Luke Woodward

Luke is the head of the Gilbert + Tobin’s Competition + Regulation group and is a member of Gilbert + Tobin’s Board of partners.

In a career spanning 30 years, Luke has consistently been at the forefront of the profession: as a lead prosecution lawyer; as head of mergers, head of enforcement and General Counsel at the ACCC; and 18 years as a partner at Gilbert + Tobin.  He has an outstanding track record in gaining clearances in complex merger and joint venture cases, while also successfully conducting many high-profile , market power and collusion cases.  Luke was recognised as the leading thought leader in the Asia-Pacific region for Competition (International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers, 2018). 

Luke is regularly sought out for strategic advice in complex industry-changing matters. He is known for achieving outstanding commercial results, through innovative solutions and perseverance. Luke’s expertise spans general competition law/antitrust and regulation of utilities (aviation, ports, electricity and water), which in Australia is based on competition law and/or undertaken by the ACCC or state regulators within a common framework. 

Luke remains as a lead competition adviser to the Business Council of Australia on Competition Law and Policy reform, including proposals to amend the misuse of market power provision (s 46).

Luke is consistently ranked as one of Australia’s leading competition and regulation lawyers  in major legal directories. He is currently ranked as a leading competition practitioner in Australia (Who’s Who Legal 2019).

He was named Competition and Trade Partner of the Year at the 2016 Lawyers Weekly Partner of the Year Awards and was a finalist for the same award in 2017. 

Prior to joining the firm in 2000, Luke held senior positions at the ACCC as General Counsel, Executive General Manager, Compliance Division (responsible for enforcement) and Senior Assistant Commissioner, responsible for mergers and asset sales.

Luke is admitted as a legal practitioner of the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, the Northern Territory of Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria, Queensland and Western Australia and of the High Court of Australia, admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand, a member, Law Council of Australia, Competition and Consumer Committee, a member, Law Society of New South Wales and a Foreign Member, American Bar Association, Antitrust section Member, International Bar Association.

Luke also has a Bachelor of Economics (University of Sydney), 1986, Bachelor of Laws (Hons) (University of Sydney), 1988 Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice (Ku-rung-gai College), 1988 and a Masters Degree in Public Administration (John F Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University), 1997.