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Experience

Melanie practices predominantly in commercial, tort and consumer law in the Federal and State courts. She has particular experience in class actions. Melanie has acted for a range of clients, including individuals, corporations and government.

Melanie is experienced in dealing with complex economic, accounting, engineering and scientific expert evidence.

Before commencing in law, Melanie worked as a scientific researcher, mainly in synthetic organic chemistry.

Matters in which Melanie has acted includes the following.

Commercial law

Alcoa of Australia Limited & ors v AusNet Transmission Group Pty Ltd & anor – acted for Alcoa, Supreme Court of Victoria, settled

Thomas & anor v The A2 Milk Company Limited – Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action, settled

Laricchia v Wisetech Global Limited – Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action

Gawler v Fleetpartners Group Ltd – Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action, settled

Cargill Australia Ltd v Viterra Malt Pty Ltd – Supreme Court of Victoria, acted for the Fifth Third Party, sale of business, led by Richard Attiwill KC (now the Honourable Justice Attiwill)

Stallard & anor v Treasury Wine Estates Limited – Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action

Huang v Star Entertainment Group Ltd – Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action

Lay v Nuix Ltd; Batchelor v Nuix Ltd; Bahtiyar v Nuix Ltd - Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action, led by Simon Marks KC

Bogan v Estate of Peter John Smedley – Supreme Court of Victoria, securities class action

Crawford v ANZ & ors – Supreme Court of Victoria, unfair conduct claim, led by Michael Rush KC

Shimshon v MLC Nominees Pty Limited & anor – Supreme Court of Victoria, superannuation class action, led by Nicholas Owens SC and with Dr Shipra Chordia

Court v Spotless Group Holdings Limited – Federal Court of Australia, settled, securities class action, led by Peter Collinson KC

Riviera Farms Pty Ltd v Accensi Pty Ltd – Supreme Court of Victoria, settled, contaminated herbicides, led by David Collins KC

IOOF Holdings Limited v Maurice Blackburn Pty Limited – Supreme Court of Victoria, settled, confidentiality in whistleblower documents, led by Richard Attiwill KC and Fiona Forsyth

Riley v Riley – Supreme Court of Victoria, settled, partnership dispute

Fernbrook (Aust) Investments Pty Ltd v AMP Limited – Federal Court of Australia, securities class action, led by Richard Attiwill QC

Money Max Int Pty Limited v QBE Insurance Group Limited – Federal Court of Australia, settled, securities class action, led by Bernie Quinn KC

Fletcher v Lendlease Corporation Limited & anor – Supreme Court of New South Wales, securities class action

Gold Coast Marine Aquaculture Pty Ltd v Aqua Star Pty Ltd & ors – Federal Court of Australia, led by David Collins KC

Tort law

Krakouer v AFL – Supreme Court of Victoria, negligence, racial vilification class action

McNickle v Huntsman Chemical Company Australia Pty Ltd & ors – Federal Court of Australia, negligence class action concerning Roundup

Andrianakis v Uber Technologies Inc & ors and Salem v Uber Technologies Inc & ors – Supreme Court of Victoria, conspiracy by unlawful means

Turner v Bayer Australia Ltd & ors, product liability class action, led by Fiona Forsyth KC

Manus Island Class Action – Kamasaee v Commonwealth & ors

Murrindindi Black Saturday Bushfire Class Action – Rowe v AusNet Electricity Services Pty Ltd & ors

Kilmore Black Saturday Bushfire Class Action – Matthews v AusNet Electricity Services Pty Ltd & ors

Consumer law

Many of the above matters involved consumer law claims.

Clarke v JB Hi-Fi Group Pty Ltd – Supreme Court of Victoria, consumer class action

Bergman v Sportsbet Pty Ltd – Supreme Court of Victoria, consumer class action

Administrative and employment law

Tham v Australian Capital Territory [2024] FCA 1508 – Federal Court of Australia, employment class action, settlement approval hearing

Bywater v Appco Group Australia Pty Ltd – Federal Court of Australia, settled, employment class action, led by Kristine Hanscombe KC

Sister Marie Brigid Arthur (Litigation Representative) v Northern Territory of Australia, settled, administrative law class action, led by Dan Star KC

Other

ACN 117 641 004 Pty Ltd v S&P Global Inc – Federal Court of Australia, acted for the second applicant in a dispute concerning whether the proceeding ought to be stayed

Caason Investments Pty Ltd v Simon Xiao Fan Cao – Federal Court of Australia, acted for applicant in dispute with funder

Chief Commissioner of Police v Paterson [2023] VSC 172 – firearm prohibition

Inquiries

Hazelwood Mine Fire Inquiry 2015 – Investigation into increased incidence of deaths (report available at http://hazelwoodinquiry.vic.gov.au/201516-report/volume-ii-investigations-into-2009-2014-deaths)

Own Motion Inquiry of the Office of the Racing Integrity Commissioner – Investigation into Laming, Potgieter and Zeyaur Rahman (public summary of the report available at https://racingintegrity.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/164151/Public-Summary-Report-Own-Motion-June-2021.pdf)

Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation.