New gas is a backwards step for Australia.
Energy giants aren’t just pushing forward with damaging new gas projects, they’re doing it while claiming gas is a form of cleaner energy.
It’s greenwashing, plain and simple. And it’s time to hold the decision-makers in the big energy companies to account for the damage they do to our communities and climate.
Environmental Defenders Office is launching a new expert corporate law team to identify, expose and if necessary take legal action against some of Australia’s biggest energy companies in the ASX.
But these are huge companies with enormous resources behind them. That’s why we need your help.
Tackling gas giants on their own turf
We’re taking the fight against new gas directly to the boardrooms of big energy companies.
But we need the financial firepower to scale up our corporate work and tackle these companies head-on.
Power EDO’s new corporate law team with a much-needed tax-deductible donation.
Driven by people like you, we are taking the community’s legal fight against gas directly into the energy giants’ boardrooms.
For 30 years EDO has been on the ground with communities, helping them fight projects that threaten our climate, communities, wildlife and special places.
Now we are taking the next step – helping our clients take the fight directly to the boardrooms of the companies that greenlight these projects and the directors who sit in them.
It’s a game-changing move – a purpose-built team of expert corporate lawyers laser-focused on holding companies and their directors to account for the damage they do to our communities and climate.
Meet the Gas & Corporate Law Team
Brendan is the Managing Lawyer of our Safe Climate (Gas & Corporate) Team and has been a litigator with the EDO since 2015.
He has extensive experience in relation to all aspects of state and federal environment, climate change and planning law, and has conducted environmental litigation within the Federal Court of Australia, Supreme Court of NSW and NSW Land and Environment Court.
Within the Safe Climate (Gas & Corporate) Team, Brendan’s focus is on addressing the impacts of gas developments across Australia on global warming, and utilising corporations and commercial law to hold fossil fuel companies to account in relation to the risks posed by climate change.
Brendan was named Climate Change Lawyer of the Year in Sydney, by Best Lawyers in 2020.
Brendan holds a Bachelor of Law ((1st Class Hon) / Arts in Communications (BA Comms/LLB) from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a Masters of Environmental Governance (MSc) from the University of Freiburg, Germany.
Prior to joining the EDO, Brendan worked as an environmental lawyer at a top tier firm in Sydney for several years.
Anna joined the EDO’s Safe Climate (Gas & Corporate) team in September 2020. She has over 5 years as a litigator acting for insurance companies and their insureds, primarily in the professional indemnity financial lines area.
Most recently prior to joining the EDO, Anna was a Senior Associate at the insurance boutique litigation firm Gilchrist Connell. Prior to that, Anna worked for a number of boutique insurance, national and international firms including Norton Rose Fulbright, and has advised on large and complex insurance and commercial disputes matters including class actions.
Anna has also worked at the NSW Crown Solicitor’s office and as a legal intern at the UN World Food Programme. Anna holds a Masters of Commerce/Laws from the University of Sydney and is currently undertaking a Masters of International Development Studies at the University of Portsmouth in the UK.
Zoe joined the EDO’s safe climate team in August 2020. She is a John Monash Scholar, and holds a Master of Laws from Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws with First Class Honours, both from the University of Western Australia (UWA). Prior to joining the EDO, Zoe worked as a Fellow at Law for Black Lives in the US, and as Assistant to Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw on the Say Her Name campaign, which highlights police brutality against Black women and girls in the US.
Following graduation from UWA, Zoe served as Associate to Justice Barker of the Federal Court of Australia, and then worked as a solicitor at the State Solicitor’s Office of Western Australia (SSO). During her time at the SSO, Zoe was instructing solicitor on two successful appeals to the High Court of Australia in Commissioner of State Revenue v Placer Dome Inc. [2018] HCA 59, and Commissioner of State Revenue v Rojoda Pty Ltd [2020] HCA 7. She regularly appeared as trial and appellate counsel for government departments and agencies in a broad range of court proceedings, including administrative law, corporations law, and civil litigation.
Zoe’s criminal justice reforms in relation to First Nations peoples with Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders have been adopted by a Senate Standing Committee, published in peer reviewed journals, and presented at international conferences. She is also a lecturer and tutor at UWA Law School.
Ruby began at EDO as a law graduate and was admitted to practice in December 2018. Ruby’s work as a solicitor at EDO has comprised advice and representation on a broad range of matters, including litigation and merits appeals on environmental issues in WA such as uranium mining, forestry and greenhouse gas emissions.
Ruby has worked externally as a legislation consultant, drafting private members bills currently before the WA Parliament. She is also an executive member of the National Environmental Law Association (WA Chapter) Committee. Ruby holds a Juris Doctor and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Australia.
Now, together with you, we are not only the environmental watchdogs ensuring gas projects adhere to environmental laws, we’re using corporate and consumer law to help clients fight them on a whole new front.
And it couldn’t come at a more crucial time.
This is the decade of consequence for climate. We need very rapid and very deep reductions in global emissions to avoid the most dangerous impacts of climate change.
That is why we’re stepping up our work to protect the climate and approaching the fight against gas and other fossil fuels in new, innovative ways.
But we need the financial might to drive our new corporate legal team and tackle the big energy companies on their own turf.
You can supercharge the legal fight to stop the new gas projects and keep energy giants accountable across Australia, with a tax-deductible donation to EDO.
From boots on the ground to the boardroom – our lawyers are there for communities
Our legal team is at the frontline of the community’s battle against damaging new gas and oil projects.
Below is a map of our work challenging gas developments and exploration across the country. Click on any EDO logo to find out more on our work in the area and find cases closest to you.
