Veno is a Partner in our Construction and Infrastructure team, bringing over 20 years of experience across new energy, real estate, and civil construction projects. He recently sat down to talk construction trends, memorable matters, and why coaching his son’s cricket team is one his most rewarding roles.
What do you do at Hamilton Locke?
I lead the Construction and Infrastructure practice, with a focus on new energy, real estate and civil projects in Australia. We provide services from the bid stage and contracting, right through to project delivery, and also litigation and arbitration where necessary. This has been my primary area of practice for over 20 years.
When I started at Hamilton Locke in 2020, I was the first Construction and Infrastructure partner to join the firm. We have since grown the Construction practice nationally, largely in conjunction with our New Energy, Real Estate, Finance, and Restructuring and Insolvency teams. Having been recognised as a ‘Firm to Watch’ in Legal500 in 2023 and 2024, it was great to see the Construction team ranked for the first time in this year’s directory.
What are some of the most memorable matters you’ve worked on?
I started practicing at MinterEllison in 2002. One of my first cases in construction related to the design and construction of the Adelaide Oval retractable lighting (which didn’t retract!)
My wife and I moved to Sydney in 2005. In our first few years in New South Wales, I was involved in a number of landmark decisions relating to security of payment legislation, including for John Holland and Watpac in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
In 2012 I worked for First Solar on the largest solar project in the Southern Hemisphere at the time, which was my first introduction to the new energy space. Another highlight was on the NBN Project, where I successfully negotiated the resolution of over 2,000 claims across ten sites worth over $45 million for Emerson Electric.
During my time at Hamilton Locke, we have worked on some amazing matters across each sector of the practice, including: some of the largest and most complex engineering projects across solar, wind and BESS projects in Australia; representing asset owners like ESR Australia, Aravest, and LaSalle Investments across major real estate projects; and a number of high-profile construction industry insolvencies.
Another recent highlight, as part of our pro bono program last year was with the Hunger Project Australia. We delivered a building project involving a medical centre in Zambia, which has helped support the local community. It was nice to do something positive, and it was a great project for the team.
We also recently settled another arbitration on a wind farm project for an international developer. Given the cross-border nature of the projects that we’re working on, arbitration is an increasing workflow for our team. I think it’ll only increase over time because it’s mainly foreign investor and developer entities developing projects here in Australia. They’ve got the balance sheet to do it – local contractors are pretty much out of the market in terms of the development side of projects.
Your team has a diverse range of skills and backgrounds. How does that shape your work at Hamilton Locke?
The lawyers in our Construction team come from a lot of different backgrounds, including Chinese, Palestinian, South African, Vietnamese, Māori, Macedonian and Tamil – as well as across the spectrum of LGBTQIA+.
They’re all in their roles because they’re great at what they do – and diversity at the firm has been organic and is part of the culture. I’m proud of the team we have, and I think the different perspectives they bring is why the team has been so successful.
I also sit on the cultural diversity committee at Hamilton Locke. It’s a cliché, but you can’t be what you can’t see. It’s important to represent different perspectives, and being on the committee is my way of contributing to that dialogue.
The construction sector has been going through some ground-breaking changes this year (excuse the pun). What’s your legal outlook for the industry for the rest of 2025?
Real estate, civil and new energy projects come with different challenges, but one common challenge we’re seeing is the skills shortage. Since you can’t fast track visas for trades, you can’t get the labour. It’s a common problem, and it means that labour costs are increasing at an astronomical rate. Couple that with tariffs and increasing commodity prices, and you get a cost base that is suboptimal for projects. It means that a lot of projects are getting parked, particularly in the residential sector.
I think we’ll also see increasing regulation in the residential sector. They’re already fighting for talent in terms of skills, because if you’re a tradie and you can get paid two-fold doing an energy project or an oil and gas project, you’re going to do that instead of building residential, right?
Last year, referrals from the insolvency team substantially increased. Insolvencies are highlighting that top-down risk allocation doesn’t work: when a contractor works on a high-volume, low-margin basis, and takes every risk under the sun, it only takes a few things to go wrong and it’s over.
The culture of contracting is very much: if you don’t understand a risk, it’s just passed down instead of having a process to determine that risk, and that starts with government.
I recently did a podcast on ‘rethinking value’ in public infrastructure. The focus should not just be ‘on time, on budget’ – there is a value in innovation, upskilling, and diversifying our workforce, which on public projects is undervalued.
Let’s talk non-billable hours – what do you do outside of work?
For the past three seasons I’ve coached my elder son, Krishna, and his cricket team. This year I coached Krishna in the first-grade under-15s North Sydney cricket team to a 20/20 premiership.
I’ve always been involved in coaching the kids’ cricket because I enjoy it a lot. Both my sons are better cricketers than I am. Next year I’m coaching my younger boy, Sachin, and his under-14 team (yes, he is named after legendary cricketer “The Little Master” Sachin Tendulkar – both my wife and I are cricket tragics).
I’ve been a lawyer for 24 years. For the first 15 years, I worked six to seven days a week. But when my older son was about six years old, I decided to prioritise balance more, because I was missing things with the kids. I consciously prioritise family things and encourage my team to find things outside of work. We do our best to enable them to have time for those outside interests.
As for hobbies, I’ve done Muay Thai on and off since the 90s. It’s more for cardio and stress release than anything else – I’m far better fighting in Court!
I’m also about to do a sommelier course as part of Hamilton Locke’s da Vinci development program – an employee incentive program that encourages staff to learn new skills. I think it’s a really good program. In previous years I have done pilates, yoga, and I’ve had a personal trainer. This year is a little more indulgent – I like my wine, and this will be a great chance to understand it in a more formal way.
Learn more about Hamilton Locke Partner, Veno Panicker.
The Hamilton Locke Construction team provides specialist, commercially focused advice on all aspects of the construction project life cycle, in every state and territory of Australia. Find out more.
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