Since coming to the Bar in 2006, Jane Treleaven has developed a commercial practice appearing on her own and with other counsel in all jurisdictions on both interlocutory and final hearings.
Areas of Jane’s practice include:
- contractual disputes including misleading and deceptive conduct
- corporations, insolvency and enforcement of securities
- conversion and cheque cases
- defamation
- shareholder and joint venture disputes
- property disputes including contracts of sale and leases, commercial and retail
- injunctions
- inquiries and inquests
Jane appeared as Junior Counsel for the Commonwealth in the 2009 Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission. Topics covered included the constitutional division of responsibility for disaster response between the Commonwealth and the States and Territories, warnings, forecasts, emergency management, planning, environmental and building regulation, insurance, electricity regulation and arson.
Cases in which Jane has appeared since signing the Bar Roll in November 2006 include:
- Yarra Valley Spring Water Pty Ltd (In Liquidation) (Controller Appointed) v Paterson [2012] VSC 135: Sale of business agreement and transfer of water licence;
- Warley Hospital Inc v Attorney-General for the State of Victoria; Aged and Community Care Victoria Limited v Warley Hospital Inc & Anor [2011] VSC 145 (Junior to Fiona McLeod SC): Cy-Pres application concerning the hospital on Phillip Island and costs of the proceeding;
- ASIC v Citrofresh International Ltd (2007) 245 ALR 47; [2007] FCA 1873 (Junior to Fiona McLeod SC): civil penalty proceeding for misleading and deceptive conduct in relation to financial products or services;
- ASIC v Narain (2008) 247 ALR 659 (Junior to Allan Myers QC and Fiona McLeod SC): appeal by ASIC;
- Narain v ASIC [2008] HCATrans 408 (5 December 2008) (Junior to Fiona McLeod SC): application for special leave to appeal;
- Blue Wedges Inc v Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts (2008) 167 FCR 463 (Junior to Fiona McLeod SC and with Paul Hayes of Counsel): application for review of the decision of the Federal Minister for the Environment under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Act 1999 to approve dredging in Port Philip Bay;
- Rural Export & Trading (WA) Pty Ltd v Hahnheuser (2008) 249 ALR 445 (Junior to Stephen O'Bryan SC): appeal concerning the live export trade and boycotts under the Trade Practices Act 1974 and the ‘environmental protection’ exception;
- French v Triple M Melbourne Pty Limited [2008] VSC 547; [2008] VSC 548; [2008] VSC 549; [2008] VSC 550; [2008] VSC 553 (Junior to Paul Hayes of Counsel): Defamation trial by jury with verdict for the Plaintiff; rulings included refusing application by Defendant to inspect former solicitors’ file on the ground there had been no waiver of legal professional privilege, splitting the case and malice in the context of the defence of fair comment;
- Winn v Blueprint Instant Printing Pty Ltd [2008] FMCA 1430: application to set aside a bankruptcy notice;
- Paterson v Seamore Pty Ltd (Residential Tenancies) [2009] VCAT 458: application concerning the definition of tenancy agreement for the purposes of the Residential Tenancies Act 1997;
- Frost v Rice (Magistrates Court Case No. W02511352) (11 May 2009): Civil assault and distinction between contract to purchase and agency;
- Inquest into the death of an infant with a hyperplastic heart (February 2011) (Junior to Fiona McLeod SC representing the family).
Before being called to the Bar, Jane was a Senior Associate at Herbert Geer & Rundle and a solicitor and Senior Associate at Russell Kennedy. At both firms, she had commercial litigation practices with a particular focus on banking and financial services, acting for banks and other financial services providers.
In 2007, Jane completed a Masters in Commercial Law at the University of Melbourne, with emphasis on corporations and insolvency law, evidence and alternative dispute resolution.
Jane regularly lectures trainees and practising solicitors at Leo Cussen Institute on Victorian Civil Procedure.