Norman Waterhouse Government, Local Government and Public Law Team

Our Key Team Members

Sathish Dasan (Partner)

Susie Inat (Partner)

Paul Kelly (Partner)

Felice D'Agostino (Senior Associate)

George Karzis (Special Counsel)

Kate Oliver (Senior Associate)

Our Capabilities

Norman Waterhouse is a pre-eminent public and administrative law specialist.

Our people are recognised as South Australia's most esteemed local government legal advisers and strategic business partners.

Indeed, our 80-year association and extensive experience with local government, is reflected in our appointment as the principal legal advisors to the Local Government Association of South Australia.

As a further endorsement of our knowledge, experience and abilities in the sector, we were engaged in 1999 to undertake the unique and significant project of reviewing, analysing and providing comment and advice on the review of South Australia's long standing Local Government Act, 1934 and the content and implementation of the new Local Government legislation.

In recent years local government has faced major structural, procedural and legislative reform.   As a strategic business partner rather than simply legal advisers - we have a team based approach helping many local authorities grapple with the reform process and its associated changes. This has included advice in the specialised areas of information technology, e-commerce, National Competition Policy, service provision and contestability, outsourcing, performance measurement, workplace relations, privacy, freedom of information and public accountability.

Of note, we have successfully conducted litigation in the High Court of Australia in relation to a variety of issues of critical importance to local government regarding governance and development.

We provide advice in all areas of public and administrative law, including:

• Commercial, business and property related projects and transactions
• Conveyancing and land broking
• Employment agreements and contracts
• Human resource and workplace management
• Intellectual property and information technology
• Strategic urban planning and development
• Environmental issues
• Liability and risk management
• Governance and policy issues
• Statutory interpretations
• Public health
• Conflict of interest and fiduciary duties
• Probity in public office
• National Competition Policy
• Trade Practices Act
• Statutory compliance audits
• Prosecutions and litigation
• Tendering and contracts
• Local government subsidiaries
• Public/Private partnership ventures
• Privacy
• Freedom of Information

Our value added services include training and education programs, newsletters, distributed case law, legislative updates, briefing seminars and workshops.

As the reform agenda develops we will be at the forefront assisting our clients to get it right in the long-term interests of the community.