Kate is a Partner in the corporate and commercial team with a focus on the resources and energy sectors and associated regulatory matters. Kate has a specialist land access practice involving native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage and sacred site matters across the country. Kate advises clients on commercial transactions, risk management, statutory compliance, administrative law, corporate governance and agreement making often within complex legal and cultural settings.
Kate assists her clients to achieve significant regulatory approvals and agreements with indigenous stakeholders for major infrastructure, mining and exploration projects. Her work includes securing relevant Ministerial approvals and court orders. Kate combines commercial technical expertise with her experience of working with indigenous parties, to achieve practical and sustainable outcomes. Kate has valuable working relationships with many Aboriginal communities, associated government agencies and native title representative bodies across the county.
Kate represents clients in the Federal Court of Australia, National Native Title Tribunal, South Australia’s Wardens Court and the Environment, Resources and Development Court and the Supreme Court of South Australia.
Kate has received regular peer recognition for her work by Best LawyersTM Australia including “Lawyer of the Year” for Native Title Law in 2026 and 2020, and Mining Law in 2021 and she has also been recognised in Doyle’s Guide to the Australian Legal Profession. Kate is President of the South Australian State Branch of the Energy and Resources Lawyers Association (ER Law) and is a member of AMEC.
Expertise
Experience
- A major electricity transmission entity Advising on native title and cultural heritage matters across multiple on-going projects and including recent agreements for construction of a $300m electricity transmission project.
- A European energy fund Providing advice on native title and cultural heritage compliance requirements and regulatory approvals required for a broad scale renewable project.
- A national Telco Providing advice on native title and cultural heritage requirements across Victoria, South Australian and Western Australia for a national telecommunications infrastructure project.
- A mining operator Acting on a business and asset sale agreement involving the transfer of mining licences;
- A major private mining company Advising on negotiation of an indigenous land use agreement covering historical licences and future grants;
- Multiple Australian resources and oil and gas companies Providing advice on regulatory compliance, relevant government Ministerial authorisations, and court applications, including mineral licence plaint proceedings.
- A UK listed mining entity Advising on a sale and purchase agreement of its Australian gold exploration assets.
- A private port developer Providing advice on regulatory aspects of its infrastructure development.
