Williams Love & Nicol Lawyers

NATALIE CUJES

SPECIAL COUNSEL

.Business law and the area of trade practices has long been a key focus for Natalie and she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the litigation strategy and management advice she provides in relation to commercial matters at Williams Love & Nicol. These insights have been developed from the unique experience of having worked not only as a senior legal practitioner and an academic but for nearly ten years as a Registrar of the Federal Court of Australia and of the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia. Her experience in the courts includes a strong appreciation of the unique litigation challenges that arise in the ACT such as the high proportion of matters brought by self-represented litigants. Before her appointments to the federal courts, Natalie worked as a senior associate in litigation in private practice where she was involved in the conduct of commercial and insurance litigation and provided advice on corporate law and governance, complex contractual drafting and negotiation, and commercial law issues.Natalie is admitted as a Barrister-at-Law of the Supreme Court of NSW, and as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of Australia and of the Supreme Courts of the ACT and Victoria. Natalie’s passion for the law also led to her work as an academic. Natalie is completing a PhD, lectures in business law at UNSW@ADFA and has taught in the areas of business law, contracts, litigation and competition and consumer law at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels at a number of other academic institutions. In 2009, Natalie’s expertise was recognised by the University of Canberra’s Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Award.

JOHN LARKINGS

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

John is an experienced commercial litigator having conducted a broad range of commercial and administrative cases in various Federal, State and Territory jurisdictions. John is adept at the procedural, strategic and commercial aspects of the conduct of litigation. In addition to the carriage of litigious matters, John has also appeared as counsel in several Federal, State and Territory jurisdictions, including the ACT Court of Appeal, and has conducted several public examinations of company directions in insolvency matters. John has considerable experience in relation to insolvency and debt recovery. He acts as a solicitor and barrister for several Canberra-based company liquidators in respect of recovery of winding-up companies, preference recoveries, proceedings against directors for insolvent trading, and the conduct of company examinations. John acted as solicitor with carriage of the Federal Court proceeding on behalf of Queanbeyan City Council v ACTEW Corporation and the Australian Capital Territory (water abstraction charge and UNFT litigation).

JOHN WILSON

LEGAL DIRECTOR

John Wilson is the only lawyer practising in the ACT region who is accredited as a specialist in industrial relations and employment law under the NSW Law Society's rigorous specialist accreditation scheme. He regularly acts in industrial relations and employment law litigation and has handled several major cases affecting the ACT as a whole. John's practice includes the preparation of collective agreements, common law employment contracts, and independent contractor agreements in virtually every major industry and including business that operate throughout Australia. He is an excellent legal craftsman and a strategic thinker in this area. He is an experienced adviser in the area of occupational health and safety (including workplace deaths), and has acted for a number of well-known businesses in this area. John has considerable experience in advising industrial organisations. John acts for a number of leading local and international firms, as well as government agencies. Such is John's recognition as an "expert's expert", that many of his clients come from referrals from lawyers in other firms. He is also regularly asked to advise on and correct the work of other lawyers and self-styled "consultants" in this area. John is a former course convenor and lecturer of "Employment, Discrimination and Law" at the University of Canberra School of Law. He is the chair of the ACT Law Society's industrial relations committee and was for many years a director of the ACT & Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry. John joined Williams Love & Nicol as a partner on its inception in 2004. Prior to that he was proprietor and the principal lawyer of the Davidson Wilson Group and, before that, a Senior Associate at Barker Gosling, Canberra.

DAVID TOOLE

LEGAL DIRECTOR

David is a commercial lawyer with a focus on property and taxation issues. He advises clients on a wide range of property issues, and leads an expert and experienced staff in commercial leasing and conveyancing. David and his property team have daily involvement with large scale property development and commercial property sales and purchases. This includes being across recent legislative requirements (such as mandatory reporting) and as recent legal development. Recent transactions have included acting for developers on a community triple subdivision and acting on sale and purchase of ACT Rural Leases. David provides advice in relation to implications of the GST for property transactions. David has specialised knowledge in relation to property purchase by self managed superannuation funds. He has completed several transactions in this area and is across the recent developments allowing super funds to borrow to purchase real property. His areas of expertise also include specialised knowledge on business succession planning including restructuring and options for a retirement strategy. David joined Williams Love & Nicol in 2005 after 14 years as a partner at Deacons and its precursor firms, Sly & Weigall and Macphillamy Cummins & Gibson. In 2000, he spent six months on secondment with the Minter Ellison Sydney tax team. David began his practice at Freehill Hollingdale & Page in 1985.

MARK LOVE

LEGAL DIRECTOR

A founding partner of Williams Love & Nicol, Mark’s practice is focused on the areas of contract and commercial law, corporate governance, intellectual property, and insolvency matters. Mark acts not only as general counsel but also as a strategic business advisor for many of his clients, which include a diverse array of businesses, including accountancy firms, national representative bodies, software and technology developers, retailers, wholesalers and government agencies. Mark is an experienced practitioner in the area of all aspects of business development, trade practices and sale, from capital raising and loan security issues (from simple lending arrangements to complex private and public offers), as well as in enforcement strategies. He has extensive experience in commercialising and protecting intellectual property rights, particularly in the areas of copyright, trademark and know-how, and in development, publishing and implementation contracting. He also has extensive experience advising upon all aspects of corporate insolvency and compliance issues arising under the Corporations Act 2001. For more than ten years Mark has been a lecturer in the Diploma Course offered by the Australian Institute of Company Directors, lecturing in directors’ duties and responsibilities, intellectual property and contracts. Through a wide range of initiatives, Mark has also been active in supporting the Canberra community, being a founder of Revolve Limited, the Canberra Business Incubators and having served as an ACT Government appointee of a Canberra corporate agency for many years. Mark was a partner with Corrs Chambers Westgarth for eight years before founding Williams Love in 2001. In 2004, the firm merged with the Canberra office of Norton White to form Williams Love & Nicol.

ALAN BRADBURY

LEGAL DIRECTOR

Alan has more than 25 years experience in environmental and planning law and administrative law, including statutory interpretation, FOI, administrative appeals and judicial review. He has an extensive practice specialising in environmental and planning matters in NSW and the ACT, acting for both applicants and local government. Alan’s expertise in planning and environmental law was recently recognised by his inclusion in the Australian Financial Review’s list of Australia’s Best Lawyers for 2010. He has published widely on planning and environmental law issues and lectures in environmental land use and planning and assessment law at the Australian National University. Alan’s experience includes acting in a range of administrative law matters for government clients such as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, the Department of Finance and Deregulation, Airservices Australia, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, Department of Defence and the National Capital Authority. Alan is currently the National President of the Australian Institute of Administrative Law and has delivered a number of papers at Administrative Law seminars and conferences. Prior to joining Williams Love & Nicol as a partner, Alan was a partner at Minter Ellison where he led the firm's Canberra practice in local government planning and environmental law.