Ante Golem

Head of Disputes, Australia

Perth, Australia

Ante is the Head of Disputes in Australia and the Joint Global Head of Construction & Infrastructure Disputes at Herbert Smith Freehills.

Ante has extensive experience in commercial dispute resolution, including class actions and complex construction and infrastructure disputes, involving both litigation and international arbitration.

Based in Perth, Ante advises clients throughout the Asia Pacific region understanding where intersecting regional changes are creating both opportunities for clients and the need for market-leading legal defence strategies.

Working collaboratively with clients’ in-house legal teams to achieve a preferred resolution strategy, Ante regularly collaborates with consultants and independent experts to ensure his clients’ success.

With extensive experience in class action litigation Ante has acted in some of Australia’s largest class action proceedings, is a contributing author to the leading Australian text, Class Actions in Australia.

Background

Ante is admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of Western Australia and in the Federal and High Courts of Australia. Before joining Herbert Smith Freehills, he worked at the Supreme Court of Western Australia as the Associate to the Honourable Justice Carmel McLure.

An active member of the legal community, Ante is the Immediate Past President of The Law Society of Western Australia, a member of the Society of Construction Law Australia, a Fellow of Leadership WA and a member of the University of Notre Dame Australia Fremantle Law Advisory Board. In 2016, Ante was awarded Herbert Smith Freehills’ Keith Steele Pro Bono Leadership Medal.

He has been recognised as a Preeminent, Leading Construction & Infrastructure Litigation Lawyer in Western Australia by Doyles Guide since 2018. He was awarded 2023 Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers for Litigation in Perth.

Since 2013 he has been a member of the board of Ronald McDonald House Charities (WA) and since last year has been Chair of WA chapter of the charity.

Experience & expertise

Selected matters

advising a major international oil & gas principal on disputes relating to certain packages of its major project, including in relation to claims about defects, variations and prolongation costs
advise Samsung C&T, the EPC Contractor, on the Roy Hill Project in relation to numerous claims, disputes, adjudications and project issues with Forge Group and Duro Felguera Australia Pty Limited. This has involved dealing with an application for public examinations in the Supreme Court of Western Australia, various hearings and appeals concerning Samsung C&T calling down performance bonds on the project, adjudications under the Construction Contracts Act 2004 (WA) and related judicial review proceedings, international arbitration proceedings and numerous other project issues under a large number of subcontracts;
defending Iluka Resources in relation to a class action, including a preliminary discovery application in the Federal Court of Australia in relation to the claim;
advised an ASX top 20 company in relation to the risk of a potential shareholder class action;
advised a Canadian listed company in relation to a dispute in Papua New Guinea concerning the ownership of certain petroleum licences. The dispute involved proceedings in Papua New Guinea and an ICC arbitration;
advising an ASX listed energy company in relation to a dispute with its joint venture partners concerning petroleum licences off the coast of the Canary Islands;
acting for various energy companies in relation to gas price reviews;
defending OZ Minerals in funded shareholder class actions, which raised allegations of misleading and deceptive conduct and contraventions of Australian securities law; and
defending Centro in several landmark multiparty litigation-funded shareholder class actions, regarded as one of the most complex class actions in Australian history which involved allegations of contraventions of Australian securities laws and in the context of the $16 billion restructure of the Centro Group.