Veno Panicker

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

Construction; Infrastructure; New Energy Projects; Real Estate; Litigation; Dispute Resolution; Project Delivery;

AWARDS

• Legal 500, Leading Firm (Construction), 2017 – 2020, Firm to Watch 2023, 2025, Ranked Firm 2025
• Lawyers Weekly, Partner of the Year Awards, Finalist – Construction and Infrastructure Partner of the Year, 2018, 2019 and 2025
• Lawyers Weekly, Australian Law Awards, Finalist – Partner of the Year (across all categories), 2018

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Laws and Legal Practice – Flinders University, South Australia (2002)
• Admitted to practice in South Australia (2002), New South Wales (2005), Federal Court, and High Court of Australia (2002)
• Master of Laws – University of New South Wales (2008)
• Member of the Centre for International Arbitration (MCIArb) (2024)

SELECTED REPRESENTATIONS

Energy

• Acted for First Solar in respect of the delivery of the Broken Hill and Nyngan Solar Farms.
• Advised a major renewables concern as to their suite of EPC agreements and subcontracts.
• Led the construction law aspects as part of the team at Hamilton Locke advising Deloitte, the administrators of the Lloyd Group of companies.
• Following two concurrent arbitrations under ACICA Rules, successfully negotiated the resolution of a disputed option for the acquisition of a major wind farm project exceeding $300,000,000.

Civil Infrastructure

• Successfully negotiating and resolving a $45 million multi-party dispute for a major head contractor as part of the NBN Project. The dispute involved over 2000 variations and claims for delay costs and preliminaries across 10 sites and 5 states.
• Acted for a major contractor in various major works packages relating to the Tindall Defence base upgrade.
• Acted for various major head contractors, including Lend Lease, John Holland and Consolidated Contractors Company in various proceedings including in the NSW Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, expert determinations and arbitration (ACICA, SIAC, ICC and CIETAC) relating to civil, defence, LNG pipeline and mixed-use projects.

Real Estate

• Preparing a suite of construction project contracts for a major developer in respect of a new town centre involving building works exceeding $300,000,000.
• Acted for LaSalle Investments on various industrial projects and retail fit outs.
• Acting in various landmark construction decisions including in respect of contract law, security of payment, defects, termination, disputed variations, extensions of time, delay and end of project claims including having:
  • Acted for Hills Central in Hagerty v Hills Central [2018] NSWCA 200 and subsequent application for special leave to the High Court in respect of the disputed exercise of a call option;
  • Acted for Ceerose in Owners Corporation SP76841 v Ceerose Pty Ltd & Anor [2016] NSWCA 1545 & [2017] NSWCA 140 in a landmark case relating to limitation of action in building claims;
  • Acted for Lend Lease in Intercon v Lend Lease Project Management & Construction (Australia) Pty Ltd [2014] NSWCA 463 in an important decision relating to ‘back to back’ contracts;
  • Acted for Lend Lease in Wright v Lend Lease Project Management & Construction (Australia) Pty Ltd [2014] NSWSC 441 in a related proceeding relating to a major defence project;
  • Acted for CSR in Skilled Group v CSR Viridian & Anor [2012] VSC 290 in respect of claims relating to the design and construction of major industrial plant; and
  • Acted for Watpac in Watpac v Austin Corp [2010] NSWSC 168 in an important decision in respect of security of payment and the re-agitation of claims.