University of Newcastle School of Law and Justice Advisory Board

The University of Newcastle School of Law and Justice's advisory board brings together the specialist knowledge and legal professional practice expertise of a highly skilled and diverse group.

Members of the Advisory Board include members of the judiciary, lawyers from local and global law firms, members of community legal centres, lawyers from government agencies, members of the Newcastle Bar Association, and sole practitioners.

The Advisory Board has three sub-committees who provide strategic advice on alignment of the school’s strategic objectives with external opportunities and community expectations in the areas of equity and diversity, professionalism, and promotion and funding.

The Advisory Board meets three times a year, while the sub-committees continue to work independently on initiatives and report back to the whole Board. Board members are asked to serve an initial two year term, but may be invited to renew their membership or recommend a replacement member from their particular field or area of expertise.

Advisory Board meetings are open to all school staff staff and may also include invited guests from time to time.

Bronwyn Ambrogetti is the Managing Solicitor of the Hunter Community Legal Centre, a community legal centre based in Newcastle, providing free legal services to vulnerable and disadvantaged people in the Hunter Region of NSW. Bronwyn is committed to improving access to justice for vulnerable people. She has worked in community legal services including the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Intellectual Disability Rights Service and the Hunter Community Legal Centre. Bronwyn has a special interest in legal education. She is a member of the Global Alliance for Justice Education and convenes the Community Legal Education Workers group at CLCNSW which focuses on community based legal education. In 2018 Bronwyn was an International Clinician in Residence at Taungyi and Myitkyina Universities in Myanmar. Bronwyn is on the Board of the Newcastle Women Lawyers Association and Catapult Dance.

Lauren is a Senior Trade Mark Counsel at Davies Collison Cave with more than fifteen years’ experience in intellectual property law, focusing on trade mark prosecution, advisory, clearance and enforcement work. She has handled large trade mark portfolios in Australia and overseas for a variety of businesses from start-ups through to large corporates, including across Internet service and Internet retail, food, cosmetics, fashion, software, technology, transport, tourism and health industries and for government clients. Lauren also has experience in product design matters, copyright, trade practices, trading names and domain names. She works in Davies Collison Cave’s Newcastle and Sydney offices.

Lauren studied a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) at the University of Newcastle and a Master of Laws at the Queen Mary and Westfield College of the University of London. She is pleased to continue to be engaged with the University of Newcastle, including in relation to I2N and as a VMS mentor, and on the Law School Advisory Board.

Craig owns and operates his own Legal Practice in the Adamstown area.

Advocating for the interests of Aboriginal people has been an abiding interest for Craig Eade since he was a law student at the University of Newcastle. Craig's passion for equity, initiated a successful campaign to establish the inaugural position of Indigenous Representative on the University of Newcastle Law Students’ Association Committee. His passion for Aboriginal people continued during his internship at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), where he authored the policy guideline now used by AAT employees working with Aboriginal people. His high-level performance and devotion to his Aboriginal values during his cadetship at Legal Aid enabled him to obtain a position as a solicitor at Legal Aid’s Newcastle Office, where he then implemented the Indigenous Placement Program. Craig continues to advocate for Aboriginal people as well as those who  might be regarded as disadvantaged and vulnerable, in both policy and legal aspects as a legal practitioner.

Catherine Henry is the principal of Catherine Henry Lawyers – a mid sized legal practice in Newcastle’s CBD. She has specialised in health and medical law for over 30 years. In that time, she has successfully handled many hundreds of claims for injured plaintiffs and worked on some of Australia’s highest profile cases. She employs a team of six specialist health lawyers at the firm who conduct litigation and a diverse range of health law matters including a large practice in the health disciplinary area acting for allied health professionals including pharmacists, nurses, psychologists and dentists. Catherine has also been a legal member of boards of inquiry hearing complaints against pharmacists and has been a part legal member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. The firm also acts in family law and has a growing presence in estate and elder law. Catherine has become a national expert in the area of aged care litigation – primarily in litigation against aged care facilities. As the national spokesperson for the Australian Lawyers Alliance on aged care and elder law, she believes that litigation has been shown to play a positive role in improving standards of health care. Catherine has been a casual lecturer at UON Law School in the past – and has taught torts and civil procedure. She was a member of the University Council for a 3 year term from 2005 and is so honoured again to be able to contribute to the great work done at the UON Law School.  a member of the Hunter Reference Group on Potential Elder Abuse.

Elizabeth is a specialise local lawyer with over fifteen years experience in complex property matters, native title and clean energy law including as a principal of a leading boutique Newcastle law firm. She has worked with Indigenous communities and organisations across the country on land agreements and development matters.  In 2019, she was awarded an Australian Government Endeavour Executive Leadership Award which gave her the opportunity to develop her expertise in clean energy law by visiting specialists at Berkeley Law, Yale Law and the Vermont Law School Institute for Energy & the Environment. She is very pleased she managed to squeeze that trip in back when overseas travel was still a thing.

Geoff Mulherin CSC is the Director of the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW, an independent statutory body, which is globally recognised for its work to identify the legal and access to justice needs of the community, what ‘works’ to address those needs, and to support the planning and delivery of appropriate and cost-effective legal services to the community.

Geoff is a Director of the Pro Bono Disbursement Fund, and a member of the NSW Legal Assistance Forum and of the Legal Information Access Centre of the State Library of NSW. His research interests include the planning and delivery of legal services in rural regional remote areas of NSW, and has a growing personal interest in the Hunter region.

Daniel is an experienced insurance lawyer with close to 20 years advising clients on insurance litigation. He specialises in catastrophic claims, indemnity issues, fraudulent and complex economic loss claims. He has particular expertise in compulsory third party claims, public liability claims, property damage recovery actions, and defending section 151Z recovery actions. Daniel is well known for his pragmatic approach to claims, his advocacy and his technical knowledge. He advises large national insurers and self-insured corporates. Daniel has acted for insurers in many leading decisions in the Court of Appeal and also regularly manages special projects for insurers. He is also a sought after speaker with respect to claims management issues.

Warwick Tregilgas was admitted as a Barrister in November 1987. He practices almost exclusively in family law, both parenting and financial matters, with some appellant appearances in the Full Court of the Family Court of Australia. He regularly attend as counsel in conciliation conferences, mediations and arbitrations. Mr Tregilgas is a qualified Arbitrator and will hopefully become a Mediator later this year. Mr Tregilgas regularly presents papers to professional associations such as the Bar Association of NSW, the Law Society of NSW and the local Family Law Practitioner’s Association. In 2020 these have been:

“Mediations – Family Law – Learning to Dance. Again.”

“Running Hearings via Teams – Never Let a Good Crisis go to Waste.”

He has appeared as counsel in the following reported cases:

  1. Watkins & Watkins (reopening and further evidence on appeals) (2004) FamCA 381
  2. Welch & Abney (superannuation and financial resources) (2016) FamCAFC 271
  3. Pawley & Pawley (No 2) Interim relocation) (2017) FamCAFC 136
  4. Dalton & Dalton (conflict of interest) (2017) FamCAFC 78

He has a special interest in advocacy in complex trials.

Tina has extensive experience in:

  • Drafting and negotiating commercial contracts, including asset and share purchase and sale agreements, joint venture, supply, distribution, sales, services, funding and licensing agreements and associated intellectual property requirements
  • Advising on key risks in commercial contracts and contract administration including PPSA
  • Advising on governance issues, including GIPA and privacy
  • Advising on competition law issues.

With two decades’ experience, Tina’s clients span all public and private sector industries. She has acted for organisations in the finance, insurance, health, manufacturing, mining, property, business and professional services sectors, as well as various government entities. Tina has particular expertise in competition law from her early career experience as Assistant Director at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, where she managed large-scale litigation involving breaches of the anti-competitive provisions of competition law by professionals. Tina is admitted to practise in the Supreme Court of NSW and the High Court of Australia.

Tina’s expertise is across a vast array of commercial law issues and transactions. Her work includes preparing and negotiating a variety of commercial contracts, including buy / sell agreements, joint venture agreements, services agreements, development agreements, and conducting purchaser / vendor due diligence. She also has specific experience advising on governance compliance and risk issues (including on privacy laws), mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property requirements and associated claims, and complex corporate structuring and restructurings. In 2022 she was appointed to the University of Newcastle’s School of Law and Justice Advisory Board and in 2023 appointed to the University of Newcastle’s College of Human and Social Futures Industry Working Group.

Emma is an experienced workplace lawyer who advises on employment and work health and safety (WHS) issues for clients in diverse sectors, including mining, transport, financial services, insurance, health care and government. Emma considers broader organisational objectives when guiding clients through difficult situations, ranging from internal investigations and disciplinary matters to unfair dismissal and general protections claims. She also helps clients with enterprise bargaining, terms and conditions of employment and organisational restructures. Emma helps improve workplace safety by developing WHS policies and procedures, advising on legislative compliance and devising practical training. Emma also helps clients respond to regulator investigations into potential breaches of WHS and employment laws.