Katherine accepts briefs in all areas of commercial and corporate law. She also accepts (and encourages) direct briefs in appropriate cases.
Katherine has a Bachelor of Laws degree with First Class Honours and a Bachelor of Science degree with a Genetics major, both from the University of Melbourne (from which she graduated in 2008).
Before coming to the Bar, Katherine was an Associate at the Federal Court of Australia, first to the Honourable Justice Michelle Gordon in 2011, and then to the Honourable Justice John Middleton in 2012 and 2013.
Prior to that Katherine was a solicitor at Arnold Bloch Leibler, in the firm’s Litigation department.
Since coming to the Bar, Katherine has been briefed to act for a range of regulators, government departments, companies and individuals.
Katherine has worked on cases in fora including the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the Magistrates’ Court of Victoria, the Supreme Court of Victoria and the Federal Court of Australia.
She has worked on a range of complex matters, involving banking and finance, bankruptcy, insolvency, taxation, intellectual property, health, civil penalties, class actions, professional negligence and corporations law. In recent times, she has been briefed in a number of matters involving liquidators' examinations under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth).
She has also worked on numerous regulatory and disciplinary matters (both advice and appearance work) involving entities such as the Medical Board of Australia, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Australian Tax Office and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Katherine also has Royal Commission experience. In 2018, she was briefed in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry to act for ANZ (led by Dr Matthew Collins QC and Ms Kate Williams SC). She is presently briefed in the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety (unled).
Katherine is also a reporter for the Thomson Reuters Federal Law Reports and Federal Court Reports. In 2017 and 2018, Katherine was a member of the teaching staff at Monash University Law School (where she taught a mixture of undergraduate, postgraduate (JD) and Masters classes).
In October 2017, Katherine won the award for "Barrister of the Year" at the Lawyers' Weekly Women in Law Awards. In August 2018, Katherine won the award for "Barrister of the Year" at the Lawyers' Weekly Australian Law Awards.
In 2018, Katherine was listed in Doyle's Guide as one of the "Leading Commercial Litigation & Dispute Resolution Junior Counsel".
Katherine is an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. She is also a Fellow Member of the Governance Institute of Australia.
Katherine is presently studying a Master of Business Administration degree in her spare time.
Katherine read with Andrew Hanak.
Papers and presentations:
“In defence of the peak indebtedness rule – reflections on the Australian position post-Timberworld Ltd v Levin & Anor [2015] NZCA 111”, paper presented at a Commercial Bar Association CPD in September 2016 (copy available upon request).
"The Unsettling Case of the Non-Binding “Settlement”: When Are Parties Considered to Have Made a Binding and Enforceable Settlement Agreement? An examination of Masters v Cameron (1954) 91 CLR 353 and beyond", CPD session delivered to a number of law firms during 2017 and 2018 (available for presentation upon request).
"Ethical considerations affecting government litigants", paper presented at a Tax Bar Association CPD in March 2018 (copy available upon request).
"A Grubb-y Case Study: What is the status of protection for metadata under Australian privacy law following Privacy Commissioner v Telstra Corporation Ltd [2017] FCAFC 4?" (paper prepared for delivery at the Hong Kong International Law Conference, September 2018, as part of a panel seminar entitled "Is Privacy Dead? Uses and Misuses of Sensitive Data") (copy available upon request).
“'Insights from the ashes' – A look at phoenixing from the frontline" (presentation delivered at the Australian Restructuring Insolvency and Turnaround Association March 2019 Small-Medium Practice conference).