Luke Forsyth

Luke Forsyth is a Principal in Hall Payne’s Sydney office. He practises in the firm’s industrial relations and employment law teams and since 2014 Luke has been consistently recognised as one of Australia’s leading employment lawyers by his peers in the Doyle’s Guide.

“No two matters are the same,” says Luke of his work advising unions, workers, senior executives, managers and health professionals.

“I like difficult cases and I enjoy the lateral thinking needed to find a path to a resolution for my client.”

Luke started with Hall Payne in 2001, before leaving to work as the Senior Legal Officer at the Queensland Nurses’ and Midwives Union in 2008. He returned in 2012 and was appointed Principal.

“I love helping people in desperate circumstances to achieve a successful outcome. And I believe everyone should have access to skilled legal representation regardless of how much money they have.”

Luke brings 18 years’ experience to his work. He acts for a large range of clients, from Senior Executives to unions in the mining, electrical, construction, manufacturing and public sector areas, as well as with local government, aviation and health.

He also specialises in advising on matters of:

• recovering short term incentive (“STI”), long term incentive (“LTI”) and other bonuses
• restraint of trade and confidential information matters;
• defamation;
• professional, particularly health practitioner, registration and professional conduct;
• employee contractual entitlements and common law claims;
• Competition and Consumer Act claims;
• discrimination and sexual harassment;
• all termination of employment/unfair dismissal claims; and
• research misconduct matters.

Luke’s dual practice across defamation and employment law means he has an acute understanding of the importance of how reputation is the cornerstone of someone’s professional and personal life. With this focus, Luke has achieved strong outcomes for employees at all levels, while maintaining the relationships and reputations of his clients throughout the process.

The most satisfying case Luke recalls is the 2014 dispute between the Queensland Government and senior medical officers (SMOs).

“We resisted the introduction of draconian individual contracts for SMO’s and visiting medical officers and ultimately achieved a fairer contract.”

Luke is a member of:

• New South Wales (NSW) Law Society;
• NSW Law Society’s Employment Law Committee;
• Union Lawyers and Industrial Officers NSW; and
• NSW Industrial Relations Society.

He is also an accomplished author, contributing to the Queensland Nurses and Midwives Union’s “Nurses and Law”, editions 1, 2 and 3 and is a contributor to Lexis Nexis publication “Workplace Investigations: Principles and Practice”.

When not at work, Luke enjoys reading, cycling and heading to the beach.