Jessica Reid

As Managing Director of Kain Lawyers, Michael is responsible for shaping and advancing the firm’s strategic priorities. Prior to his role as Managing Director, Michael held roles as Head of Growth and Head of Corporate. Michael is an experienced corporate lawyer who has advised some of Australia’s largest corporations and investment funds on their most complex and strategically critical transactions. His practice includes advising on mergers and acquisitions, capital raises, alter...

John has more than 25 years’ experience as a corporate and commercial lawyer. Having worked on deals in Australasia, Europe and the United States, John has extensive corporate and funds transactional experience. Primarily, his work has focused on property fund mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings and secondary capital raisings, fund restructurings, and the launch of wholesale and retail syndicates and joint ventures. He has substantial experience in structuring, managing a...

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...

Bonnie Phillips is an Accredited Family Law Specialist with the Law Institute of Victoria and has been recognised in Best Lawyers and as a Preeminent Family & Divorce Lawyer in Regional Victoria in the 2025 Doyle’s Guide. Bonnie is a Director and Principal of Coulter Legal and acts for clients in all aspects of Family Law, ranging from divorce and intricate parenting matters, through to complex and multifaceted financial matters, including multi-party international disputes. Bonnie ...

James has experience in a broad range of commercial and intellectual property matters, including intellectual property commercialisation, agreements and licensing, trade mark registrability and infringement issues. James also has extensive experience in technology procurement, licensing and outsourcing matters. This work includes drafting and advising on IT contracts, including software licences, software, platform and infrastructure as a service agreements, software development agreements, I...

Bree Knoester is the founder of Brave Legal and one of Australia’s leading personal injury lawyers. Bree has practiced for over 18 years as both a barrister and solicitor; and has represented clients in some of Victoria’s largest compensation settlements. Bree prides herself on being an empathetic yet tenacious lawyer, possessing a deep understanding of the law and a fearless approach to representing her clients’ interests. Most importantly, Bree understands that being injur...

Tony has been the Hall & Wilcox Managing Partner since 2007. He is well recognised in the legal sector and has led the firm through a period of substantial growth and success. Tony won Managing Partner of the Year at the Australian Law Awards in 2017 and 2015 (and was a finalist in 2014 and 2016). He was also a finalist for Law Firm Leader at the Australasian Law Awards in 2017. Tony won the Law Institute of Victoria Managing Partner of the Year Award in 2009. Tony, as Managing Partner of...

Tim’s practice involves contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law matters, with a focus on commercialisation of intellectual property rights. Tim’s non-contentious practice includes the preparation and negotiation of commercial agreements for all intellectual property and related rights, including commercialisation, assignment, licensing and confidentiality agreements. Tim regularly advises clients on general commercial matters, consumer protection and trade practi...

Emily Payne is a top attorney recognized by Best Lawyers in the practice area(s) of Personal Injury Litigation. Emily, who practices law in Melbourne, Australia, has been recognized since 2026. This recognition is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey, reflecting the high esteem in which Emily is held by other top lawyers in the same geographic and legal practice area.

Ian has extensive experience in a wide range of contentious and non-contentious intellectual property law disputes and transactions covering all intellectual property regimes including patents, copyright, trade marks and related competition law issues, with a particular emphasis on strategic intellectual property litigation. Recently Ian’s practice has involved major national and multi-jurisdictional patent litigation in the pharmaceutical, life sciences, and resources/metallurgical sec...