If the issue relates to a planning or environment matter, we can be relied on to provide expert:

• Planning advice
• Planning and Environment Court representation
• Advice on planning prosecutions and enforcement
• Drafting of highly specialised development agreements
• Advice on the legal aspects of drafting and amending planning schemes and other instruments, including the adoption of temporary local planning instruments and policies
• Advice on master planning and statement development projects
• Advice and representation on the application of building, mining, environmental, water and other resource legislation, including emerging environmental issues such as the impact of PFAS and other man-made substances and the ever-increasing need for climate change to be taken into account in planning decisions.

We’re professional but personable.  We’re experts but amicable.  We care about our clients and our clients know this.  We’re here to help and our clients know this too.

We’re proud of the management strategies we’ve developed and assiduously apply to ensure maximum satisfaction for our clients.  For instance, our Executive Partner, Tim Fynes-Clinton is the first point of contact for all new matters (unless you’re an existing client who already has a relationship with one of our staff) and Tim, with more than 30 years’ experience, is always available to discuss the status of any continuing matter with all our clients.  But all our staff are “on call” to their clients.

The location of our office at Quay Central on Brisbane’s North Quay is by design.  We’re placed within a few minutes’ walk from the Supreme, District and Planning & Environment Courts and just a one-minute stroll from the Federal and High Courts.  And most of the leading Counsel and Senior Counsel in Queensland have their chambers in either our building or the adjoining Inns of Court.  All this means is that, in litigation matters, we’re perfectly placed for conferences with counsel, even urgent, short-notice ones, and court appearances and hearings.

We may be Brisbane-based but we travel – all the time and all over Queensland.  Or, if our clients don’t need us for face-to-face, on-site meetings, we’ll be there virtually via Zoom, Skype, Teams or whatever platform suits the situation.

• In 2020 we successfully defended Somerset Regional Council’s refusal of a proposed relocatable home part at Fernvale (Roubaix Properties Pty Ltd v Somerset Regional Council)
• Also in 2020 we successfully defended the Logan City Council’s approval of a new shopping centre at Underwood against an appeal brought by a commercial competitor (Shun Pty Ltd v Logan City Council)
• In 2021 we successfully defended Somerset Regional Council’s refusal of a development application seeking approval for a new use of rural land in the form of a hard rock quarry extracting up to 100,000 tonnes per annum and a concrete batching plant (Edith Pastoral Company Pty Ltd v Somerset Regional Council & Ors)