Three senior lawyers join government disputes practice in Australia

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright announced today that it has recruited three senior lawyers for its Canberra-based regulatory, civil and commercial disputes team. 

The three new senior associates – Laura Crick, Jiadi Liang and Chris Brinley – have joined the firm’s growing national government practice, which has acted in a series of recent high profile matters, such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s successful pursuit in the Federal Court of Google over the use of personal location data, and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s highest ever single enforcement penalty against AGM Markets.

Norton Rose Fulbright’s Commonwealth Government practice head Holly McAdam commented:

“The appointments of Laura, Jiadi and Chris add to the recent growth in our Canberra office and our growing track record of successfully supporting Commonwealth government clients in disputes. With these three additions to our national government team, we will expand our complex regulatory, civil and commercial disputes offering at a time when governments are pursuing more regulatory interventions in a range of industries.”

Laura Crick

Laura is an experienced public law and litigation lawyer who has worked primarily for Commonwealth Government clients for nine years. Her areas of expertise include administrative decision-making, statutory interpretation, judicial review, merits review, commercial litigation, disciplinary proceedings, planning and development, and construction litigation. Laura regularly appears as a solicitor advocate and instructing solicitor in the High Court, Federal Court, and other courts and tribunals. Joining from Clayton Utz where she was a senior associate, she has also worked in-house at the National Disability Insurance Agency.

Jiadi Liang

Jiadi is an experienced public law and litigation lawyer who has spent more than six years working with Commonwealth, ACT and private sector clients. She regularly advises and represents government and private sector clients on a wide range of administrative law, commercial law, common law, regulatory and dispute resolution issues. She has also appeared as a solicitor advocate in merits review matters, and as an advocate and instructing solicitor in the ACT Supreme Court and ACT Magistrates Court, and manages large complex litigation on behalf of her clients. She has most recently been a senior associate at Clayton Utz, but also worked for the ACT Government Solicitor and was seconded to the Department of Environment and the ACT Asbestos Taskforce.

Chris Brinley

Formerly a federal prosecutor at the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecution, Chris has extensive experience advising the Commonwealth on complex regulatory disputes, administrative law proceedings and criminal or white collar crime prosecutions. Prior to that he worked at Clayton Utz, advising various government departments on commercial dispute strategy and statutory interpretation. He has also regularly appeared as an advocate in the Federal Court, the NSW Supreme Court and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. His experience includes advising food, agribusiness and international retail clients on matters involving food law, chemical issues and import and export regulations and quarantine.