Where could you fit in?

Legal

Our 14 National Practice Groups service clients around the country and internationally, across a range of industry sectors. They bring together teams of lawyers with the right mix of legal and commercial skills to match our clients' business needs.

Banking and Financial Services

 At the forefront of industry innovation, we regularly participate in government, industry committees and working groups to review the key legal issues. Our front-end banking Partners are regularly acknowledged as leaders in their field by independent legal directories such as IFLR 1000, Australian Financial Review Best Lawyers, Chambers Global and Asia Pacific Legal 500.

See Banking and Finance

Commercial Litigation

Our Commercial Litigation group, the largest in Australia, has a reputation for undertaking the most complex, significant and high-profile matters, and delivering excellent results for our clients ‒ a reputation that is second to none.

We have an outstanding client service philosophy, with:

• technical excellence from friendly, responsive lawyers;
• focus on ADR to ensure where possible your legal issues are resolved without the need to resort to the cost and uncertainty of litigation; and
• strategic, head-office advice and a commitment to containing costs.

See Litigation and Dispute Resolution

Competition

As one of the most highly regarded competition teams in Australia, we're consistently involved in high-profile complex M&A matters that have broken new ground in competition law in Australia. Unlike any of our competitors, the group has recently provided competition advice or submissions on over 70% of all matters. 

We are the go-to people for cartel-related matters and have acted on several high-profile international cases and on most leniency matters with the ACCC. We advise a number of large blue chip clients on complex, multifaceted compliance issues. We are also market leaders in access and regulation, advising on a number of Australia's largest, most complex matters including parts of the access regime of the nbn, Australia's largest infrastructure project in history.

See Competition

Corporate, M&A, Capital Markets

Acting for many of Australia's top 100 companies and leading multinationals, we provide corporate clients with the tools needed to manage all the issues that arise in a successful company.

Our clients' business is our business. Whether it's capital raising, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions or commercial contract negotiation, we offer leading edge expertise, second-to-none execution skills and commercial judgment born from years of experience in the Australian corporate environment. 

See Corporate, M&A, Capital Markets

Environment and Sustainable Development

We're helping to build Australia – major infrastructure developments, mining, exploration and electricity generation, including renewable energy – by specialising in all areas of planning law, including environmental impact assessment requirements for proposed developments and infrastructure and liaising with regulatory authorities.

We regularly advise our clients on some of the largest energy and resource projects in Australia on environment assessment obligations, general regulatory requirements and post-closure liabilities, and also represent them before various courts and tribunals. 

See Environment and Sustainable Development

Forensic and Technology Services

Our forensic and legal teams work together to help you identify, mitigate and manage the ambit of commercial, regulatory and reputation risks in your business, including fraud, anti-bribery, corruption, cyber risk, supply chain risk, and regulatory investigations, and to build compliance programs at an early stage.   

See Forensic and Technology Services

Intellectual Property & Technology

Our IP & Technology team is one of Australia's largest and most experienced specialist groups, working at the forefront of rapid regulatory and technological change. We understand the importance of IP and the best ways to commercialise and protect it and played an integral role in events that have redefined the Australia's media and telecommunications landscape.

Our Australian and international clients include major telcos, television and radio networks, content providers, private equity firms, banks, sporting bodies, film production companies, government agencies, regulators, online service providers, new media companies, media personalities and their agents, print and digital publishers, and IT software and equipment suppliers and their users.

Our IP litigators have worked on some of the most significant disputes and precedent-setting matters in Australia including major patent litigation, high-profile Copyright Tribunal proceedings, trade mark litigation, the Designs Act and disputes arising from misleading conduct, trade secret and passing off claims. We also understand and are experienced in co-ordinating cross-jurisdictional matters for global clients. 

See Intellectual Property and   See Telecommunications, Media and Technology

Major Projects and Construction (MPC)

We're one of the largest dedicated construction practices in the Asia Pacific region, operating as a cohesive group of contentious and non-contentious lawyers. The group works on some of the most significant infrastructure, construction, engineering and contract mining projects in the Asia-Pacific region for public and private participants. 

As an integrated full service team, we can advise on all aspects of major infrastructure, construction, engineering and contract mining projects, from feasibility study through to operation, maintenance and dispute management. 

See Construction and Major Projects

Pro Bono

Pro bono is a fundamental part of Clayton Utz.

We are serious about pro bono best practice.  Clayton Utz was the first Foundation Signatory to the Australian Pro Bono Centre's National Pro Bono Target and has always exceeded the Target.  Since 1997, we have provided 815,456 pro bono hours to low-income and vulnerable people who cannot obtain Legal Aid, and for the not-for-profits which support them.  We have been named three times as one of the world's 10 leading pro bono firms, and were awarded the Who's Who Legal Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year in London in 2019.

At Clayton Utz, pro bono work is part of every lawyer's everyday practice.  It is real legal work, given billable hour credit and built into lawyers' performance assessments and eligibility for bonuses and promotions.  Pro bono work is challenging, diverse and far-reaching, and we see the real difference that our work makes to our clients' lives.

For a snapshot of our practice in FY22 see Pro Bono

Public Sector

Our Government Services Group has advised Australian Governments at the highest levels. We have an intimate knowledge of the Australian political environment, and a strong track record of advising on high-profile, commercially complex and strategically important projects. 

See Government Services

Real Estate

Our top-tier multidisciplinary Real Estate team boasts some of the country's foremost experts in all areas of property law. 

As a key player in many of Australia's most significant and complex property projects, our team advises clients in Australia and overseas, including foreign institutional investors, property fund managers, government authorities, real estate investment trusts, developers and other stakeholders on some of the largest and complex projects in Australia. 

See Real Estate

Restructuring and Insolvency

Recognised for our extensive industry knowledge and depth of experience, our team has worked on some of the most challenging matters across a range of industries. Combining this knowledge with our legal expertise means we can help clients develop strategies that suit their unique business aims. We advise on the full spectrum of insolvency and recovery issues, but also on pre-insolvency complex restructurings that preserve the long-term value of businesses for creditors and stakeholders. 

See Restructuring and Insolvency

Tax

Our strong national Tax Practice serves high-end corporate and institutional clients, working closely with other practice groups such as banking & financial services, funds management and private equity to provide clients with concurrent advice on all aspects of transactions and issues. Clients also get a cross-section of expertise within our national tax team, including accounting, financial services, tax litigation and corporate law aspects of taxation.

See Taxation

Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety

Our Workplace Relations, Employment & Safety Practice Group is the go-to team for large organisations with challenging workplace needs.

We work with clients on the full spectrum of the employment relationship, from hiring through to management, employment law and workplace relations, industrial relations, discrimination, work health and safety, executive remuneration and diversity. 

Our clients include many international and ASX 200 listed companies, leading universities, government and private sector organisations, such as Origin Energy, Brookfield, Perpetual, Woolworths, Toyota, ExxonMobil Group, Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Federal Police. 

See Workplace Relations, Employment and Safety

Business Advisory Services

Our Business Advisory Services employees underpin all that we do as a business. 

Clients and Markets

Our national Clients and Markets team works with our legal teams to grow our client relationships and identify new work opportunities.

They do that by providing strategic advice on engaging with clients, targeted marketing initiatives, requests for proposals, and identifying and pursuing growth opportunities for the firm. More specifically, this can involve developing client relationship plans, strategies for pursuing work from new clients, creating and managing client communications and events.

There are four main areas of responsibility within the broader C&M function:

• Markets - creating go-to-market strategies alongside our practice and industry groups
• Clients - implementing strategic initiatives for our key clients
• Corporate Affairs - managing the firm's media engagement, crisis communications, client and internal communications
• Marketing Services & Events - managing the firm's digital channels, creating bespoke client communications and events and the management of the firm's brand.  

Finance and Administration

Our Finance group is responsible for delivering sound financial advice to all areas of the firm.

There are two areas in our finance team:

• the Accounting team, which gives financial advice and support by analysing and interpreting the financial and performance results for departments across the firm, and providing input and support for corrective action. The team recommends and, where appropriate, initiates projects or processes to improve the effectiveness of these departments; and
• the Financial and Performance Reporting team, which designs and produces reports that provide financial information to assist in business decision-making. 

Practice Administrators

Clayton Utz's Practice Administrators are an instrumental part of our firm. Providing high-quality administrative support services to our Partners and team members, our Practice Administrators maximise the efficiency of the Practice Group and the Firm. 

Operations and Planning

The Operations team provides a range of national support services to the firm. These include premises and facilities management, office services, secretarial support, word processing services, catering, purchasing and supply, records management and travel. This team ensures local services are delivered at the same consistently high standard across the country. 

People and Development

With a presence in all our major offices, the National People and Development team advises the business on all facets of Human Resources, including employee relations, talent, resourcing, recruitment (both graduate and lateral), remuneration, benefits, reporting and Learning and Organisational Development. 

Risk Management

Our Risk Management team identifies and minimises areas of risk for the firm and provides advice on a range of topics including Professional Indemnity Claims, Professional Indemnity Insurance, Workplace Health & Safety, Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery, Cyber Risk, Workers Compensation, Travel Risk, Salary Continuance & Life Insurance. 

Technology and Information Services

The IT group provides best-practice IT service and support to help our clients conduct business. The group is made up of several specialist teams:

• Infrastructure Support, which takes responsibility for new systems once they have been developed and tested;
• the Infrastructure Development team, which works on specific projects and provides technical support to other areas within the IT group, as well as presenting and implementing new technologies within the firm;
• the Projects and Development teams, which investigate business information systems; and
• the Customer Service team, which delivers accurate, consistent and detailed support to all IT users across Clayton Utz.