Melissa Gladstone
Melissa specialises in dispute resolution, with a focus on class action litigation and regulatory investigations.
Melissa is an experienced litigator specialising in class actions, large-scale commercial disputes and contentious regulatory investigations and proceedings. She is a thought leader and adviser on emerging areas of class action litigation including privacy and cyber, crypto, ESG and consumer and employee claims. There is a growing intersection between issues subject to regulatory scrutiny or oversight and subsequent legal proceedings, and unique challenges arise in these cases. Melissa has acted on a number of recent “cross over” proceedings including for AMP and CBA.
Melissa has been a guest lecturer at the University of Sydney Law School for the post-graduate course “Class Action Litigation in Australia”. In 2022, Melissa was a contributor to the third edition of Class Actions in Australia, the country’s leading text on class action law and practice and is the editor of the soon-to-be published inaugural Guide to Class Actions in Asia Pacific.
Background
Melissa holds:
- a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) (Honours) from the University of New South Wales
- a Bachelor of Economics (Social Sciences) from the University of Sydney
Experience & expertise
Selected matters
Melissa is a leading class actions and regulatory investigations lawyer in Australia, and her experience includes:
- The a2 Milk Company: defending multiple class action proceedings in Australia and New Zealand regarding earnings revisions and Covid-19 impacts on its infant formula markets in Australia and China
- Lendlease: defending complex class action proceedings regarding disclosures in respect of Lendlease’s Engineering and Services Business
- NAB: defended NAB against a class action claim concerning disclosures associated with the bank’s CDO portfolio
- Commonwealth Bank of Australia: acting for CBA in civil penalty proceedings brought by AUSTRAC under the Australian Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CTF) legislation. HSF successfully defended the related class action proceedings.
- Boral: defending two shareholder class actions in respect of disclosures regarding Boral’s North American business
- Regulatory investigation into consumer contracts, advice and financial products: defending a major financial institution in relation to multiple criminal and civil regulatory investigations relating to its financial products and customers
- Networks NSW: acting for Ausgrid, Endeavour Energy and Essential Energy, in Competition Tribunal proceedings involving 15 parties and interveners, successfully challenging the Australian Energy Regulator’s revenue determination. Melissa ran the community consultation process and was the linchpin between aggrieved customers, the AER and the energy network providers
- Multi-level marketing: advising a MLM company in respect of threatened class action proceedings in respect of consumer law claims by customers and members
- 7-Eleven: advising on class action risk arising from franchisee and employment issues
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