About Vanessa

Vanessa is the NSW State Government Sector Leader, with significant experience advising government and private clients on all aspects of the employment relationship. Vanessa acts for clients on workplace restructures, performance management, disciplinary issues, flexible working arrangements, confidentiality and restrictive covenants, independent contracting arrangements, management of ill and injured employees and termination of employment issues.

A skilled litigator, Vanessa represents employers in a broad range of employment related litigation, including unfair dismissal, adverse action, anti-bullying orders, discrimination, sexual harassment, breach of contract, and misleading and deceptive conduct claims, as well as claims for urgent equitable relief.

Vanessa is recommended by the Legal 500 Asia Pacific (2023) Guide for her work in Labour & Employment.

Experience

• NSW Police Force

  Acting in a range of workplace and administrative law matters including unfair dismissals, anti-discrimination claims, disciplinary advice, applications for prerogative relief in the Supreme Court, applications for government information, applications for judicial review, firearms reviews and privacy litigation.

• Large state public sector organisation

  Acted in a reinstatement claim made by an injured former employee. The claim was successfully defended both at first instance and on appeal. The matter received media attention and was a “test case” for similar claims.

• Healthcare provider

  Acted in urgently obtaining orders from the Supreme Court of NSW for protecting confidential information which a former employee was threatening to misuse. We successfully assisted the organisation in avoiding a large scale privacy breach which would have had a negative impact on our client’s reputation.

• Workplace investigations

  Conducting sensitive workplace investigations to assist clients to have a concrete foundation for decision making. Vanessa assists clients in planning investigations, formulating allegations and has also been involved in briefing external investigators. Vanessa has been involved in several recent large scale and confidential investigations including in the health, education and community housing sectors.

• Industrial disputes

  Vanessa works for both public and private sector clients in communicating and negotiating with industrial organisations across a range of issues, including where it escalates to a dispute in the State or Federal tribunals. Recently Vanessa appeared for a large Sydney council in three urgent industrial disputes concerning the outsourcing of waste services. The Council was successful. The Industrial Relations Commission made recommendations that were consistent with Council’s stated position.