Michael Daniel
Download vCard

Michael DanielFounder and Principal

Michael Daniel is the Founder and Principal of Resolve Litigation Lawyers and has more than 30 years’ experience specialising in Commercial and Regulatory Litigation, Dispute Resolution and Competition & Consumer Law.

Michael was a founding partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers Legal and its Chairman for 9 years. His early career was developed with Allens in Sydney and Herbert Smith in London and he went on to partnership with Dunhill Madden Butler and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Michael has proven ability in resolving large and complex disputes for market-leaders in a range of industries, including Banking & Finance, Energy & Resources, Health, Manufacturing, IT and Communications. He has consistently achieved successful outcomes in mediations, arbitrations, the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Federal Court of Australia and the High Court of Australia.

Expertise
Expand All

  • Acting for Landmark on disputes relating to the sale of livestock;
  • Acting for the supplier of stockfeed which caused the death of a number of dairy cattle;
  • Acting for a primary producer in relation to a claim relating to defective fertiliser and negligent advice; and
  • Acting for a primary producer on plant breeder’s rights claims.
See Agribusiness

  • Acting for the employees of a number of domestic and international banks in connection with various ASIC and ACCC investigations, including appearing at s 19 and s 155 examinations;
  • Acting for a number of banks on a range of disputes including enforcement of guarantees and mortgages, offshore currency loans and priority disputes;
  • Acting for a large Australian bank against allegations that the bank breached its duty of care to its customers in misrepresenting the risks involved with borrowing funds offshore;
  • Acting for a large international bank which successfully defended proceedings alleging that it was involved in taking secret commissions when engaged in foreign currency transactions;
  • Involved in proceedings for vacant possession of land and in some instances proceedings against the mortgagee client for breaches of its duty to the mortgagor in exercising its power of sale; and
  • Acting for a bank in proceedings dealing with penalty interest.
See Banking and Finance

  • Acting for clients who have been the subject of inquiries by the ACCC and Federal Court proceedings commenced by the ACCC alleging price fixing and market sharing agreements in a range of industries, including building products and energy (“Power Transformer Market Sharing Case”);
  • Providing competition advice to a Japanese manufacturer in relation to a proposed international merger;
  • Acting for a bank employee in relation to investigations by the ACCC into market manipulation of foreign currency rates;
  • Acting for a number of companies being investigated by the ACCC for breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth);
  • Acting for Iron Mountain Inc. to provide a number of audit reports pursuant to a s 87B divestiture undertaking to the ACCC in relation to the divestiture of assets connected with an authorisation of an acquisition;
  • Acting for Telstra and NBN Co to provide a number of compliance reports in connection with a s 87B structural separation undertaking to the ACCC;
  • Acting for Electronic Arts Inc, EA Swiss Sarl and Electronic Arts Pty Limited to provide compliance reports pursuant to a s 87B undertaking to the ACCC in relation to the Australian Consumer Law;
  • Acting for a multinational designer, developer and seller of consumer electronics, computer software, online services and personal computers to provide compliance reports pursuant to a s 87B undertaking to the ACCC in relation to the Australian Consumer Law;
  • Acting for Gotalk Limited to provide compliance reports pursuant to a s 87B undertaking to the ACCC in relation to the Australian Consumer Law;
  • Acting for Oticon Australia to provide a series of audit reports pursuant to s 87B undertaking to the ACCC in relation to resale price maintenance;
  • Acting for Woolworths to provide an independent expert report to the ACCC in relation to trade practices compliance, for use in Federal Court of Australia proceedings; and
  • Acting for Mark Foys Pty Limited, in Federal Court proceedings, against TVSN Limited (a Pay TV company) to restrain it from operating an internet shopping site known as “MarkFoys.com”. The Full Federal Court handed down a decision in favour of our client.
See Competition and Consumer Law

  • Acting for an Australian stockfeed company against their supplier in proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales;
  • Acting for a mortgage broker in a franchising dispute;
  • Acting for a surfboard manufacturer in connection with breach of its design patent in Federal Court proceedings;
  • Acting for a person subject to investigations by ICAC;
  • Acting for over 100 companies and individuals involved in commercial disputes;
  • Acting for a defendant in Supreme Court of New South Wales proceedings involving allegations of misuse of confidential information and fiduciary duty. Our client was successful and the other side’s appeal was discontinued after extensive settlement negotiations;
  • Appointed by the President of the Law Society to determine a contractual dispute; and
  • Successfully resolved a number of disputes relating to allegations of breaches of vendor warranties in share sale agreements.
See Commercial Litigation and Dispute Resolution

  • Acting in an International Chamber of Commerce arbitration between an English construction company and the Egyptian Government in connection with the construction of the Bank of Cairo. The arbitration, whilst heard in Paris, was concerned with English law;
  • Acting for a concrete manufacturer in a dispute with 145 of its lorry owner drivers. The claim involved allegations the lorry owner drivers had engaged in restrictive trade practices which were in breach of ss 45 and 45D of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). The lorry owner drivers had a claim against the manufacturer for breach of contract, breach of s 52 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) and a claim based on promissory estoppel;
  • Acting for an engineering company in relation to allegations that it had misused its market power in breach of section 46 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth); and
  • Acting for Redbank power station in Supreme Court proceedings against an engineering and construction company.

  • Involved in a number of employment disputes in relation to termination of employment of senior executives; and
  • Acting in a number of proceedings relating to breaches of restraints of trade and misuse of confidential information.
See Employment

  • Acting for an Australian company with mining interests in the Solomon Islands;
  • Acting for a South African supplier to the mining industry in Australia in relation to the termination of their Australian agent and in proceedings for breach of agency agreement;
  • Acting for a power station developer in a claim against an engineering and construction company;
  • Acting for a power station in relation to a price arbitration due to the introduction of the Carbon Tax;
  • Conducting large scale commercial contractual disputes concerning the Redbank Power Station;
  • Acting for developer of a wind farm in Queensland in relation to a claim of misuse of confidential information;
  • Acting for the developer of a power station in relation to allegations of breach of fiduciary duty by a joint venture partner in relation to a wind power project in New South Wales;
  • Acting for Babcock & Brown related entities in relation to a range of commercial disputes relating to development of power station developments in Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia;
  • Acting for the developer of a new power station – providing advice in relation to the review of a decision by the Office of the Renewable Energy Regulator either by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal or by the Federal Court;
  • Successfully obtaining a declaration that an electricity retailer had breached a power purchase and hedge agreement, which allowed a new power project (the “Redbank” project) to proceed; and
  • Successfully conducting an arbitration in relation to the long term price of baseload power.
See Energy and Resources

  • Acting for directors of companies in voluntary administration, receivership and liquidation, including providing advice on directors’ duties and related investigations by ASIC;
  • Acting for KordaMentha in a preliminary discovery application in the Supreme Court of New South Wales;
  • Acting for Ernst & Young on an appeal to the Supreme Court against a decision on a proof of debt;
  • Acting for directors on claims of insolvent trading;
  • Acting in unfair preference actions; and
  • Acting in proceedings relating to priority of securities.
See Insolvency

  • Acting for Woolworths to provide an independent expert report to the ACCC in relation to compliance with competition laws, for use in Federal Court of Australia proceedings;
  • Acting for parties obtaining clearance from the ACCC for mergers and acquisitions;
  • Acting for a large grocery wholesaler in proceedings which involved allegations that it would breach s 50 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth) if it proceeded with its proposed takeover of another large grocery wholesaler;
  • Acting for a paint manufacturer company on whether it had breached any of the competition provisions of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth); and
  • Acting for a global soft drink manufacturer and distributor in relation to anti-competitive agreements.
See Manufacturing and Retail

  • Chair of Medicines Australia’s Code of Conduct Committee which determines whether or not pharmaceutical companies have breached the Code of Conduct;
  • Acting for a pharmaceutical company in relation to alleged breaches of the Code of Conduct and Federal Court proceedings for false and misleading conduct;
  • Acting for a pharmaceutical company to assist it with lodging a complaint for breach of the Code of Conduct;
  • Acting for a pharmaceutical company in relation to a breach of contract claim;
  • Acting for Avant Insurance and a General Practitioner in relation to alleged unprofessional conduct;
  • Conducting a review of Aging, Disability and Homecare, Department of Human Services dispute resolution processes and considering the establishment of a mediation process;
  • Acting for a doctor in relation to defamation claims relating to off label use;
  • Acting for HCF to provide an independent audit report to the ACCC in relation to trade practices compliance; and
  • Acting for a pharmaceutical company on product recall procedures.
See Pharmaceuticals and Healthcare

  • Acting for a number of clients in relation to professional negligence actions in connection with taxation advice, engineering advice, surveying advice, financial planning advice and legal advice.
See Professional Negligence

  • Acting for the employees of a number of domestic and international banks in connection with various ASIC and ACCC investigations, including appearing at s 19 and s 155 examinations;
  • Providing advice in relation to insider trading claims; and
  • Providing advice in relation to an ICAC investigation.
See Regulatory Investigations and Compliance

  • Acting for a telecommunications company to provide a number of compliance reports pursuant to a s 87b undertaking to the ACCC:
  • Acting for a potential entrant to the Pay TV market on exclusive dealing and exclusionary provisions;
  • Acting for a computer importer and manufacturer alleged to have engaged in resale price maintenance; and
  • Acting for a telecommunications company on whether it had engaged in third line forcing.
See Telecommunications and IT