Lachlan Carr
Partner
Lachlan advises and represents employers and organisations across Australia on a range of employment, industrial relations and workplace matters. An Accredited Specialist in workplace law, he is known for making complex legal concepts easy to understand, and for helping clients confidently navigate difficult and sensitive legal processes.
With over a decade of experience spanning top-tier and global private practice, in-house legal roles, and the peak member organisation for Australia’s university sector, Lachlan brings a practical, commercial and human-centric approach to his work. His style is methodical and meticulous. He takes the time to ensure clients understand their options and feel empowered to make well-informed, risk-based decisions that suit their context and goals.
Lachlan is particularly experienced in supporting organisations operating in complex, unionised or highly regulated environments, including universities, schools, sporting organisations, arts and cultural bodies, and community organisations.
Areas of Practice
Lachlan practises in employment, industrial relations and workplace law across contentious and non-contentious matters. He advises on enterprise bargaining and industrial disputes, unfair dismissal, general protections and adverse action, discrimination, underpayment and wage compliance, regulatory engagement, and the drafting and interpretation of contracts, policies and industrial instruments.
He conducts and advises on workplace investigations involving misconduct, complaints, governance and culture across workplaces, educational institutions, sporting organisations and community organisations, including under reportable conduct schemes. Lachlan also advises on privacy and data protection, defamation and reputation management, and broader commercial disputes.
He regularly acts in matters before the Fair Work Commission, the federal courts, and state and territory courts and tribunals, and has appeared as an advocate before Royal Commissions and Commissions of Inquiry for major national organisations. His clients span the education, government, not-for-profit, sporting, arts and private sectors.
Experience and expertise
Recent examples of work undertaken by Lachlan include:
Litigation and disputes
- Negotiated the resolution of a significant piece of litigation involving a senior staff member and a major Australian employer, with a quantum of more than $3 million in dispute.
- Obtained judgment on appeal to overturn a first-instance decision rejecting an enterprise agreement, resulting in the agreement’s ultimate approval.
- Represented a university in a Fair Work Commission arbitration concerning the interpretation of its enterprise agreement, academic classification and alleged systemic underpayment.
Investigations, conduct and culture
- Conducted end-to-end investigations into serious misconduct, including sexual misconduct, by employees of major organisations (including an ASX top-5 company and large universities), and advised on how the organisations might respond to the findings.
- Established and chaired a national taskforce of Vice-Chancellors, Provosts, Chief People Officers and external experts to analyse and reform the use of non-disclosure agreements in staff misconduct matters.
Compliance, industrial and organisational change
- Assisted a national organisation to identify, analyse and remediate wage integrity issues affecting thousands of staff over a period of more than five years.
- Assisted a large university to comply with an enforceable undertaking with the Fair Work Ombudsman, including designing and delivering live training programs for line managers, senior staff and executives.
- Advised an employer transitioning from labour hire to direct engagement, including workforce analysis, instrument coverage review, development of a suite of templates and policies, and an implementation plan for onboarding and change.
- Advised a national professional services firm managing a complex redundancy and restructure intersecting with disability, workers’ compensation and psychosocial safety obligations.
Professional and community engagement
Lachlan regularly designs and delivers workplace training and seminars for employers on employment, conduct and investigations topics, ranging from frontline staff to senior executives.
Lachlan is the former Chair, University Conduct Management and Response Taskforce, coordinating Vice-Chancellors, Provosts, Chief People Officers and external experts.
He is also the former Director and Company Secretary, Society of University Lawyers (SOUL).
Each year Lachlan participates in the Starlight Super Swim to help raise much needed funds for the Starlight Foundation.
Education
- Bachelor of Laws (LLB), University of Technology, Sydney (UTS)
- Master of Laws (LLM), University of Sydney
Affiliations
- Accredited Specialist, Workplace Relations Law, Law Institute of Victoria
- Accredited Specialist, Employment & Industrial Law, Law Society of New South Wales
- Member, Law Institute of Victoria
