I am an expe­ri­enced plan­ning lawyer who has advised lead­ing ASX list­ed com­pa­nies, small to medi­um devel­op­ers, gov­ern­ment agen­cies and politicians. 

I have built my prac­tice on pro­vid­ing solu­tions to com­plex plan­ning and envi­ron­men­tal mat­ters. My breadth of expe­ri­ence across gov­ern­ment and pri­vate prac­tice pro­vides me with a unique under­stand­ing of how gov­ern­ment works and how to achieve the best results for my clients.

Exper­tise

  • Plan­ning & Environment

Sec­tors

  • Nat­ur­al Resources
  • Pri­vate Clients & Fam­i­ly Businesses
  • Real Estate & Construction

Expe­ri­ence

  • Envi­ron­men­tal, Social & Governance
  • Strate­gic plan­ning advice regard­ing zon­ing, per­mis­si­bil­i­ty and devel­op­ment standards
  • Respond­ing to DPE and Coun­cil inves­ti­ga­tions and stop work orders
  • Bio­di­ver­si­ty off­sets and rur­al land clearing
  • Devel­op­ment Appeals (Appli­cant and Council)
  • Tree dis­putes
  • Land acqui­si­tion appeals
  • Civ­il enforce­ment and judi­cial review
  • Defend­ing EPA prosecutions
  • Waste and EPL matters
  • Con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed land
  • Vol­un­tary Plan­ning Agreements

I act for lead­ing devel­op­ers, ASX list­ed com­pa­nies, gov­ern­ment agen­cies and indi­vid­u­als. I advise on a diverse range of issues includ­ing approvals and oper­at­ing licences, devel­op­ment appeals, civ­il enforce­ment, judi­cial review, and inves­ti­ga­tions by reg­u­la­tors regard­ing breach­es of the Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment Act 1979, Min­ing Act 1992, Pro­tec­tion of the Envi­ron­ment Oper­a­tions Act 1997, Con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed Lands Man­age­ment Act 1997 and Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion Act 2016. I have a track record of suc­cess­ful lit­i­ga­tion in the Land and Envi­ron­ment Court of New South Wales in devel­op­ment appeals, civ­il enforce­ment, judi­cial review and tree disputes.

Pri­or to com­menc­ing my role at Swaab, I worked as the Pol­i­cy Direc­tor and advis­er to the NSW Min­is­ter for Plan­ning to devel­op key reforms to the Envi­ron­men­tal Plan­ning and Assess­ment Act 1979 and its sub­or­di­nate leg­is­la­tion. I have also worked exten­sive­ly in both pri­vate prac­tice for a top tier cor­po­rate law firm and a bou­tique plan­ning law firm, as well as for gov­ern­ment at the Depart­ment of Pri­ma­ry Indus­tries and the Depart­ment of Plan­ning and Envi­ron­ment in the devel­op­ment of water leg­is­la­tion, the Local Land Ser­vices Act 2013 and the Bio­di­ver­si­ty Con­ser­va­tion Act 2016.

Obtain­ing an approval to devel­op land in New South Wales is a cum­ber­some and high­ly reg­u­lat­ed process. Devel­op­ers are often unaware of their oblig­a­tions for aspects of the approval process such as tree removal, road works approvals, crane swing, bio­di­ver­si­ty off­set­ting, her­itage, Vol­un­tary Plan­ning Agree­ments, water licens­ing, native title and pol­lu­tion. We can help you to nav­i­gate these require­ments to ensure that you obtain your approval as quick­ly as pos­si­ble and we can ensure that you receive the best defence against com­pli­ance action tak­en by gov­ern­ment agen­cies for breach­es of envi­ron­men­tal and plan­ning legislation.

Select cas­es 

  • SCE Trans­port & Logis­tics Pty Ltd v Wol­lon­gong City Coun­cil [2017] NSWLEC 1097suc­cess­ful Class 1 Appeal to obtain devel­op­ment con­sent for a mate­ri­als han­dling facility.
  • Boral Resources (NSW) Pty Ltd v Cam­den Coun­cil [2018] NSWLEC 1623suc­cess­ful Class1 Appeal to obtain devel­op­ment con­sent for a con­crete batch­ing plant
  • NVE Menan­gle v Wol­londil­ly Shire Coun­cil [2022] NSWLEC – suc­cess­ful Class 1 Appeal to defend a deci­sion to refuse con­sent for a res­i­den­tial sub­di­vi­sion in a mine sub­si­dence district.
  • Aus­tralian Coal Alliance Incor­po­rat­ed v Wyong Coal Pty Ltd [2019] NSWLEC 31suc­cess­ful Class 4 judi­cial review pro­ceed­ings to defend the grant of con­sent for the Wal­larah Coal Mine
  • Lee v Sta­ple­ton [2022] NSWLEC 1430suc­cess­ful Class 2 pro­ceed­ings to defend an appli­ca­tion against a neigh­bour­ing landown­er regard­ing tree height, over­shad­ow­ing and privacy.
  • Jojeni Invest­ments Pty Ltd v Port Mac­quar­ie Hast­ings Coun­cil [NCAT] – suc­cess­ful appeal to the refusal by Coun­cil to release doc­u­ments under the Gov­ern­ment Infor­ma­tion (Pub­lic Access) Act 2009 (GIPA).

Roles, Mem­ber­ship and Edu­ca­tion 

  • Phd Can­di­date – Plan­ning Law (Usyd)
  • Mas­ters of Admin­is­tra­tive Law and Policy
  • LLB, West­ern Syd­ney University
  • Law Soci­ety of New South Wales
     

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