Profile
Counsel was admitted to practice in 1997 and came to the Bar in 2002. She practices in all State and Federal jurisdictions.
Her particular focus is in wills and probate litigation and estate planning. She is a regular presenter at Green’s List’s Breakfast Briefings on recent developments and cases in the wills and probate jurisdiction and a regular presenter in the area with the Television Education Network (T.E.N); the Leo Cussen Institute and the Law Institute of Victoria.
In addition to being experienced in Part IV claims made pursuant to the Administration & Probate Act 1958 Counsel gives advice to estates where an approval of compromise is sought by reason of there being a minor or a specially represented beneficiary due to disability. She has an established practice in advising trustees of trusts for the purposes of applications made pursuant to O.54 of the Supreme Court (General Civil Procedure) Rules 2005 including questions surrounding access to trust documents by beneficiaries.
Counsel gives advice in the area of Powers of Attorney and appears regularly in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in the Guardianship and Administration List. She has recently given presentations on the operation and effect of the new Powers of Attorney Act 2014 (Vic) as well as the recent amendments to that Act.
Counsel’s background in property and insolvency law has served her well in the wills and probate jurisdiction. Some of her most recent cases include Accurate Financial Consultants Pty Ltd & Anor v Koko Black Pty Ltd & Ors [2008] VSCA 86 (28 May 2008) where she represented the appellants as junior counsel in the Court of Appeal on questions concerning fraud on the trustee’s power, the nature of equitable estoppel and quasi-partnership. More recently she appeared for the second defendant in Hodge v De Pasquale [2014] VSC 413.
She publishes regularly for the Leo Cussen Wills and Probate Bulletin and her most recent articles are; Issue 84 June 2016 "Brave New World: Duties of Solicitors and Barristers to the Court and their clients in wills and estates litigation" and Issue 86 December 2016 "Recent Probate Cases" discussing Re Gardiner [2016] VSC 541 on the question of standing of applicants in revocations of probate and other recent probate cases. She writes regularly in her field of expertise and her papers are available on the Greens List online library for members.
She is an accredited mediator having first gained her accreditation with the LEADR mediation group in Melbourne in 2004 and more recently in June 2013 she gained her accreditation as a nationally recognised mediator under the NMAS scheme.
Alternative Dispute Resolution
+61 3 9225 7222
clerkb@greenslist.com.au