EXPERIENCE & EXPERTISE
With his deep legal and industry knowledge and long history of experience, Brian truly understands how workplaces run. He frequently presents trainings, webinars and papers on ‘A lawyer’s view on workplace wellbeing’ – taking the legal perspective to create strategies and review systems and processes to promote healthy teams and minimise risk.
A tough negotiator, Brian has represented clients in Federal and State Industrial Tribunals, the Supreme Court of Western Australia, the Federal Circuit Court and the Federal Court of Australia.
Providing clear, targeted and practical advice to boards, leadership teams and HR managers, Brian has built a methodology in the workplace to avoid disputes and develop employee wellbeing before relationships break down. He applies knowledge of organisational psychology and language gained in previous studies to understand how employees think and how our discourse in the workplace can create problems. As a consultant and trainer, he assists teams to avoid costly problems and risk of litigation.
Brian works closely with employers / insureds who need assistance in defending what can often be difficult workplace issues while at the same time showing his in-depth appreciation of the commercial importance of resolution of claims.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Brian’s experience includes:
- Successfully secured court orders (Supreme Court of Western Australia, Court of Appeal and High Court of Australia) restraining a former manufacturing manager from competing against a listed modular building client after his employment ended. This allowed the client to secure its customer relationships and confidential information and to protect its market share.
- As a senior member of the leadership team, he co-led the Western Australian Government's strategy to resolve a long running industrial dispute by public school teachers involving pay claims and an industrial action campaign, including drafting and negotiating comprehensive industrial agreements with the Australian Education Union
- Managed employment practices liability insurance business in the Perth market, acting on behalf of a range of commercial insurers, with work including resolution of a range of workplace claims (predominantly unfair dismissal and general protections) on best possible terms across multiple state and federal jurisdictions
- Over five years, managed landmark academic plagiarism litigation for a major Western Australian university brought by a senior academic in the Fair Work Commission and Federal Court of Australia, ensuring the protection and securing of the university’s long term intellectual property interests
- Managed industrial risk and workplace disputes for an international dredging corporation involved in the Gorgon Project dredging works, including court representation and managing union involvement, without the company experiencing one day of lost time due to industrial action.
RECOGNITION
Publication and Papers
International Employment Lawyers Management Training Conference Brussels, Belgium 2012
International Employment Lawyers Management Training Conference Orlando, Florida 2015