Michael Berkeley-Hill Email & Phone Number

Perth, Wa, Au

Perth, Wa, Au

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Independent consultant working on interim assignments with Peerpoint on an ad hoc basis.

Perth, Australia

I’ve opened my own incorporated legal practice and am now available to do freelance legal work. I am also available to do direct in-house secondments, general legal advice and drafting as well as assist law firms with overflow work.Whilst my most recent experience is in local and state government, I also have extensive experience in the oil and gas industry and energy and resources in general. Since I have very broad ranging legal experience across my career, I am open to a wide range of other corporate/commercial roles/advice work in other industries.

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Fixed term contract role with Pacific Energy.

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Fixed, short-term contract role with RAC WA.

Wanneroo, Western Australia, Australia

Head of legal, governance, risk and internal audit at the City of Wanneroo, one of the largest growing local governments in Western Australia with a land area of 685 square kilometres, serving a population of over 200,000 residents. Managing a team of experienced governance, risk, internal audit specialists and in-house legal and reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer.

Perth, Western Australia, Australia

Originally engaged to work as part of the core Bell Group litigation settlement team to work on the settlement of one of the largest, most complex and longest running pieces of litigation in West Australian history. Worked closely with the very experienced in-house legal team as well as a team of eminent outside counsel and consultants. The primary settlement was finalised in late 2020 bringing to an end litigation that had continued for nearly 25 years and resulting in a settlement payment to the State Government of over $665 million.Following the Bell settlement, involved in working closely with members of the Executive Leadership team and senior management on a wide range of projects, including legislative reform, drafting cabinet submissions, policy analysis and development, continuous improvement, risk management and strategy as well as providing legal advice and support on a wide range of issues across the entire organisation.

Perth, Australia

Company Profile:Baker Hughes, a GE company is the world’s first and only fullstream provider of integrated oilfield products, services and digital solutions. With operations in over 120 countries, the company’s global scale, local know-how and commitment to service infuse over a century of experience with the spirit of a startup – inventing smarter ways to bring energy to the world.Role and key responsibilitiesHead of Legal for Baker Hughes GE for Australia, New Zealand & Papua New Guinea based in Australia - a region with over 700 employees (on fixed-term secondment from Lawyers on Demand). Involved in leading and managing all legal and contracts functions and activities for the BHGE Oil & Gas business in Australia, New Zealand & Papua New Guinea (ANP). Reporting directly to the Managing Regional Counsel for Asia Pacific, involved in providing general counsel to the ANP Leadership and the BHGE Product Companies, and working with the wider BHGE Legal team.Partnering closely with the ANP Leadership, Product Company Leaders, and other leaders to develop and maintain delivery of effective and impactful Legal services for the ANP business. Managing outside counsel relationships and activity and legal budget to achieve maximum cost efficiencies.Providing legal advice, stewardship and governance to the leadership and business on strategic initiatives and relationships, including alliance, frame or strategic agreements, joint ventures, channel partner relationships, and other growth and profitability initiatives. End to end responsibility for managing commercial contracts for products, services and projects through the ITO (Inquiry to Order) and OTR (Order to Remittance) phases, including review and negotiation of contracts, advising on contract execution issues, collection of past dues or bad debts, customer issue resolutions and dispute resolution or litigation.

Perth, Australia

Company Profile:Australia ranks second to the United States as an investment destination for Shell.Shell is a major investor in key Australian LNG projects, including the world-leading Prelude floating LNG Project, which is 67.5% owned and operated by Shell. Role Overview:Commenced work on a significant long-term project for the Prelude Joint Venture, which included working with the commercial, finance and technical teams to structure the commercial deal, including the preparation and drafting of key terms. Also, took on the role of Principal Legal Counsel for Shell for the Sunrise Joint Venture and the Gorgon Joint Venture.Gorgon Project Overview:Shell also holds a 25% stake in the Gorgon joint venture, which is developing Australia's largest known undeveloped gas resource. The other joint venture participants are Chevron (Operator) and ExxonMobil, Osaka Gas, Tokyo Gas and Chubu Electric Power.Sunrise Project Overview:Shell is a 26.6% equity holder in Sunrise. The other equity holders are Woodside (Operator), Conoco Phillips and Osaka Gas.The Greater Sunrise gas fields are located 450km north of Darwin and 150km from the south coast of Timor Leste. Key Responsibilities:>Local intellectual property and technology portfolio, which included research and development projects >New business opportunities for Shell >Serving as the data privacy focal point for Shell Australia Other Roles fulfilled during my tenure at Shell:>Served on the Shell Distributed Leadership Team>Worked on various complex financing and tax matters for the Shell Group>Advising on key business policies, reviewing and drafting some of those policies>Extensive experience in leading, training and mentoring junior lawyers>Served as the Shell Australia focal point for competition law, privacy law, R&D/intellectual property>Shell accredited trainer for competition law; anti-bribery and corruption law

Perth, Australia

Role Overview:Shell lead lawyer for the North West Shelf Joint VentureProject Overview:Shell was a founding participant in the NWS Project and now holds one-sixth direct interest in the NWS LNG project, and also serves as a technical advisor.Notable Achievements:>Selected as lead counsel for the joint venture on a four-person core venture negotiation team preparing and negotiating a complex multibillion-dollar LNG and domestic gas tolling transaction opposite a major international oil company>Key role in developing the equity lifting and balancing arrangements for the joint venture, including structuring the complex liability regime for the suite of agreements>Six main venture partners, each with a power of veto on many issues, required ongoing influencing and negotiation to try to achieve alignment on critical matters and to ensure as far as possible, that Shell’s commercial and legal interests were adequately represented in the Joint Venture. The role involved managing 10-15 matters simultaneously across a diverse range of legal areas. Key Responsibilities:>Various legal disputes with the state electricity generator, one of which went to the High Court of Australia>Negotiation of major amendments to the North West Shelf State Agreement with the State Government of WA, which included a domestic gas commitment>Major corporate restructuring of the North West Shelf service entitiesContracting and procurement (including several major rig contract negotiations)>Negotiation of various domestic gas sales agreements and advising on existing gas sales agreements;>LNG sale and purchase agreements>LNG and domestic gas price reviews>LNG shipping and chartering>Impact of the Personal Property Securities Act>Arbitrations and litigation>Competition law (including supervising several annual external compliance audits which formed part of an ACCC domestic gas authorisation)>Anti-bribery and corruption law

Perth, Australia

Company Profile:Established in 1933, the CBH Group is Australia’s largest co-operative and a leader in the Australian grain industry.Role Overview:As in-house counsel, managing on average between 25 to 40 legal matters, across a diverse range of areas.Key Responsibilities:>Contract and other legal drafting >Negotiating and drafting major long-term road freight agreements, grain sale agreements (including FOB, CIF and CFR), grain pool contracts, grain purchase agreements, information technology contracts, procurement contracts, consultancy contracts and confidentiality agreements>Involvement in negotiating and structuring business transactions, including general advice on strategy and business development matters>Structuring and managing joint venture transactions and preparing primary legal documentation such as share sale agreements and shareholder agreements>Legal advisory work, including contract law, corporations law, employment matters, financial matters, insurance matters, intellectual property, international legal and regulatory matters, property law, shipping law, taxation, Trade Practices Act and trade promotion lotteries law >Managing litigation matters and assisting in debt recovery actions>Reviewing and providing legal sign off for advertising and marketing material, including preparing terms and conditions for trade promotion lotteries>Company secretarial work for domestic and foreign corporations, including drafting and preparing board papers, board minutes and preparing and lodging regulatory filings>Assisted in the preparation of an ACCC Access Undertaking on port access >Collaborated with the records manager to develop a centralised in-house document and matter management system for the legal team>In-house training for non-legal staff>Reviewing and updating corporate policies>Instructing outside counsel for specialist advice and assistance, including managing costs and service quality

Perth, Australia

Law Firm Profile:King & Wood Mallesons is a multinational law firm headquartered in Hong Kong. Its predecessor firms included King & Wood, a member of the Red Circle of leading Chinese law firms, Mallesons Stephen Jaques, one of the Big Six leading Australian law firms, and British-headquartered, "Silver Circle" law firm SJ Berwin.KWM is the first and only global law firm based in Asia and as of March 2015 was the largest law firm headquartered outside of the United States or European Union. In 2016, BRW named the firm as Australia's best professional services firm and best law firm with revenue over $200 million.KWM alumni include judges of a number of courts, including the High Court of Australia, the Federal Court of Australia, the Supreme Court of New South Wales and Victoria, as well as a former Prime Minister, the President of the Australian Human Rights Commission, and members of the Commonwealth Parliament.Role Overview:Worked in the Mergers and Acquisitions group focusing on energy and resources. Key Responsibilities:>Working on a multibillion dollar merger between two oil companies>Completing a secondment at Synergy, (Western Australia’s principal electricity retailer) filling in for the General Counsel >Restructuring and sale of coal joint venture interests for a large Chinese corporation>Iron ore offtake, sales and shipping contracts>Drafting gas sales\supply and transportation agreements>Working on several significant oil and gas transactions in Australia and South-East Asia, including the purchase of joint venture interests by an Australian energy company from a Japanese company>Regulatory work, including registration and approval of petroleum joint venture interests>Representing a large Australian corporation in spin-off sale of telecommunications division

Murdoch, Western Australia, Australia

Institution Profile:Murdoch University is a public university in Perth, Western Australia, with campuses also in Singapore and Dubai. It began operations as the state's second university in July 1973 and accepted its first undergraduate students in 1975.Key Responsibilities as Unit Coordinator/Lecturer of Evidence Law (Fixed Term Contract):>Managing the entire evidence syllabus, including preparing and giving all lectures for a class of approximately 150+ students>Developing course outlines >Designing and managing student website>Coordinating the tutorial program>Setting the major assignment and final examination>Marking all assignments and final exam papers

Greater New York City Area

Law Firm Profile:Shearman & Sterling represents many of the world’s leading corporations and major financial institutions, as well as emerging growth companies, governments and state-owned enterprises, often working on ground-breaking, precedent-setting matters. With a deep understanding of their clients' businesses and the industries, they operate in.Key Responsibilities as Associate in London from August to October 1998: >Industries represented included entertainment, biotechnology, hotels, security, telecommunications, internet, computer software, mutual funds, railroads, and airlines >Underwriter’s counsel on a number of European high-yield debt offerings>Issuer’s counsel on the privatisation of a large foreign telecommunications corporation>Global Capital Markets (US Federal Securities Law), Mergers and AcquisitionsKey Responsibilities as Associate Attorney in New York from October 1998 to November 2001:>Extensive experience gained in transactional, US federal securities law and general corporate work, high-yield debt, initial public offerings, tender offers, private bank financing, medium-term note programs, mergers and acquisitions, cross-border deals, financial and corporate restructuring, shelf offerings, equity offerings, structured finance, joint ventures, and venture capital financing >Represented foreign and domestic investment banks, as underwriter’s counsel, as well as many corporations as issuer’s counsel>Negotiation and drafting of operative agreements, comfort letters, drafting disclosure documents, legal research, SEC filings, due diligence, general corporate housekeeping >Assisted the intellectual property department on copyright and trademark matters>Worked on over 30 deals, of which 18 closed with an average deal size of US $250 million >Presented at three seminars

New York, New York

Company Profile:Squadron, Ellenoff, Plesent & Sheinfeld was a New York City-based law firm that practised from 1970 to 2002 when it merged with Washington, D.C.-based Hogan & Hartson,when the Squadron Ellenoff name was discontinued.It was a prominent mid-sized firm in New York City founded by well-known lawyers and civic leaders, Howard Squadron, a litigator, Stanley Plesent, and Theodore Ellenoff, a corporate attorney and alumnus of Shea & Gould. At its height, Squadron Ellenoff employed nearly 200 attorneys with offices in New York City's Fifth Avenue and Los Angeles. The firm was mainly known for its First Amendment practice and its work for media clients in its Los Angeles office.In 2002, they joined White & Case a majority of whose partners were recruited into Linklaters in 2004.Key Responsibilities:>Assisting in transactional and securities work, including due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, public and private offerings on behalf of media conglomerates, underwriters and large corporations

London, United Kingdom

Second six months’ pupillage - General common law practiceKey Responsibilities:>Extended experience in both civil and criminal advocacy, negotiation and drafting>More than 50 court appearances

London, United Kingdom

First six months’ pupillage - General civil practice Key Responsibilities:>Assisted senior members of chambers on High Court and Court of Appeal with personal injury and professional negligence cases