Meet your team

Joanne Dunn is a solicitor and registered Trade Marks Attorney, with more than 14 years’ experience practising at top-tier and boutique law firms and as in-house counsel for an ASX listed entity with international operations. She has also worked for a government regulatory organisation. Joanne has experience in intellectual property and all areas of trade mark law, and commercial practice including contracts, marketing, compliance and consumer law.

Andrew McDonald joined Practical Law after more than seven years in practice at leading law firm King & Wood Mallesons and specialist corporate firm Watson Mangioni. Andrew's practice included advising clients on a range of corporate transactions and commercial matters including mergers and acquisitions, restructures, commercial contracts, capital raising and corporate governance.

Michelle Tat joined Practical Law as a senior writer in 2020 after more than six years in practice at leading international law firm King & Wood Mallesons. She specialises in a broad range of commercial real estate transactions, including acquisitions and disposals, development projects, joint venture arrangements, real estate investment structuring and commercial leasing.

Linda Taylor has more than 15 years' experience in employment, industrial relations and work health and safety law in both private practice and in-house roles. Prior to joining Practical Law, Linda held senior management positions with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, where she advised on a variety of matters, including termination of employment, transfer of business, and disciplinary and grievance investigations.

Tim Perry initially joined Practical Law in late 2016 as the Head of Corporate for Practical Law Australia. At that time he had more than 12 years' experience practising at leading law firms Gilbert+Tobin, DLA Piper and Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons). In his time as a corporate lawyer, Tim advised on public and private mergers and acquisitions, private equity transactions, joint ventures, restructures, capital raisings, privatisations and other government transactions, corporate governance, directors' duties and commercial contracts.

Robert Macredie has more than 12 years practising experience at leading international law firms in Australia and the United Kingdom, including Baker & McKenzie and Herbert Smith Freehills. Robert's expertise includes advising on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, investment funds, restructures, capital raising, corporate governance, directors' duties and commercial contracts.

Shan-Ree Tan joined Practical Law after more than eight years in practice at leading Australian law firm Gilbert + Tobin. His expertise includes leveraged private equity investments and trade sales, as well as restructures, capital raisings, fund structuring, foreign investment, state transactions, employee incentive schemes, corporate governance, commercial contracts and charities.

Lauren Singh joined Practical Law from specialist corporate firm Watson Mangioni where she advised on IPOs, mergers and acquisitions. Lauren's experience includes advising clients on capital raising, corporate governance (particularly for ASX listed companies), restructures and general corporate advisory matters.

Kate Merrifield joined Practical Law after 10 years in practice as a corporate lawyer at leading Australian law firm Gilbert+Tobin. Kate's practice included advising clients on a range of corporate transactions and commercial matters including restructures, acquisitions and disposals of private companies, commercial contracts, corporate governance and compliance with the Corporations Act and Listing Rules.

Elizabeth Sarofim has over 15 years’ experience in competition and consumer law. Prior to joining Practical Law, Elizabeth held senior roles at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission before entering private commercial practice, ultimately becoming a Partner and Head of the Australian Competition practice at a major global law firm. Elizabeth has experience across all aspects of competition and consumer law and has handled complex front and back end matters. In addition to her writing and editorial commitments, Elizabeth is a Tribunal Member in NCAT’s Commercial and Consumer Division.

Sophie Bonnette joined Practical Law in April 2020 and has over eight years’ experience in employment, work health and safety, and industrial relations law. She has practised at international and nationally-based firms, including Norton Rose Fulbright Australia and Henry Davis York, as well as Legal Counsel – Employment Law within an ASX-listed healthcare company. Sophie has experience across different industries in all aspects of the employment relationship including industrial disputes, redundancy, transfer of business, and disciplinary and grievance processes.

Louise Sinclair joined Practical Law from Legal and Regulatory Services at NSW Health. Louise is experienced in all aspects of commercial agreement work and has significant experience of competition law in the context of third line forcing and cartels and the consumer provisions, particularly in the context of the provision of medical and health services. She also has broad commercial law experience having advised across commercial legal areas including major projects, goods and service contracts, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, and charities. Louise previously worked at Ebsworth & Ebsworth as a medical negligence lawyer before joining Cutler Hughes & Harris in its commercial law division and then Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst) as a lawyer in the firm’s Corporate Advisory Group.

Alex Chernishev has more than 12 years' banking and finance experience at leading international and domestic firms in Australia and the United Kingdom, including Clayton Utz and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. Alex has extensive experience in a wide range of banking and finance transactions including corporate finance, project finance, debt capital markets, securitisation and derivatives.

Sarita Walpola joined Practical Law from Minter Ellison. She has over eight years' experience advising on a wide variety of corporate and commercial matters, including public and private M&As, compliance with the Corporations Act and ASX Listing Rules, joint venture arrangements, restructures and corporate governance matters. Sarita has had the opportunity to apply her expertise in a variety of fields, including the financial services, energy and resources, media, technology and not-for-profit sectors.

Laura Hawes has more than 10 years' experience in litigation and dispute resolution, having developed particular expertise in insolvency and restructuring. Prior to joining Practical Law, Laura practised for over eight years at Clayton Utz. Laura has acted in a broad range of matters including complex commercial and corporations law proceedings, insolvency administrations, property and body corporate disputes, breach of contract claims, shareholder actions and employment disputes.

Sheridan Pinheiro joined Practical Law after more than 10 years' experience working on corporate and commercial legal documents in the knowledge management team of leading international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills. Prior to that, Sheridan practised in-house for a media group on a range of corporate and commercial matters.

Edwina has nearly 10 years' experience in the legal industry in the public and private sectors. Edwina has an understanding of the practicalities of working in the Australian legal industry from varied perspectives including six years of post-qualification experience as a private practice solicitor in the corporate, banking and financial compliance sectors at Dentons (formerly Gadens). Edwina has had exposure to a cross-section of major Australian finance, resource and commercial sector entities as well as SMEs and not-for-profits. This varied experience has provided Edwina with a comprehensive understanding of business law and the practicalities of operating in the financial and corporate sectors.

Christine Gray has more than 20 years' experience practising in all aspects of commercial property in leading Australian law firms, including Gilbert + Tobin and Dentons Australia (previously Gadens). Christine has extensive experience in commercial and retail leasing, acquisitions and disposals of commercial and residential real estate, and strata and community title structuring.

Tyrilly Csillag initially joined Practical Law Australia as a senior writer in 2017. Prior to joining Practical Law, Tyrilly held the role of Counsel at IBM and managed IBM’s consulting services, hardware, and software licensing transactions across Australia and New Zealand, with a special responsibility for Privacy, Data Incidents and Cybersecurity. She also managed lawyers practising in the A/NZ and Asia Pacific legal teams. Tyrilly has over a decade of experience working within in-house legal teams for multinational, national corporate and also government entities. She has also worked as a solicitor in private practice, including within the knowledge management function.

Skye Balasingham brings over 12 years' banking and finance experience to Practical Law. Skye gained her experience at Allens in Sydney and Melbourne, and with Simmons & Simmons in the United Kingdom. Her breadth of skills has been enhanced by having also spent time working at Barclays Bank PLC and a local non-bank financier. She has extensive experience in all aspects of banking and finance transactions, with a particular focus on property finance, leveraged and acquisition finance, corporate finance and securitisation deals.