Emily Bowly

Emily Bowly is a Special Counsel in the Workplace Relations and Safety team, with over a decade of experience. Emily has deep expertise in workplace relations and discrimination laws and is known for providing pragmatic, succinct advice.

Emily has a strong reputation in higher education, health and science, retail and the Victorian public sector. She assists employers with various aspects of the employment relationship, both advisory and litigious, and is trusted with significant and complex matters that involve high legal and reputational risk.

Emily is client-focused and has an excellent understanding of client needs. Emily is known for her meaningful relationships with clients, providing exceptional client service.

Experience

Emily advises the Victorian public sector and private sector clients across all areas of employment, discrimination and industrial relations matters.

Emily has represented clients in the matters before the Federal Court of Australia, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, the Fair Work Commission, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, the Australian Human Rights Commission, the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission, and others.

Emily is known for her expertise in:

• unfair dismissal and general protections claims
• discrimination, diversity and harassment matters in workplace and education settings
• termination of employment
• restraints of trade, including seeking injunctive relief
• litigation strategy
• interpretation of enterprise agreements and modern awards
• enterprise bargaining
• industrial relations strategy and advice
• managing ill and injured employees
• organisational restructures and redundancies
• contracts of employment
• workplace policies and training.

Career highlights

Emily's career highlights include:

• acting for a major Australian university in a claim in the Federal Court of Australia involving sensitive allegations of racial and disability discrimination and breaches of the general protections provisions of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) brought by a former academic
• acting for a major Australian university in multiple unfair dismissal claims in the Fair Work Commission brought by former academics which tested the limits of organisational policies and had broad-reaching implications for the client
• acting in multiple appeals before the Full Bench of the Fair Work Commission for a major Australian university
• acting in a sensitive claim in the Federal Court of Australia alleging adverse action on the grounds of political opinion, including defending an urgent interlocutory injunction
• acting for a major Australian University in its defence of a race discrimination claim brought by an unrepresented litigant and former student in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal
• leading the defence of a general protections application for a financial services client in the Federal Court of Australia involving complex legal considerations, including constitutional considerations, achieving an outstanding result for the client
• acting for a Victorian public sector body in a workplace investigation into allegations of workplace bullying and fraud and corruption against a senior member of staff, including referring the matter to the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission
• acting for a large financial services company in a significant breach of fiduciary duty and restraint of trade matter involving senior executives
• completing secondments at Deakin University, Monash University, Healthscope and Cotton On.