director disputes, executive employment litigation, and common law personal injury claims. In his previous role, Ben oversaw the growth and ma...
Howard has more than 28 years’ commercial dispute experience and is the national head of the firm’s Dispute Resolution and Litigation practice. He has an active practice in complex commercial litigation and in significant white collar criminal investigations and prosecutions involving a wide range of commercial criminal matters, regulatory investigations and large scale inquiries, including Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry. To date, Howard has been involved in nine Roy...
Cameron joined the firm in 2009 as a partner and has over 20 years’ experience in public liability, product liability, professional indemnity, contractors all risk, property and industrial special risk insurance and self-insurance. Cameron also has experience in dust diseases, intentional torts arising out of child sexual and physical abuse and bullying, commercial litigation and building and construction litigation. Cameron provides pre-contractual advice in relation to insurance polic...
Kyle is a partner in the firm's Construction & Infrastructure Group, specialising in construction dispute resolution. He has extensive experience in property-related disputes, including proceedings under contracts for sale of land and commercial leases. He is an advocate for Alternative Dispute Resolution, having acted in numerous arbitrations, mediations and expert determinations. Kyle acts for principals, contractors and consultants and a number of Victorian Government agencies and depa...
Appointed silk in 2000, Helen Symon QC is a leading tax specialist across the full range of tax law in both complex disputes and corporate and personal advisory contexts. In addition to tax, Helen’s practice encompasses commercial and public law. Her unique input in tax advisory matters stems from her extensive experience in Court. Over more than 35 years, Helen has appeared in Courts and tribunals at all levels, representing both taxpayers and revenue authorities alike. Her wide experi...
Anton Trichardt's practice covers various areas of law, including general commercial law, contract law, commodities law, corporate law (including corporate insolvency, shareholder disputes), banking and finance law, trusts, construction and engineering law, maritime law, conflict of laws, offshore petroleum law, constitutional law (limitation on powers), as well as class actions. Anton has appeared in numerous cases in the High Court of Australia, the Federal Court of Australia, and the Supre...
Jacob (Jake) is a member of Hall & Wilcox’s commercial dispute resolution team, practising predominantly in general commercial litigation. Jake acts for clients in a wide range of contractual disputes, corporations and equity matters, insolvency proceedings, disputes with regulators, class actions, environment and sustainability disputes, trade practices and tax litigation. Jake specialises in legally and factually complex disputes and litigation, with a particular focus on disputes...
The Law I signed the Bar Roll in 1990 and have had the good fortune to become one of Australia’s leading advocates, both at the trial and appellate levels across all areas of commercial law, including the application of the criminal law to corporations directly. Some of the complex cases I have conducted of more recent times include, persuading the High Court to allow the Timbercorp investors to defend the recovery actions pursued against them; designing and prosecuting Cadbury’s ...
Litigation Definition
Litigation in Australia typically refers to practice in all areas of dispute resolution. The practice has developed traditionally under both common law and federal and state civil procedure legislation.
Litigation matters vary in scope and subject matter, however, they can involve everything from contract disputes and tort claims to claims arising from breaches of specific statutes such as the corporations law and competition (anti-trust) legislation. Given the large breadth of potential disputes, many litigation practitioners will specialise in a range of niche areas such as property and construction claims, personal injury matters, employment law claims, Intellectual Property disputes, tax and finance matters, or even representing corporations and individuals in State and Federal regulatory investigations, inquests, and inquiries.
Litigation practitioners frequently act for corporate entities or individuals by:
- advising in relation to strategy to resolve or avoid disputes;
- negotiating on behalf of clients in disputes to obviate the need for Court proceedings;
- instituting Court or Tribunal proceedings which can include the drafting and preparation of documents such as Court applications, pleadings (including Statements of Claim and Defences to claims), affidavits, witness statements, and other essential procedural documentation;
- advocating on behalf of clients before Courts or Tribunals;
- negotiating the terms of settlement of Court proceedings; and enforcing judgments of Courts or Tribunals (i.e. recovering awarded sums).
Whilst in Australia professional advocate barristers are typically “briefed” by an instructing lawyer to appear in more substantial matters, advocacy before Courts and Tribunals is not restricted to barristers and any lawyers admitted to practice in the relevant jurisdiction may appear on behalf of their clients.
A growing area of Litigation practice in Australia is acting in relation to regulatory compliance. As the sheer number of laws enacted each year (at a State and Federal level) rises exponentially, so too does the compliance burden. In this respect, practitioners are increasingly being called upon to:
- advise in relation to general regulatory compliance;
- respond and object to penalty notices;
- respond to regulatory inquiries and investigations;
- defend prosecutions;
- negotiate with regulators to settle claims; and
- assist to comply with and observe regulatory rulings or orders which can often involve the imposition of fines, disqualifications from office, mandatory corrective action or inaction, and even organisational restructuring.
Prosecuting regulators and government agencies with whom practitioners deal include the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), and Australian Federal Police (AFP) to name but a few. In dealing with these regulators, matters can be as diverse as breaches of company directors’ duties, insider trading, white collar crime, price-fixing, and even foreign bribery matters.
Litigation practice in Australia also encompasses Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), that is, the resolution of disputes outside the traditional framework of State and Federal Courts and Tribunals. This generally includes varying forms of mediation, arbitration, and expert determination. Given the high costs, delay, and adverse publicity associated with Court proceedings, many parties to commercial contracts in Australia are now insisting on the provision for ADR in contracts as an antecedent step to Court proceedings. Litigation practitioners require a sound understanding of all forms of dispute resolution in order to effectively advise their clients. The choice of resolution strategy or forum will often depend on the client’s unique circumstances, the particular area of law or both.
Our Methodology
Recognition by Best Lawyers is based entirely on peer review. Our methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.
The Process
Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services. Our belief has always been that the quality of a peer review survey is directly related to the quality of the voters.
In Brief
The Upcycle Conundrum
by Karen Kreider Gaunt
Laudable or litigious? What you need to know about potential copyright and trademark infringement when repurposing products.
Wage and Overtime Laws for Truck Drivers
by Greg Mansell
For truck drivers nationwide, underpayment and overtime violations are just the beginning of a long list of problems. Below we explore the wages you are entitled to but may not be receiving.
My Husband Didn’t Want to Stay Married…But He Didn’t Want a Divorce
by Jennifer Billock
Patience—and the law—prevails when an uncooperative partner avoids divorce proceedings.
Enhancing Consumer Safety Through Winning Jury Trials and Substantial Settlements
by Justin Smulison
Firm founder and lead trial lawyer James P. Frantz discusses how landmark victories in litigation and trial protect consumers.
