Patrick Walsh

With 30 years’ experience in various State Supreme Courts, Courts of Appeal, the Federal Court, the Full Court of the Federal Court and the High Court of Australia, including cross border and international disputes, Patrick leads the Disputes practice and continues to achieve maximum returns for his clients.

Recognised as a leading disputes lawyer, Patrick specialises in large scale and complex litigation. He offers significant experience providing proactive and strategic advice in relation to class actions, Corporations Law, disputes, shareholders and directors’ disputes, funds management, competition and consumer law, commercial disputes, property disputes, equity and trusts disputes, partnership disputes, tax controversies, revenue law disputes, and insolvency.

Patrick’s expertise is regularly called upon by major institutional, listed and private corporations, high net worth individuals and various Australian Government agencies. His experience includes acting in relation to high-profile matters including cases that have influenced changes to legislation such as the recent land tax test case under Victorian legislation, in relation to the iconic Melbourne GPO building, which resulted in a reduction of its land tax assessment to $1. The outcome of this case led to immediate legislative changes to the Valuation of Land Act 1960 in the land tax assessment on heritage-listed buildings in Victoria.

In addition, Patrick is also recognised for his ability to handle complex, cross-border matters, including advising Aurora Funds Management Ltd in relation to winding up of the Torchlight Fund Limited Partnership in the Cayman Islands on just and equitable grounds, where Aurora represented the interests of The Bear Real Opportunities Fund, a Macquarie Bank Limited entity, as Trustee of the Fund, a trial that ran for 40 sitting days. His track record also includes acting on high-profile shareholder class actions, including SurfStitch Group Limited.

Patrick has a particular interest in Alternative Dispute Resolution, including commercial arbitration pursuant to the generally uniform Commercial Arbitration Acts within the various States and Territories of Australia. He has completed the flagship Advanced Negotiation Master Class at Harvard Law School. Patrick has also completed the Mediating Disputes course at Harvard Law School together with the flagship Advanced Mediation – Mediating Complex Disputes course at Harvard Law School. He is a nationally accredited mediator under the National Mediator Accreditation System (NMAS).

Since 2016, each year Patrick has been nominated and selected as a Best Lawyer in Litigation and Government Practice by Best Lawyers Australia. Patrick has been listed as a Leading Litigation & Dispute Resolution Lawyer in Victoria and Australia by Doyle’s Guide, he was included in the fifth annual Global Business Edition of Best Lawyers and was the Commercial Litigation Law award winner in Australia in the 2020 International Advisory Experts award. Patrick was named Dispute Resolution Lawyer of the Year in Australia in the Leaders in Law 2020 Global Awards and Dispute Resolution Lawyer of the Year in Australia in the 2020 Global Law Experts Annual Awards. He was also named a Best Practice Operator by the ACQ5 Country Awards 2020 and Commercial Litigation Lawyer of the Year in Australia at the 2021 Corporate Intl Magazine Global Awards.