Sparke Helmore Lawyers

Who is Sparke Helmore?

Sparke Helmore is national, multi-disciplinary law firm specialising in Workplace Relations and Safety, Insurance, Commercial, and Dispute Resolution legal services. We act for Governments and corporates alike, always striving to strike the balance between legal and commercial outcomes.

Where are we located?

Sparke Helmore is a fully integration national law firm. This means we are more than just a ‘network’ of legal providers - we are one! We pride ourselves on our ability to not only offer, but deliver, the same consistent service standard to both national and state based clients.

We have 56 partners spread throughout Australia, with offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Newcastle, Perth and the Upper Hunter. We have Workplace Relations and Safety lawyers available at all of our offices and this is why we have a truly national footprint!

What we do in Workplace Relations and Safety?

As one of Sparke Helmore’s core service areas, the team consists of 38 Workplace relations and safety experts, including 7 Partners. We have one of the largest Workplace relations and safety teams in Australia, spread across our eight offices.

Our clients include some of Australia’s biggest companies across a wide range of industries including mining and resources, FMCG, Government, construction, transport, and manufacturing to name a few. In recent times, the workplace relations legal landscape has shifted and our team has been at the forefront of these changes by, for example, assisting our clients in the preparation of submissions regarding the harmonisation of OHS laws.

As the legal changes become a reality for our clients, we seek to keep them abreast of the latest issues with seminars, as well as podcasts, webinars, and highly successful court simulations.

Our Workplace Relations and Safety team are, above all else, outcome driven.

In the court room, we achieve these outcomes by assisting our clients with their safety matters (negotiation of withdrawal of charges; successful defences on behalf of employers, managers and directors; costs orders; significant plea bargaining results and non-conviction dispositions; and successful appeals against prohibition and improvement notices), and employment matters (advising employers in the areas of bullying and related action such as discrimination and termination of employment claims, establishing investigations into complaints, advocacy before various National and State Industrial Courts and Tribunals, obtaining orders to stop related industrial action, and negotiating outcomes with unions).

Outside of the court room, we also assist our clients with lobbying/preparing submissions, management systems review and compliance, operating guidelines for managers, policy/procedure and standards review. Read more about our services below:

Responsive Services - OHS

• Investigations by regulators/union officials
• Prosecutions
• Improvement and prohibition notices
• Coronial proceedings
• Lobbying and submissions
• OHS Incident response Hotline (24/7) 1800 63 85 63

Responsive Services - Employment and Industrial Relations

• Advocacy
• Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment matters
• Employment contracts, enterprise agreements, and modern awards
• Industrial disputes
• Injured workers litigation
• Unfair dismissal, Adverse Action, and workplace rights

Proactive Services - OHS  

Legal reviews of:

• Policy, planning and strategy
• Management systems
• Procedures, standards and operating guidelines
• Gap analysis
• General compliance
• Risk assessment
• Governance and due diligence
• Contractor management
• Joint venture or other third party arrangements
• General commercial agreements and transactions (OHS aspects)
• Tailored training and legal briefings

Proactive Services - Employment and Industrial Relations

• Dispute resolution
• Enterprise bargaining
• Policies and procedures
• Strategic and HR planning, and the role of IR in business sustainability
• Independent contractor review
• Investigations of workplace conduct
• Tailored training and legal briefings

For articles on the latest workplace relations and workplace health and safety issues, visit the HR Compliance/OHS Library, sponsored by Sparke Helmore or contact us at www.sparke.com.au.