Joel Zyngier

Joel is the national head of Gilchrist Connell’s Employment Practices Liability / Management Liability practice. He has extensive experience in workplace relations and safety law, and in 2012 was certified by the Law Institute of Victoria as an Accredited Specialist in Workplace Relations. Joel assists clients defend the full gamut of employment law claims and investigations and prosecutions by work health and safety (and other) regulators.

Joel acts for insurers and self-insured clients, primarily under Employment Practices Liability and Management Liability or similarly named policies. He has acted in employment law and industrial disputes at almost every level of State and Federal court and tribunals, and has acted for witnesses in various public inquiries into corruption (including a Royal Commission and an IBAC investigation).

Joel also deploys his extensive experience in ‘front end’ employment and work health and safety law to assist insured or self-insured organisations address their risk in these areas, for example, by drafting employment agreements, and workplace policies and guidelines. This has given Joel a deep understanding of areas of potential risk for insured organisations which is invaluable for claims managers, underwriters, risk managers and brokers operating in the EPL/ML space.

The mainly federal nature of the workplace relations and safety jurisdiction means that Joel acts in EPL and ML claims throughout Australia, utilising the full resources of Gilchrist Connell’s existing EPL/MPL experience across its Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney and Brisbane offices.

Joel provides media comment on employment law development and regularly presents a range of educational seminars on employers’ obligations under employment and work health & safety legislation, and about how employers can reduce their risks of employee claims.

In his spare time, Joel enjoys martial arts and practising his extensive negotiation skills with the most challenging of opponents – his two young daughters.