Environment & Planning
Natalie Bannister
Natalie lead’s Hall & Wilcox’s Commercial practice (which includes litigation, corporate and commercial, tax, employment, private clients, banking and finance and property and projects) and has broad experience across many areas of commercial law.
Natalie also has close to 20 years’ experience in property, planning and environment law. She acts primarily for institutional clients, utility providers, property developers and large companies. Her experience includes property due diligence, sales and acquisitions; commercial and retail leasing including managing national property portfolios; land contamination including compliance, risk allocation and liability, management and clean-up; obtaining development approvals; planning advice and compliance (including in respect of Aboriginal and European Heritage, native vegetation, traffic, noise, flooding and water quality impacts); rates and land tax objections; compulsory acquisition of land and compensation and property disputes and advice about easements, rights of way and adverse possession.
She regularly acts as an advocate before VCAT and at planning panel hearings.
Natalie has been recognised as a leading Australian lawyer in Doyle's Guide to the Australian Legal Profession. She has also been recognised in The Best Lawyers in Australia in Real Property Law every year since 2017 and was a Finalist at the 2020 Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Executive of the Year.
Natalie is customer-service focused and is constantly evolving and improving the way she delivers legal services to make it as easy as possible for clients to do business with her. Natalie takes an innovative approach to pricing, using fixed fees and other alternative fee arrangements to deliver price certainty and value for money. Natalie is responsive to clients and always does what she says she will do.
Stan Kondilios
Stan is a leading environmental and planning law litigator who specialises in supporting local government. His practice involves assessing and advising clients on good design of development proposals which are environmentally sustainable and proper community outcomes are reached. His studies for the Masters of the Built Environment set him as a leader in the legal profession when it comes to ESD assessments and environmental consequences on the built and natural environment.
Maurice Doria
Maurice has more than 25 years’ experience delivering legal services for clients in both the private and public sector.
Maurice advises his clients in corporate and commercial law, contract preparation and negotiation, real estate development, governance, leasing, finance and dispute resolution.
Maurice has also worked as General Counsel at Parramatta City Council and Legal Services Director at the City of Sydney Council. Both in these roles and in private practice, Maurice has delivered client-focused legal services, ranging from high-level strategic advice on policy or politically sensitive issues to operationally focused legal support for business projects.
Maurice delivers business-minded solutions in a timely and efficient manner, and adds real value for clients by working with them in a true business partnership approach.
Emily Kyriacou
Emily’s areas of practice include all areas of property law including sales and purchases of real estate, commercial and retail leasing and property related disputes.
Emily focuses on understanding the clients she works for in order to better understand and mitigate their risk. She is a trusted advisor for clients including Accenture Australia Pty Ltd, Australian Unity, Japara Aged Care, the Liberty Oil Group, Care Super Pty Ltd, the Victorian Pride Centre and others.
She is building a solid reputation with clients for providing legal services in complex, large scale leasing portfolios, allowing them to mitigate risk and focus on their core business.
Meg Lee
Meg is a Partner in our Property and Projects team, specialising in planning and environment law.
She has over 20 years’ experience advising clients in the government, retail, residential, health, industrial, water and energy sectors. She advises on environmental and planning approvals, liabilities, and statutory regulation for major infrastructure, property developments and commercial transactions.
A significant component of her practice involves working with clients to obtain planning and environmental project approvals and rezoning of land, including running appeals and hearings before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Planning Panels and Ministerial Advisory Committees. Related to her specialty, Meg also advises on land acquisition and compensation matters in the context of major projects.
Emma Leys
Emma has over 25 years’ experience practising in the areas of non-contentious property, finance, corporate, commercial and local government law, with a focus on property law.
Emma acts for a broad range of private, corporate, institutional, local government, State Government department, and statutory corporation clients.
Before joining Hall & Wilcox, Emma was a partner of the property and commercial team of Western Australian firm Kott Gunning for 16 years.
Since 2019, Emma has been a committee member of the Property Council of Australia, WA Division Commercial Committee.
Rory O’Connor
With over 16 years’ experience in planning and environmental law, Rory has a focus on major projects and infrastructure and large scale infill and growth area development projects. He has experience in planning and environment, including development approvals across a broad scale, compulsory land acquisition, due diligence and risk advice, retail planning, land fill, geotechnical and contaminated land matters, prosecutions, enforcement and water law.
Rory has an excellent understanding of the statutory environmental and planning approvals process for major projects under the Planning and Environment Act, the Major Transport Projects Facilitation Act 2009 and associated referrals under the Environment Effects Act 1978 and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act. Rory has developed a reputation for being able to cut through and make sense of complex technical issues and planning disputes.
A skilled negotiator and advocate, Rory regularly appears in review proceedings before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) before Advisory Committees and at Planning Panels.
Brendan Tobin
Brendan advises on all aspects of planning, environmental and resources law. He has acted for a range of clients (including renewable energy companies) on matters ranging from approvals for greenfield projects, approval requirements, and water entitlements, trading and licensing.
Having acted in ground mining matters, Brendan has specialised expertise in climate change litigation. Brendan’s practice covers energy and resources projects in both New South Wales and Queensland.
Brendan is also an experienced native title lawyer acting in respect to future act agreements, extinguishment reports, native title proceedings and Aboriginal cultural heritage requirements.
Team Services
Our environment team advises on land contamination, risk allocation, incident management, prosecutions and environmental litigation, reviewing and advising on environmental site assessments, remediation action plans and construction management plans. We also advise on communicating with environmental engineers, regulatory agencies, local councils and the EPA to ensure environmental risk and liability are appropriately managed. We also act in relation to environmental effects statement processes.