Areas of practice                     
Employment Law
Commissions and Inquiries
Occupational, Health and Safety
Administrative Law
Corporate and Commercial, Insurance  

Date of admission to the Bar    
1991

Date taken Silk                        
2006            

Contact details                         
+612 8815 9166                                                
ian.neil@5wentworth.com   

Education

 

Mr Neil completed his Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees at the University of Sydney in 1985.  

Professional career

                  

Mr Neil worked as a solicitor at Pigott Stinson and Minter Ellison before being called to the Bar in 1991. He has been a member of 5 Wentworth since 1997. Employment and industrial law form a significant part of Mr Neil's practice, and he has appeared with the Commonwealth Solicitor General and otherwise in the High Court, at first instance and on appeal in the Federal Court, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the New South Wales Court of Appeal, the Supreme Courts of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, and the Industrial Relations Commission of New South Wales.  

Mr Neil assisted the Royal Commission into the Building and Construction Industry in 2001-2002 and appeared for various rail entities in the Special Commissions of Inquiry into the Glenbrook and Waterfall Rail Accidents. Mr Neil appeared for the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Inquiry into Certain Australian Companies in relation to the UN Oil-for-Food Programme.  

Selected cases

 

Fardell v Coates Hire Operations Pty Ltd [2010] NSWSC 346 


Miles v Genesys Wealth Advisers Limited [2009] NSWCA 25, a restraint of trade case in which Mr Neil and Cynthia Cochrane appeared for Mr Miles and the Court of Appeal (Hodgson JA dissenting) made important findings concerning confidential information and reasonableness in the context of restraints of trade imposed upon former employees.
 
Mr Neil acted as counsel for the claimant in Colley v Futurebrand FHA Pty Ltd [2005] NSWCA 223, which was heard in the New South Wales Court of Appeal. This case dealt with the effect of Section 108A(1) of the Industrial Relations Act 1996 (NSW) on a potential claimant’s right to commence proceedings to receive a contractual remuneration package of or above $200,000.  

In the case of Fisher v Madden [2002] NSWCA 28, the New South Wales Court of Appeal considered whether the Industrial Relations Commission could retrospectively vary the content of an employment contract between an employer and employee, and whether the Commission could require the company to make a ‘retrenchment payment’ to the employee. Mr Neil appeared on behalf of the Attorney-General of the Commonwealth in Re Pacific Coal (2000) 203 CLR 346, in which the High Court held that Section 3 of the Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Act 1996 (Cth) (which purported to give effect to item 50 and subitems 51(1), (2) and (3) in Part 2 of Schedule 5 of the Act itself) was not invalid.  

In Shellharbour Golf Club v Wheeler [1999] NSWSC 224, the New South Wales Supreme Court had to consider the findings of the Equal Opportunity Tribunal in a anti-discrimination case which involved a critical examination of the construction of Section 53 of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 (NSW). Mr Neil appeared for the appellant in Qantas Airways Ltd v Christie (1998) 193 CLR 280. The case considered issues of termination of employment, discrimination on the basis of age (in light of the Industrial Relations Act 1988 (Cth)) and the effect of effluxion of time on employment contracts.   

Publications  

 

Mr Neil edited the three ‘Industrial Law’ volumes of the third edition of the Australian Digest, and has given papers in Australia and internationally on matters pertaining to employment law, most recently to the Inter-Pacific Bar Association in 2004 and 2006.

 

Mr Neil (with David Chin) published “High Court yet to resolve differences regarding mutual trust and confidence”, which appears in the May 2010 issue of the Law Society Journal.