Celestine Frost
Celestine specialises in commercial and corporate disputes including complex litigation in the Supreme Court of Queensland and the Federal Court of Australia, arbitration proceedings, administrative hearings and regulatory compliance and investigations.
Celestine assists clients in joint venture and shareholder, contractual, competition and consumer, directors’ and fiduciaries’ duties and land access disputes, often for clients in the energy and resources sector.
Celestine gained expertise in regulatory compliance and investigations whilst working in senior legal roles with Markets, Enforcement, ASIC and Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission.
Experience
Celestine’s experience includes acting for:
- Ebony Iron in resolving proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia commenced after the termination of an off-take agreement. The allegations included breaches of a contractual obligation to inform the other party of circumstances which may result in conditions precedent not being satisfied and misleading and deceptive conduct;
- Norfolk Estates in proceedings in the Supreme Court of Queensland commenced against its civil engineering consultants following the discovery of a large shortfall of fill. Claims were made for damages for breach of contract, negligence and misleading and deceptive conduct;
- Galilee Energy in resolving proceedings in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia arising from the termination of its general manager’s service agreement, which was alleged to have been entered by the company’s directors in breach of their duties and with the general manager’s knowledge of those breaches;
- Belridge Enterprises in proceedings in the Land Court of Queensland for the determination of compensation prior to the issue of infrastructure mining leases and objections lodged to the grant of the leases by a joint venture of miners with overlapping tenure;
- A US mining company in successful joint joint venture disputes in the Supreme Court of Queensland and Court of Appeal. The dispute concerned whether undisclosed success fees paid to officers and consultants constituted pre-development expenses of a coal mining joint venture, which should be met by joint venture parties under a sale and purchase agreement, and whether the failure to disclose the fees during due diligence amounted to misleading and deceptive conduct;
- A French mining chemical manufacturer in numerous joint venture disputes in the Surpeme Court of Queensland concerning a business in China, including allegations of breaches of restrictive covenants, royalty disputes, misleading and deceptive conduct and breaches of directors’ and fiduciaries’ duties; and
- Coal seam gas joint venture parties during a seven-week trial in the Supreme Court of Queensland and subsequent appeal concerning a force majeure dispute under a gas supply agreement with a gas retailer.