Pinsent Masons unveils employment and reward practice in Australia

Pinsent Masons has unveiled an employment and reward team for its Australia branch, with three new partners playing key roles.

The new team builds on the firm’s APAC employment and reward practice, strengthening Pinsent Masons’ offerings in relation to domestic and cross-jurisdictional employment and labour law advice, investigation, litigation and resolution services. Lander & Rogers’ Aaron Goonrey and Neil Napper will head up the team alongside Holding Redlich’s Ben McKinley.

“Neil, Ben and I are excited to join Pinsent Masons and launch its employment and reward team in Australia, augmenting our existing capabilities across both Asia Pacific and globally”, Goonrey said. “Pinsent Masons is growing rapidly in the Asia Pacific region and there are significant opportunities for our employment and reward team to work alongside our colleagues to deliver this specialised capability to support our local, regional and global clients”.

Goonrey tackles matters involving corporate and workplace restructuring, employee benefits and rewards, restraints of trade, and workplace investigations. He also works on highly sensitive litigation and aids in the defence of employee claims.

As he has for over 35 years, Napper concentrates on workplace relations and safety law and has handled issues involving all areas of workplace law. He has worked on strategic industrial relations matters, disputes and enterprise bargaining. He has also been involved in business protection litigation such as enforcing restraints of trade, employment litigation, modern award compliance, whistleblower protections, workplace privacy, investigations of workplace misconduct, modern slavery and supply chain compliance and workplace safety.

McKinley focuses on post-employment obligations, complex workplace investigations, and underpayment investigations by the Fair Work Ombudsman.

“The building of a deep and experienced employment and reward team in Australia is an important strategic step in supporting our clients. We are seeing significant changes to employment, workplace and industrial relations laws in Australia and the way we work has changed dramatically because of the impact of the Covid pandemic”, Pinsent Masons Australia head Matthew Croagh said. “It is vital that we have a highly capable employment law team ready to help clients navigate this rapidly evolving and crucial area of their business”.

Special counsel Luke Scandrett and Emma Lutwyche will be working with the three new partners on the team, as will associate Stefania Silvestro. Pinsent Masons APAC head James Morgan-Payler confirmed that Goonrey, Napper and McKinley will also be collaborating with corporate partners Andrew Fisken and Joni Henry.

James Morgan was named as one of the Best Young Lawyers in Australia Under 35. Read the full report here.