Lachlan Armstrong practices in general commercial, securities, competition and insurance litigation in the Federal Court, and all States’ Supreme Courts.

He has particular experience in class actions and similar complex litigation.  He has advised or appeared in more than 100 class actions or multi-plaintiff proceedings, in most Australian jurisdictions and covering a very wide range of practice areas.  

The most prominent of the class or grouped actions in which he has been centrally involved include:

• as shareholder actions – 
  • for claimants – GIO, Aristocrat, Centro, Sigma, GPT, SurfStitch, Caason, Hastie Auditors, WorleyParsons and Iluka class actions, and currently the a2 Milk and Nuix actions  
  • for defendants – Harris Scarfe and Nufarm class actions
• other investor litigation (including managed investment schemes) –
  • Opes Prime (2007)
  • Lehman Brothers (2012)
  • Willmott Forests (2015)
  • Dixon Advisory/Evans Dixon Group (2022)
• competition law class actions – 
  • Vitamins class action (Darwalla v. F Hoffman-LaRoche)
  • Amcor/Visy (cardboard box cartel)
  • Air Cargo 
  • Queensland Electricity (Stillwater Pastoral Co v. Stanwell Corporation) (FCA, ongoing)
• mass tort proceedings (class actions) –
  • the five Victorian "2009 Black Saturday Bushfire class actions" including the "Matthews v SPI – Kilmore Bushfire" class action (Victorian Supreme Court, 2010-2014)
  • Victorian "Abalone Virus" class action
  • Gladstone Port fisheries-contamination class action (Queensland Supreme Court)
  • Prawn White Spot Disease (Commonwealth Quarantine) class action (Queensland Supreme Court, 2021)
  • NT Stolen Generation class action (NSW Supreme Court, 2021)
  • Ashley Youth Detention Centre (Supreme Court of Tasmania, 2022)
• mass tort (multi-plaintiff proceedings) –
  • WA – Parkerville bushfire (trial judgment reported as Herridge v. Electricity Networks Corporation (No.4) [2019] WASC 94)
  • Victoria – Garvoc and Terang bushfires
  • NSW – Tathra (NSW) bushfire
  • Tasmania – Forcett/Dunalley bushfire (trial judgment reported as Prestage v. Barrett [2021] TASSC 27)
• Institutional abuse and discrimination litigation –
  • BSWAT Disability Discrimination litigation (Nojin v. Commonwealth) FCA 2012
  • Fairbridge Farm Schools Class Action, (Giles v Commonwealth), NSWSC 2015
  • Ashley Youth Detention Centre Class Action, Supreme Court of Tasmania (ongoing)
• First Nations claims –
  • Northern Territory Housing Class Action, FCA (ongoing)

Lachlan regularly advises and appears for litigation funders and law firms in relation to –

• due diligence opinions and ‘investment committee’ reviews
• funding structures, and
• common fund (CFO), group costs order (GCO) or like applications, as in -
  • Peterson v. Bank of Queensland (FCA 2018)
  • Pearson v. Queensland (Queensland “Stolen Wages”) (FCA 2019)
  • Uren v. RMBL Investments (FCA 2020)
  • Evans v. Davantage Group (No.3) (FCA 2021)
  • Hall v. Arnold Bloch Liebler (FCA 2022)
  • Hall v. Slater & Gordon (FCA 2022)
  • Zantran v. Crown Resorts (FCA 2022)
  • Allianz ‘Add-on Insurance’ Class Action (Wilkinson v Allianz, VSC 2023)

Outside class actions, Lachlan has extensive experience in:

• liquidation-related proceedings, including the “APCH” liquidator recovery actions in the Supreme Court of Victoria
• insurance litigation, including representing the successful ‘Johnston’ group in their challenge to insurers’ assertions of subrogation rights in Johnston v. Endeavour Energy [2015] NSWSC 1117 (and more recently Francis v. Powercor Australia Ltd [2020] VSC 836) and
• competition law, most recently acting for the ACCC in
  • ACCC v. Medibank Private Ltd (FCA 2016)
  • ACCC v. Telstra Corporation (FCA 2018)
  • Lachlan also acted in the successful application to ACCC for authorisations under Part VII of the Competition and Consumer Act, such as the “North East Winegrowers” application (2008)
• ASIC proceedings, including acting for ASIC in:
  • ASIC v. Wealth Management Pty Ltd (in liq) (FCA 2018)
  • ASIC v. Financial Circle Pty Ltd (FCA 2018)

Lachlan advises in a wide range of commercial, insurance and general litigation matters.  He appears in the Supreme Courts of all States, and in the Federal Court. 

Other matters

Lachlan was the originating author of the “class actions” commentary in the Butterworths Federal Court Practice loose-leaf, and the author of the “class actions” chapter in Legg et al “Resolving Civil Disputes” (Lexis/Nexis Butterworth 2016, revd 2023).   
 

Committee memberships

• Law Council of Australia - Federal Litigation Section - Class Actions Committee
• Supreme Court of Victoria - Corporations & Commercial Court Users' Group
• Federal Court of Australia - Class Actions User Group
• Victorian Bar - Class Actions Committee, Commercial Bar Association (Inaugural Chair, 2015-2023))

Please click here to view the List A Barristers profile of Lachlan Armstrong KC