About Emily Turnbull
Emily is a general commercial litigator and ESG specialist based in Melbourne.
She acts for clients in material and complex disputes, including in Federal and Supreme Court litigation, arbitration, regulatory enforcement and investigations, and commissions and inquiries. Emily also assists clients in responding to non-judicial processes, such as OECD and UN complaints, and in designing grievance mechanisms and remediation protocols.
She works with clients across industries and sectors, and has particular experience in mining and resources; clean energy; financial services, superannuation and private capital; insurance; healthcare; infrastructure and industrials.
Emily co-leads our ESG centre of excellence and co-manages our Business Human Rights practice with Rachel Nicolson. Emily's practice involves working with inhouse legal teams and boards to uplift, embed and evolve on sustainability practices, drawing on her contentious-disputes experience to mitigate legal risk and leverage opportunities.
She was recognised as one to watch in Chambers & Partners 2024 Business Human Rights Law. Before joining Allens, Emily was an associate in the Disputes and Investigations team at Slaughter and May in London, and then a member of the Environment and Climate Change team at Allen and Overy in London.
Emily's experience at Allens includes:
Disputes and investigations
- Advising on the application of biosecurity legislation and related claims
- Aged Care and Disability Royal Commissions
- AGL: proceedings in the Victorian Supreme Court in relation to allegations of nuisance at the Macarthur windfarm
- Alinta: judicial review proceedings by Environment Victoria to quash the EPA's decision to amend operational air emissions limits—this was a test case in relation to the requirements of the Climate Change Act 2017 (Vic)
- A number of banks and superannuation funds: human rights grievance by Traditional Owners regarding allegations of human rights and environmental impacts
- A range of companies: non-curial complaints to the Australian OECD National Contact Point and UN Special Procedures relating to allegations of human rights and environmental impacts at operations in Australia, Chile, the Philippines and PNG
- Bribery investigations by the Australian Federal Police
- Claims in breach of contract, including breach of warranty and misrepresentation, and contract pricing disputes
- Ford: class action proceedings in the Federal Court (and on appeal to the Full Federal Court and High Court) regarding allegedly defective vehicle transmissions
- Pacific Hydro: regulatory enforcement proceedings by the Australian Energy Regulator in the Federal Court in relation to the 2016 South Australia black system event
- Woodside: final injunction application by the Australian Conservation Foundation in the Federal Court, concerning alleged climate change impacts on the Great Barrier Reef
- Global mining group: representative proceedings in the PNG courts
- PNG mining company: representative proceedings in the Singapore Court of Appeal alleging environmental damage and related breaches of fiduciary duties and the tort of deceit
- Multinational financial services company: preliminary discovery application in the Federal Court regarding risk management and reporting of climate change and nature-related risks
- Multinational financial services company: climate change litigation in the Federal Court by strategic litigants in relation to commitments in a public-facing ESG policy
- Various superannuation funds: response to ESG-related ASIC investigations and enforcement actions.
ESG and sustainability
- Environment
- responding to shareholder activism and defending litigation
- climate- and nature-related corporate commitments
- disclosures of climate- and nature-related risks
- greenwashing assurance reviews and verification.
- Social
- compliance with human rights laws and material investigations
- alignment with international human rights laws, standards and frameworks
- human rights policy design
- operational and value chain risk management (including human rights saliency and impact assessments, human rights due diligence and connection to impact analysis)
- human rights contract clauses and transactional due diligence
- disclosures, including modern slavery reporting
- bluewashing assurance reviews and verification
- engagement and consultation, including the interaction between business and First Nations peoples.
- Governance
- head office support, including developing sustainability strategies, policies and disclosures (including annual reports and standalone sustainability reports)
- AGM preparation on sustainability matters, including shareholder engagement and activism
- intersection of ESG with other matters such as responsible AI and AML compliance
- integrity and corporate crime matters.