Heather is a employment and dispute resolution lawyer with over two decades of experience in employment law, litigation, negotiation and dispute resolution.
She helps employers to navigate workplace issues and ensure they are meeting their obligations under federal and state legislation. This includes preparing and advising on employment contracts, contractor agreements and workplace policies, bullying and harassment claims, performance management and the termination process. She has also successfully defended adverse action and unfair dismissal claims.
Heather is experienced in dispute resolution and commercial litigation and has successfully managed complex and large scale commercial litigation and employment cases in the Supreme Court, Federal Court and appeal courts. This includes in the areas of contract law, Australian Consumer Law, employment law and Corporations Law, including shareholder and director disputes.
Employment and Workplace
Expertise
- Employment contracts and workplace policies
- Advice on Awards and Enterprise Agreements
- Restraints
- Protection of confidential information and intellectual property
- Engagement and termination of employees and contractors
- Redundancy and restructuring
- Executive restructuring
- Performance management and disciplinary procedures
- General protections and adverse action
- Advice on anti-discrimination laws, bullying and harassment
- Unfair dismissal
Experience
- Successfully defended a general protections claim in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.
- Advised on complex executive restructuring matters.
- Provided early employment law advice to minimise litigation risk.
- Supported early resolution of disputes to reduce employer cost and exposure.
Ligitation and Dispute Resolution
Expertise
- Director statutory and fiduciary duties
- Restraint of trade
- Director disputes
- Shareholder disputes and oppression proceedings
- Trust disputes
- Sale of business disputes
- Lease disputes
- Complex contractual disputes
- Misleading and deceptive conduct claims under the Australian Consumer Law
- Search orders
- Intellectual property
- Managing voluntary recalls and obligations to consumers
Experience
- Secured a Supreme Court search order on urgent application.
- Acted for a creditor in a successful secured payment claim under a foreign exchange contract.
- Represented a client in the Federal Court under ACL claims involving unauthorised use of a prescribed mark.
- Appearing before an international sporting disciplinary tribunal in relation to allegations regarding conduct.
- Achieved successful preliminary discovery in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
- Managed judicial advice matters before the Supreme Court of Victoria.
- Ongoing advisory role in relation to a voluntary national product recall.
