Michael O'Donnell Email and Phone Number

Michael O'Donnell is the Principal and a sole legal practitioner. He specialises in native title, policy development, legislative reform, project management and commercial negotiations.From January 2015 till March 2019 he was the General Counsel (Principal Legal Adviser) with the Northern Land Council. He has extensive experience as a lawyer and negotiator in the native title area. This has included major commercial developments, native title litigation, mediation and proposed reforms to the Native Title Act, 1993. For example, recently as a member of the Expert Technical Advisory Group in relation to the development of the Native Title Legislation Amendment Bill 2019.Prior to 2015 he was a Barrister, former Chairperson of the Alcohol and Drugs Tribunal of the Northern Territory, Chairperson of the Community Justice Centre Consultative Council (NT) and nationally accredited and experienced mediator. He was a member of a number of different mediation panels.He has significant expertise in native law, policy and practice and Indigenous legal issues in general. He has been Counsel in a number of native title claims and related negotiations. He is a former Principal Legal Officer with the Kimberley Land Council in the 1990’s and was the Council’s legal adviser in the negotiation of the Native Title Act (NTA) in 1993 and amendments to the NTA in 1998 on behalf of the National Indigenous Working Group. He has a detailed knowledge of the NTA and its historical background. He was also a legal consultant to the Review Board of the Northern Territory Emergency Response in 2008, has written papers and given lectures and public seminars on a variety of Indigenous legal issues in Australia.