Michael Gill

Michael is a Partner in our Liability Team.

Michael is a trusted and experienced lawyer with a broad practice in dispute resolution and litigation. This includes public liability, professional indemnity, general commercial litigation, construction, employment and motor vehicle work. He is appointed by large and small business, including insurers, and his day-to-day work involves an array of negotiations, mediations and hearings. He prides himself on providing client-tailored service and a resolution-focus.

Experience & expertise

Michael undertakes a significant volume of work in the infrastructure, transport and mining sectors where he assists principals, contractors and/or their insurers in resolving property damage and personal injury claims, often including complex insurance and indemnity considerations, and regularly acting for multiple parties and stakeholders. Michael has acted in defence of claims arising from many key Queensland developments including the Gateway Upgrade North works, the Dinmore to Goodna road upgrade project, the Safelink Alliance project, the Moreton Bay Rail Link project and the Curragh Coal Mine, to name a few.

Michael acts in domestic and commercial building disputes arising from contractual matters of varying natures, from claims of defective work to issues of timeliness and including payment disputes under the security of payment legislation.

He acts in various employment related disputes including in relation to discrimination, termination and bullying and harassment matters as well as those involving WorkCover Queensland’s statutory processes.

He has experience in relation to various aviation and marine matters, including the Lockhart River aviation disaster, and has run Supreme and District Court trials relating to sunken and damaged yachts. He acts in sensitive and institutional abuse claims for sporting, church and other similar and related bodies.  Michael also acted in a coronial inquest for a foster care agency after the death of an infant garnered significant media attention and safety concerns relating to witnesses.

Michael has acted in flood, fire and fraud claims arising from industrial special risk and home and contents policies alike. Examples include with respect to a digger that caught fire at a coal mine, a class action filed in Victoria following the 2015 Brisbane floods, and a suspected fraud claim relating to a residential dwelling following the 2011 Brisbane floods.

He both runs and defends recovery actions for various companies, often arising from the transport industry but also in relation to enforcing contractual rights arising from indemnity and obligation to insure clauses.

He has been appointed as an independent legal expert by multiple stakeholders upon whom those entities relied to determine questions of liability and insurance between them.

He has a special interest in alternative dispute resolution and is well regarded by his clients for his commercial and strategic thinking, efficiency and resolution-focus. He is skilled at taking the most complex of cases and crystallising the evidence into the key issues that will decide the case.

Michael has achieved favourable outcomes for his clients in a variety of matters across various jurisdictions including Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, ACT and Western Australia.

Work highlights

• Acting for multiple joint venture entities on several large road upgrade, construction and rail projects, defending all public liability claims of note arising from those projects and working collaboratively with the various members and the insurer
• Acting for a major insurer in relation to a highly complex series of allegations against a university involving product liability, an attempt to scale production of commercially valuable bioproducts and allegedly negligent laboratory work
• Appointment as an agreed legal expert in the construction industry in relation to a conciliation between a public entity and its private sector partners
• Defending an engineering company in relation to a multi-million-dollar property damage and business interruption claim following the flood of a mixed commercial and residential building damaging dozens of floors
• Regularly acts for the State of Queensland and its insurer in matters relating to flood and natural disaster works
• Acting in a multi-proceeding matter relating to an aeroplane crash, leading to US and Australian litigation and involving cross-jurisdictional and treaty expertise
• Acting in relation to an investigation into a fire at a coal mine that resulted in significant business interruption and property damage
• Acting for a foster care agency in a coronial inquest following the death of a young child in foster care over the holiday period
• Defending engineering company following allegedly defective work at a major power station resulting in a fire, damage and business interruption with around $25M being claimed
• Advising an insurer in relation to failure of an 80-metre retaining wall with detailed geotechnical issues resulting in complex coverage advice and claims by various parties in contract, nuisance and negligence
• Defending multiple claims by farm owners in northern Queensland arising from flooding events with resultant crop losses and damage to farms
• Acting for a large sugar producer in relation to damage caused by a failure to secure its barrels on a ship heading to Singapore with damage to both ship and other cargo, and issues relating to the arresting of a sister-ship in Queensland to obtain the release of the barrels of sugar for sale in Singapore
• Recovering work including in relation to a damaged marine engine with issues arising including possible business interruption of a charter vessel and technical questions as to the nature of the damage
• Providing detailed coverage advice following an explosion on a charter vessel with multiple injury claims advanced against the vessel owner
• Defending a local sporting club and its state and national body following multiple highly publicised incidents and the criminal conviction of an individual volunteer.