Tom Anderson

Year and Place of First Admission William Forster Chambers

1991, Victoria

Other Jurisdictions

High Court, Federal Courts and Tribunals, Northern Territory

Degrees, Appointments and Awards

  • BA (Melb), LLB (Hons) (Melb)
  • Leo Cussen Institute Advocacy Award, 1991
  • Chairman of the AFLNT Tribunal (since 1999)

Areas of Practice

Administrative and Public Law, Anti-discrimination, Appeals, Commercial Law, Constitutional law, Criminal Law, Defamation, Media and Internet Law, Employment Law, Engineering and Construction Law, Equity, Partnerships and Trusts, Human Rights, Injunctions, Inquiries, Insurance, Land Rights and Native Title, Licensing, Mining, Resources and the Environment, Professional Services, Real Property, Trade Practices and Town Planning.

Career

Tom joined Victoria’s largest regional legal practice (based in Ballarat) in January 1992 as in-house counsel. Courtroom advocacy has been a large part of his practice ever since.

After four years of almost daily appearances in the Victorian Magistrates Court, Tom moved to the Territory in 1996 to take up a position with the Solicitor for the Northern Territory working on the first native title cases to go to trial before the Federal Court. After two years Tom was lured to the Darwin office of Clayton Utz where he worked for a range of private and government clients in a diverse range of litigious matters – from tort and contract disputes to employment and industrial matters, licensing and regulatory crime.

Tom returned to the Northern Territory Crown in 2003 where he took charge of the outstanding BTEC litigation, the Lake Bennett development litigation, and appeals from tax assessments made by the Territory’s Tax Commissioner. In this period Tom also prosecuted all the occupational health and safety offences under the Mining Management Act and most of those under the Work Health Act, as well as conducting significant prosecutions under the Animal Welfare Act and the Mining Act. Tom also acted for a number of Ministers of the Crown in defamation matters and represented the Director of Public Prosecutions in proceedings under the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act (NT).

In April 2008 Tom was invited by the Northern Territory Solicitor-General to join his chambers as Crown Counsel, where he continued to provide high level advice and representation to Northern Territory Government Ministers, agencies and instrumentalities in a wide range of matters. 

Tom has worked as junior counsel to some of the country’s leading silks in their respective fields. Tom joined William Forster Chambers in October 2009.

Major Reported Cases

  • Alcan (NT) Alumina Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Territory Revenue (2009) 239 CLR 27 – appeal against statutory interpretation of the Taxation Administration Act (NT) by the NT Court of Appeal
  • Commissioner of Territory Revenue v Alcan (NT) Alumina Pty Ltd (2008) 156 NTR 1 (Court of Appeal) – appeal and cross appeal concerning interpretation of the Taxation Administration Act (NT) and the value of the goodwill of a mining enterprise
  • Alcan (NT) Alumina Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxes (2007) 19 NTLR 153 (NT Supreme Court) – complex trial concerning valuation of a bauxite mine and refinery for stamp duty purposes and related issues
  • Tourism Holdings Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxes (2007) 210 FLR 80 (NT Supreme Court) – appeal against assessment of stamp duty on the transfer of the goodwill of a vehicle hire business
  • Tourism Holdings Australia Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Taxes (2005) 15 NTLR 80 (Court of Appeal) – appeal against pre-trial interlocutory rulings going to the nature of the appeal from the Commissioner’s assessment
  • The Wandarang, Alawa, Marra and Ngalakan Peoples v Northern Territory (2000) 104 FCR 380 (Federal Court) – native title trial
  • Lansen v Olney (1999) 100 FCR 7 (Full Court of the Federal Court) – review of a decision by the Aboriginal Land Commissioner not to hear a land claim over a pastoral lease held by a statutory corporation

 

Other Major Recent Cases

  • Anderson v McCleary & Anderson v McCleary Investments Pty Ltd [2008] NTMC 77 – prosecution of the “midnight pegger” for trying to “claim jump” multi-billion dollar uranium deposits
  • Carroll v Alcan Gove Pty Ltd [2008] NTMC 61 – complex prosecution of refinery operator following the death of an employee of a maintenance contractor
  • Carroll v Tom’s Gully Mining Pty Ltd [2007] NTMC 33 – the prosecution of multiple occupational health and safety offences by a gold miner
  • Lim v ABC, Martin and Kilgariff [2006] NTMC 71 – pleadings skirmish in defamation proceedings against the Chief Minister and others
  • Milatos v Clayton Utz [2005] NTSC 57 – major claim for damages by the Lake Bennett developer against his solicitors and the Territory (the Territory settled and withdrew from the proceedings prior to judgment)
  • DPP v Murray – the first unexplained wealth application under the Criminal Property Forfeiture Act (NT) to go to trial (settled before judgment)
  • DPP v Burnett and Others – a major criminal property forfeiture matter settled before trial
  • Carroll v ERA – the high profile prosecution of a uranium miner over a water contamination incident
  • Franklin v Keith Simpson Transport – the prosecution of a Queensland transport company and its principal following the death of 300 goats transported from Bourke to Darwin for live export
  • At the Cole Royal Commission into the building industry Tom appeared for the Territory Construction Association, Barclay Mowlem and the Northern Territory Government.

Contact Details

Tom Anderson
William Forster Chambers
26 Harry Chan Avenue
Darwin NT 0800

GPO Box 4369
DARWIN NT 0801

Tel: +61 (0)8 8982 4700
Mob: +61 (0)438 780 976
Fax: + 61 (0)8 8941 1541

Email: tanderson@williamforster.com