Lachlan Armstrong KC

He has particular experience in class actions and similar complex litigation. He has advised or appeared in more than 100 class actions or multi-plaintiff proceedings, in most Australian jurisdictions and covering a very wide range of practice areas.

The most prominent of the class or grouped actions in which he has been centrally involved include:

• as shareholder actions
  
  • for claimants – GIO, Aristocrat, Centro, Sigma, GPT, SurfStitch, Caason, Hastie Auditors, WorleyParsons and Iluka class actions, and currently the a2 Milk and Nuix actions
  • for defendants – Harris Scarfe and Nufarm class actions
• other investor litigation (including managed investment schemes) –
  
  • Opes Prime (2007)
  • Lehman Brothers (2012)
  • Willmott Forests (2015)
  • Dixon Advisory/Evans Dixon Group (2022)
• competition law class actions
  
  • Vitamins class action (Darwalla v. F Hoffman-LaRoche)
  • Amcor/Visy (cardboard box cartel)
  • Air Cargo
  • Queensland Electricity (Stillwater Pastoral Co v. Stanwell Corporation) (FCA, ongoing)
• mass tort proceedings (class actions)
  
  • the five Victorian “2009 Black Saturday Bushfire class actions” including the “Matthews v SPI – Kilmore Bushfire” class action (Victorian Supreme Court, 2010-2014)
  • Victorian “Abalone Virus” class action
  • Gladstone Port fisheries-contamination class action (Queensland Supreme Court)
  • Prawn White Spot Disease (Commonwealth Quarantine) class action (Queensland Supreme Court, 2021)
  • NT Stolen Generation class action (NSW Supreme Court, 2021)
  • Ashley Youth Detention Centre (Supreme Court of Tasmania, 2022)
• mass tort (multi-plaintiff proceedings)
  
  • WA – Parkerville bushfire (trial judgment reported as Herridge v. Electricity Networks Corporation (No.4)  [2019] WASC 94)
  • Victoria – Garvoc and Terang bushfires
  • NSW – Tathra (NSW) bushfire
  • Tasmania – Forcett/Dunalley bushfire (trial judgment reported as Prestage v. Barrett [2021] TASSC 27)
• Institutional abuse and discrimination litigation
  
  • BSWAT Disability Discrimination litigation (Nojin v. Commonwealth) FCA 2012
  • Fairbridge Farm Schools Class Action, (Giles v. Commonwealth), NSWSC 2015
    Ashley Youth Detention Centre Class Action, Supreme Court of Tasmania (ongoing)
• First Nations claims
  
  • Northern Territory Housing Class Action, FCA (ongoing)

Lachlan regularly advises and appears for litigation funders and law firms in relation to:

• due diligence opinions and ‘investment committee’ reviews
• funding structures, and
• common fund (CFO), group costs order (GCO) or like applications, as in
  
  • Peterson v. Bank of Queensland (FCA 2018)
  • Pearson v. Queensland (Queensland “Stolen Wages”) (FCA 2019)
  • Uren v. RMBL Investments (FCA 2020)
  • Evans v. Davantage Group (No.3) (FCA 2021)
  • Hall v. Arnold Bloch Liebler (FCA 2022)
  • Hall v. Slater & Gordon (FCA 2022)
  • Zantran v. Crown Resorts (FCA 2022)
  • Allianz ‘Add-on Insurance’ Class Action (Wilkinson v Allianz, VSC 2023)

Outside class actions, Lachlan has extensive experience in:

• liquidation-related proceedings, including the “APCH” liquidator recovery actions in the Supreme Court of Victoria
• insurance litigation, including representing the successful ‘Johnston’ group in their challenge to insurers’ assertions of subrogation rights in Johnson v. Endeavour Energy [2015] NSWSC 1117 (and more recently Francis v. Powercor Australia Ltd [2020] VSC 836) and
• competition law, most recently acting for the ACCC in
  
  • ACCC v.Medibank Private Ltd (FCA 2016)
  • ACCC v. Telstra Corporation (FCA 2018)
  • Lachlan also acted in the successful application to ACCC for authorisations under Part VII of the Competition and Consumer Act, such as the “North East Winegrowers” application (2008)
• ASIC proceedings, including acting for ASIC in:
  
  • ASIC v. Wealth Management Pty Ltd (in liq) (FCA 2018)
  • ASIC v. Financial Circle Pty Ltd (FCA 2018)

Lachlan advises in a wide range of commercial, insurance and general litigation matters. He appears in the Supreme Courts of all States, and in the Federal Court.

*Liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation