Jacquie acts for employers in both public and private sectors across employment, workplace relations, discrimination and safety law. She has practised in these areas since 1990. She has specialist experience and recognised expertise in education law and sports law.

Biography

Jacquie acts for employers in both the public and private sectors across a wide range of industries and sectors including education, sport, health and aged care, community services, financial services, IT, retail, manufacturing, transport and agribusiness. She acts for organisations of all sizes, from small employers to major institutions.

Jacquie advises on individual and collective employment relationships from recruitment through termination and beyond: employment contracts; enterprise agreements; independent contractor arrangements; redundancy and restructure; applying and interpreting workplace laws, safety and discrimination legislation; confidentiality and restraints; and compliance programs. She conducts and manages independent investigations and represents clients in workplace and discrimination litigation.

Jacquie has guided clients through five major reforms to the federal industrial relations system, helping them understand what they need to do to comply with ever-increasing regulation. She has been personally invited to make submissions to government on discrimination law reform on several occasions. As an experienced litigator and negotiator, she manages high-stakes employment disputes, sensitive investigations and contentious regulatory matters. She has published in the fields of education law and employment law, including an employment law chapter in Higher Education and the Law (Federation Press, 2015) and a chapter in The Palgrave Handbook of Education Law for Schools (2018).

Jacquie’s practice is distinguished by the breadth of her sector experience in workplace relations law and her recognised expertise in discrimination law, education law and sports law.
She has lectured at the University of Technology Sydney, UNSW Sydney, University of Sydney, Macquarie University and University of Notre Dame Sydney.

Credentials

Academic qualifications:

Memberships:

Jacquie's experience

Employer clients — workplace relations reform

Guided major employers through five federal workplace relations system reforms, advising on award coverage, enterprise agreement strategy and negotiations, workforce restructure and industrial and employment dispute management.

Employer clients — foundational systems

Works with employers to develop tailored suites of employment contracts, policies and procedures that reflect best practice and protect commercial interests while ensuring regulatory compliance. Designs and delivers training to management on how to use these systems effectively.

Public and private sector — workplace investigations

Conducted and/or managed independent investigations for public and private sector clients on allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, fraud, theft and corruption; all areas where procedural integrity and impartiality are critical.

Education sector — employment and discrimination law

Regularly advises universities, schools and other education providers on employment arrangements, enterprise agreements, discrimination law compliance, governance and corruption issues, and student misconduct.

Sport sector — integrity and governance

Assists sporting associations and clubs with integrity and governance structures and systems, including constitutions and board support packs and training; team membership agreements and management of overseas sports teams; integrity policies including member protection, drugs and gambling; complaint/incident management and misconduct investigations.

Government — discrimination law policy submissions

Invited on multiple occasions to make submissions to government on discrimination law reform, reflecting recognised expertise in this area.

Awards, recognition and ranking