Australia

Bird & Bird’s dispute resolution team provides excellent intellectual property services, particularly in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors. Besides these, the team is active in general commercial disputes including cross-border matters. The team also has substantial experience representing clients at leading arbitral institutions such as the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Partner Sophie Dawson specialises in media and technology disputes, including data protection and publication laws. IP specialist Jane Owen covers a wide range of IP disputes with extensive experience litigating in the life sciences patent arena. Lynne Lewis is another name to note.

Key cases include acting for American multinational information technology services and consulting company DXC in the New South Wales Supreme Court in litigation against Optus arising from a project concerning Optus's wholesale telephony systems; acting for an ABC journalist in significant Freedom of Information Act proceedings concerning the disclosure of information relating to the allocation of grants monies which resulted in disclosure of substantial additional material; and acting for Take-Two Interactive and Rockstar Games in proceedings concerning unauthorised mods written for the Grand Theft Auto V game, which is Australia’s first case under the current Copyright Act technological protection measure provisions.

The firm hired Jonathon Ellis as partner from DLA Piper in January 2022.

Brien Holden Vision Institute, Epic Games, Fitness Systems United, Howden Group and Nine Entertainment are key clients.

Client feedback

“Great knowledge of relevant areas of the law, good client interactions including the areas of communications, offer of related services and training. The also deliver prompt service.” – Intellectual property

Sophie Dawson

“Great knowledge of our business and relevant laws, very approachable and responsive.”

With more than 1,000 fee earners across 27 offices, top-tier firm Herbert Smith Freehills has one of the biggest dispute resolution teams in the world. The team is widely recognised for its strengths in all range of disputes, particularly exceptional in the areas of government and regulatory, intellectual property and class action. The firm often wins mandates on some of the largest, most complex and important dispute cases in Australia. 

The firm has the highest number of star litigators in the market including Damian Grave, Juliana Warner, Jason Betts, Luke Hastings, Andrew Eastwood and Anna Sutherland. Grave is singled out for his expertise in commercial and class action disputes. Both Betts and Hastings are recognised specialists in class actions and regulatory issues. Sue Gilchrist is a key individual for IP litigation.

The firm is currently representing Uber, BHP and Lendlease on significant class action proceedings. The BHP class action has the potential to become the largest shareholder action in Australian history. The firm has also represented both Worley and Iluka Resources in the only two shareholder class actions where the defendant has prevailed on liability.

In another notable matter, the firm acted for ASX in relation to all aspects of its response to the outage in its ASX Trade platform on November 16, 2020. The firm provided strategic advice in relation to the legal consequences flowing from the outage, including in assisting ASX with its response to an independent expert report from IBM into the outage and the imposition by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) of new licence conditions as a result of the conclusions that it reached. This high-profile matter has received significant media interest and regulatory scrutiny. It also represented the first high-profile action of the new ASIC chair’s tenure.

The firm was triumphant for defending Citigroup in a landmark criminal cartel prosecution which was abandoned by the Australian Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions more than three years after charges were laid in June 2018.

The firm’s recent client roster includes AMP, Coles, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Iluka Resources, Motorola Solutions and National Australia Bank.

The firm promoted Aoife Xuereb to partner in May 2022. In the same year, Michael Pryse and Grant Marjoribanks retired from partnership.

Mills Oakley’s commercial dispute resolution team is composed of 19 partners and 52 qualified lawyers across five offices throughout Australia. The team is well versed in commercially significant and high-profile commercial disputes, including class actions, investigations and royal commissions, across a broad range of industry sectors.

Some key partners of the team include Darren James, Andrew Brown, Stuart Walter, Dale Cliff, Graham Maher, Brendan Taylor and Mark Wenn.

Among the commercial disputes, the firm acted for MSS Securities in its defence of class action proceedings brought against it in respect of claims by the relatives of over 840 persons who died after being infected with Covid-19, and over 22,000 Australians infected with Covid-19, following outbreaks of the coronavirus in the Victorian State Government hotel quarantine programme. This was one of the first class action proceedings to emerge from the outbreaks of Covid-19 from the quarantine programme. The proceeding was very high profile, attracting ongoing media and government interest.

Another ongoing matter sees the firm acting for RP Data in a breach of copyright case related to photographs of residential property across Australia as they appear on the RP Professional and realestate.com.au webpages. The outcome of the appeal has the potential to dramatically change the property data landscape in this country if all historical photographs of residential property need to be removed.

In October 2022, the firm hired Ben Patrick from Patrick and Associates as partner.

Marina Square Retail, Nissan Financial Services Australia, Quest Serviced Apartments and Real Estate Tool Box are key clients.

Class action boutique law firm Phi Finney McDonald was founded in 2017 by leading class action lawyers. Specialising in complex and large-scale class action litigation, the firm is regularly retained and publicly backed by the largest institutional investors around the world. Its clientele includes some of the largest and most influential pension schemes, private investors, sovereign wealth funds and investment platforms.

Ben Phi, Tim Finney and Odette McDonald are key principal lawyers at the firm with profound experience in class action disputes, both on the plaintiff and defendant sides.

In a climate change class action, the firm is currently acting for representative applicants and First Nations leaders, including Uncle Pabai Pabai and Uncle Paul Kabai from the islands of Boigu and Saibai in the Torres Strait, in suing the Commonwealth of Australia on behalf of all Torres Strait Islanders facing the climate crisis for breach of a novel duty of care. Raising novel legal questions related to tort law of negligence, Torres Strait Treaty and Native Title, not since the Eddie Mabo case has a proceeding in Australian courts had the landmark potential to not only protect Torres Strait Islanders, but also to help tackle the climate crisis before it devastates communities across Australia and the world.

Dialogue Consulting, Martini Family Investments, Miciulis Superannuation and Sadie Ville are key clients.

Client feedback

“First-rate litigation strategy, book-building, legal advice and claims management skills.” – Class actions

“The PFM (Phi Finney McDonald) team is extremely responsive, excels at legal strategy and analysis, is extremely committed to finding solutions to challenging legal issues. Excellent team with ethical, dedicated lawyers with outstanding client management skills.” – Class actions

“Originate and litigate landmark class actions in the financial services industry and beyond.” – Class actions

Tim Finney

“He is very bright with good strategic planning skills.”

Ben Phi

“He is an outstanding manager; an outstanding strategist; and a phenomenal legal mind.”

“Highly entrepreneurial and passionate about his craft (litigating class actions).”

Brett Spiegel

“Brett is an excellent communicator – he is extremely engaged and responsive to client needs. He is also an outstanding legal strategist who is knowledgeable about class actions/negligence. He excels at developing rapport with clients from diverse backgrounds, including First Nations clients.”

IP specialist firm Spruson & Ferguson Lawyers act in a range of IP infringements, and are experienced in defending breaches of consumer protection provisions and trade secrets. The firm has deep expertise in the information technology, telecommunications, mining, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and consumer goods sectors.

Khajaque Kortian heads the team with over 25 years’ experience in IP, specialising in litigation and licensing. Francesca Colubriale is another name to note for trademark disputes.

Among the IP disputes, the firm represented Intervet International in court proceedings concerning the company’s Australian patent application, which Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health USA had unsuccessfully opposed. The subject matter of the patent was an injectable formulation of a macrocyclic lactone and levamisole – both compounds have different but complimentary anthelmintic properties. The firm successfully defended both the first instance and subsequent appeal in the Full Federal Court.

In another notable matter, the firm is currently acting for Hytera Communications in defending a copyright infringement claim and claims for additional damages brought by Motorola Solutions. This is one of the highest profile IP cases in Australia over recent years. It represents the Australian limb of a multi-jurisdictional dispute between Motorola and Hytera relating to communications technology that has also resulted in litigation in the US, Germany, the UK and China. In addition to its commercial significance for the parties, this case raises important legal doctrinal issues concerning the scope of copyright protection for computer programs that undergo iterative changes over their lifespan.

Spruson & Ferguson Australia and Shelston IP combined to create one firm operating under the Spruson & Ferguson brand from 1 November 2021. Chris Bevitt, Duncan Longstaff, Mark Vincent and Michael Deacon joined the firm from Shelston IP Lawyers as principals.

The merged firm of Spruson & Ferguson Lawyers now boasts one of the largest specialist IP law teams in Australia covering the full range of IP-related services from litigation, oppositions and other dispute resolution to commercialisation and data security and privacy.