Danielle Le Breton
Danielle is a specialist environment and planning lawyer who is an experienced litigator and advisor to government and private clients.
Danielle provides specialist advice to her clients in relation to their duties and obligations under various environmental laws, including licensing, management policies and pollution incident response. Danielle is experienced in advising clients in relation to the investigation of potential environmental offences and has successfully acted in many criminal prosecutions for both the defendant and prosecutor.
Danielle delivers strategic and commercial advice to developers, land owners, state and local government on all development and infrastructure projects. Danielle enjoys working with clients at the project development stage to determine appropriate approval pathways and with project teams preparing the environmental documentation required to obtain relevant approvals. Danielle is also an experienced litigator in the Land and Environment Court in relation to planning and administrative matters as well as environmental prosecutions and civil enforcement.
Experience
Danielle’s recent experience includes advising:
- A statutory owned corporation in successfully defending a criminal prosecution brought by the Environment Protection Authority in relation to an alleged water pollution offence;
- Penrith City Council in civil enforcement proceedings relating to unauthorised works in a riparian corridor containing a critically endangered ecological community, including related appeal proceedings, where remediation orders were successfully obtained from the Court;
- Various private clients in relation to planning and environmental issues arising on the potential acquisition of assets including mines, petrol stations and other infrastructure;
- City of Parramatta Council in successfully prosecuting both a developer and contractor for removal of a significant number of trees in a heritage conservation area; and
- Various private clients in relation the drafting and implementation of pollution incident response management plans and the investigation and prosecution of many alleged environmental offences brought in relation to the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997, Mining Act 1992, Water Management Act 2000, Environmental Planning and Assessment Act 1979, Local Land Services Act 2013 and Contaminated Lands Management Act 1997.