About Naomi Bergman
"The way Naomi structured her team with our Environmental team, as well as our external consultants, was very well done. Her views are highly valued. She cuts through the issues and has very practical solutions. I get the impression she just understands the organisation and how we work" - Allens client
Naomi is a recognised specialist in environmental, planning, climate change and native title law.
She assists clients at all stages of their projects, including advising on feasibility, rezonings, planning approval strategies, environmental licensing and compliance issues. Naomi also advises on a broad range of climate-related regulatory issues and is an experienced litigator, having practiced extensively in planning appeals, judicial review matters, compulsory acquisition proceedings and defending criminal prosecutions for breaches of environmental and planning laws.
Naomi understands the risks and challenges involved in delivering major projects and has the knowledge and expertise to effectively navigate state and federal environmental and planning approvals processes. She has advised on major projects and transactions across a broad range of sectors, with a particular focus on energy, resources, industrial and infrastructure projects.
Naomi's expertise includes:
- advising on all environmental and planning approval requirements for major projects, including EPBC Act approvals, biodiversity offsetting, Aboriginal and European heritage, water licensing and greenhouse gas assessments
- advising on contaminated land, pollution incidents and environmental compliance issues
- advising on climate-related regulatory issues, including Safeguard Mechanism compliance, net zero commitments, mandatory climate disclosure obligations, emissions reporting and carbon farming projects, as well as managing climate change risk in approvals processes
- advising on native title and Aboriginal cultural heritage issues
- assisting clients to navigate regulatory investigations by state and federal environmental regulators
- negotiating complex voluntary planning agreements
- acting in planning appeals, judicial review proceedings, prosecutions and compulsory acquisition proceedings in the NSW Land and Environment and judicial review proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.
Naomi's experience includes:
- Renewables: advising on numerous wind, solar and BESS projects for clients including Tilt Renewables, Origin Energy, Acciona, Goldwind, AGL, Iberdrola, Octopus Investments, BJCE and Pacific Green, as well as a number of large portfolio sales
- Pumped hydro: advising on Snowy 2.0, Oven Mountain PHES, Central West PHES, Shoalhaven Expansion Scheme, Western Sydney PHES and Muswellbrook PHES projects
- Mining: advising on new mining projects and mine continuation projects for clients including Glencore, Rio Tinto, Newmont and Aurelia Metals, and on water licensing requirements and compliance issues at a number of NSW mines
- Oil & gas: advising Santos on the Barossa Gas Project and Darwin Pipeline Duplication and a confidential bidder on a proposed investment in Pluto LNG
- Industrials: advising BlueScope on a critical State Significant Infrastructure project at the Port Kembla Steelworks and advising clients in the concrete and cement industries on various compliance issues
- Waste: advising on contamination issues at a major NSW landfill, and on a number of acquisitions and divestments of waste businesses, as well as a number of landfill gas projects
- Climate change and carbon markets: advising a major industrial client on the reformed Safeguard Mechanism, including assisting to make submissions on the TEBA criteria and production variables, and advising Origin Energy on the acquisition of a human induced regeneration project
- Office, residential and retail developments: advising on numerous residential, retail and office developments, including projects for Coles, ESR, GPT, Lendlease and Greenland, and acting in appeals in the Land and Environment Court
- NSW Electricity Networks Privatisations: acting as lead environmental, planning and native title adviser to Treasury NSW on the long-term lease of 49% of the NSW electricity transmission and distribution networks.