Meet your team

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 Australia, 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 has more than 12 years' experience practising at leading law firms in Australia, including Gilbert + Tobin and DLA Piper. Tim's expertise includes advising 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.

Kristen Barratt has more than 25 years' experience in employment and industrial relations law in both private practice and in-house roles. Kristen has held senior workplace relations roles for both an employer organisation, and an international building and construction firm. For the last six years, Kristen has been advising national and international businesses in her capacity as Special Counsel at Gadens Lawyers.

Shan-Ree Tan joined Practical Law Australia 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.

Hanna Soderlindh has more than 10 years' experience in corporate law, having practised at leading Australian law firms, including Ashurst and Jones Day. She specialises in mergers and acquisitions and a broad range of corporate advisory matters. Hanna also holds a Swedish Master of Laws Degree from Stockholm University.

Katrina Seck has practised law for 10 years in both large and boutique firms prior to joining Practical Law Australia. Katrina's specialty is in the area of employment law and she has advised her clients on all stages of the employment relationship. In particular, Katrina has experience in issues regarding the engagement of employees, performance management, work health and safety, workplace investigations, disputes and termination of employment.

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 Australia 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.

Michael Milnes has extensive legal and commercial experience, practising both as in-house counsel and at leading law firms in Australia, the UK and France. Michael has experience of advising at a strategic and operational level, across a wide range of commercial legal practice, including major contracts, competition and consumer law issues, marketing law, technology, IP and brand protection. Michael is also currently completing a Masters of Business Administration.

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 Australia 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 Australia, 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.

Sharmila Shearing has more than 20 years' experience in intellectual property law gained from diverse roles in private practice, in-house, academia and public sector organisations. Prior to joining Practical Law Australia, Sharmila was operations manager at UNSW Innovations, the tech transfer and innovation office of UNSW, where her responsibilities included IP, contract and practice management. Her experience spans practice in IP commercial and litigation matters at Banki Haddock Fiora, Spruson and Ferguson, advisory at the Arts Law Centre of Australia and lecturing in IP law at the University of Sydney and UTS.

Alina Kaye has a broad range of experience in employment law having practised at Australian and international law firms, including most recently Johnson, Winter & Slattery. Alina has advised employers in a wide range of industries on workplace relations and related matters, including in respect of transfer of business, remuneration and benefits, restructuring and outsourcing, anti-discrimination and sexual harassment, grievances and disputes, independent contractors, performance management, termination of employment and post-employment restraints of trade.

Sheridan Pinheiro joined Practical Law Australia 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.

Naomi King has over eight years of legal and commercial experience, having practised at leading Australian and international law firms in Brisbane and in Tokyo, and as in-house counsel for a large Japanese trading company. Naomi's expertise is in project, acquisition and corporate finance law, but she also has experience in advising on private equity, capital markets and general trade transactions. Naomi is currently completing a Bachelor of Engineering (Renewable Energy).

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 joined Practical Law Australia from IBM, where she held the role of lead counsel managing consulting services, hardware, and software licensing transactions across ANZ, with a special responsibility for privacy, data incidents and cybersecurity. Tyrilly has extensive practical IT law experience, with over 10 years' commercial experience in both private practice and in-house, advising on IP, competition and consumer laws, and PPSA.

Skye brings over 12 years' banking and finance experience to Practical Law. She gained her experience at leading private practice firms in Australia and the United Kingdom and has worked in-house for an international bank 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.

David Hazan, Writer joined the Practical Law writing team after serving as the Editor across all of Practical Law’s modules for over 2 years. He has broad legal practice experience at boutique firms, ranging from general practice matters to High Court litigation, with a particular focus on defamation and IP. He has also written for global business technology publications and edited academic journals.

Leela Cejnar's career background includes 20 years’ in legal practice, both with leading law firms and with the Australian Public Service (notably with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade). Leela joins Practical Law after ten years in academia, where her primary area of legal research was competition law. Leela holds a PhD in competition law and has published widely on this area of the law. Leela is admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Courts of New South Wales and Victoria, the Federal Court of Australia and the High Court of Australia.