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Shane is a Partner at Piper Alderman. He is a nationally recognised leader in employment, industrial relations and workplace health and safety law. He is also skilled in commercial and governance law, and acts as a General Counsel for some clients.

He started his legal career with Freehills, and has subsequently held senior roles with Downer and BHP across coal, base metals, iron ore and petroleum, for operations and expansion projects. He has clients in most industries including mining, mineral exploration, mining services, energy, engineering, construction, power, transport, retail, air and sea ports, government, maritime, education and agriculture.

Shane is a trusted advisor to executives and boards. Shane regularly deals with complex industrial relations strategy and bargaining matters, having led some very substantial industrial reform projects involving the FWC and court litigation. He advises on sensitive departures, settles disputes and conducts investigations.

Shane leads a proactive workplace health and safety law team nationally with a deep capability and experience. His team educates boards and senior officers on strategy, legal compliance, designs and reviews systems, conducts audits and investigations, conducts deep dives and benchmarking processes, critical response processes, education, legal representation and support for employers during serious accidents and in prosecutions. He has also acted for regulators in prosecutions of companies.

Shane is a member of the firm’s Strategic Leadership Group and is a Head of Office. He is a Director of Crime Stoppers. He designed and taught the unit Legal Strategy in Organisations at Murdoch University and is the co-author of a book on the management of FIFO operations in mining.

Paul Venus is a highly experienced lawyer specializing in commercial litigation, dispute resolution and commercial law, across Australia.

With over 29 years of experience, he has acted in all levels of the Australian Court system, including the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia, Supreme Courts of Queensland and New South Wales, District Courts, and Magistrates Courts.

His expertise spans practice areas which are characterised by high levels of regulation. Those include Competition and Consumer law, Intellectual Property Protection, Privacy, Franchising, Technology, Defamation law, Insolvency litigation, and Banking litigation. He is also an experienced franchising and commercial mediator, who is familiar with the Mandatory Codes of Conduct prescribed by the Competition & Consumer Act.

As a trusted adviser, Paul is known for his responsiveness to client needs, clarity and commerciality of advice, and strong advocacy. Clients, ranging from multinational corporations to SMEs to high-net-worth individuals, rely on Paul for counsel. They turn to him when making difficult decisions, requiring help in stressful situations, or seeking to navigate legal complexities to achieve high value outcomes for their business. His approach to providing practical context to legal problems and achieving exceptional outcomes for clients has earned him high praise from his clients.

Paul also has substantial experience in contract disputes, negligence cases, corporate law disputes, and shareholder disputes.

In addition to his litigation expertise, Paul brings a wealth of knowledge in commercial and corporate law. Real world industry knowledge has been gained by Paul from non-executive director roles in the Electricity and Health sectors. Paul has also gained experience in not-for profit organisations as a non-executive director in a research foundation and a charitable trust.

Paul’s expertise as a commercial lawyer, and excellent drafting skills enable him to provide strategic commercial advice and negotiate a wide range of agreements for clients. He has substantial knowledge advising clients on directors’ duties and responsibilities, conflicts management, continuous disclosure, board decisions, responses to regulator notices and investigations.

Paul holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Queensland, a Masters of Laws from Queensland University of Technology, and a Certificate of Arbitration and Mediation from the University of Adelaide. He is admitted as a legal practitioner in the High Court of Australia, Supreme Court of Queensland, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Supreme Court of South Australia, and Supreme Court of the Northern Territory.