Colleen Platford, Partner

Colleen has been a partner of Gilbert + Tobin since 1995. She specialises in trade practices litigation (Part IV and Part V of the Trade Practices Act), contractual and commercial disputes and tax related litigation. She has extensive experience in major Supreme Court and Federal Court litigation in NSW, Victoria and Queensland, having litigated for over 20 years.

Colleen has been named in the Best Lawyers List for Litigation since its inception, in 2008. She has over 20 years experience in commercial litigation.

Colleen’s recent experience includes:

Acted for Google Inc (US) in defending proceedings brought by the ACCC regarding alleged misleading and deceptive conduct over sponsored links which appear on Google’s search result pages. This is one of the world’s leading cases in online advertising and the responsibility of search engines and was the subject of a 6 week hearing earlier this year.

Successfully representing AGL Limited in proceedings brought in the Supreme Court of Queensland (and the Court of Appeal in Queensland) in relation to a claim for force majeure under a long term gas contract in relation to the exploration and development of coal seam methane gas.

Acting for publicly listed companies involving proceedings relating to the recovery of taxation.

Advising companies and professional advisers involved in investigations and litigation by both the Australian and Securities Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and also advising companies in respect of Schemes of Arrangements.

Representing major corporates in complex joint venture, shareholder and contractual disputes.

Colleen holds a Bachelor of Economics (majoring in tax and accounting) and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from the University of Sydney which she completed in 1986. She has also completed a Masters of Laws also at the University of Sydney specialising in Trade Practices (Parts IV and V) and Taxation.

Team

Colleen Platford, Partner