Catherine has a dual civil practice at the Queensland Bar and the Victorian Bar, with a focus on:

 

• commercial litigation;

• property development disputes;

• corporations, directors, and shareholders disputes;

• building and construction disputes;

• equity;

• insolvency;

• administrative law; and

• commercial disputes involving Chinese Mandarin-speaking litigants.

 

Catherine holds a Bachelor of Laws from the Queensland University of Technology and was called to the Queensland Bar in September 2018.

 

Catherine has worked exclusively in the legal industry since 2008, and previously practised as a commercial litigation solicitor in national and boutique commercial firms. She has represented large-scale property developers, building contractors, engineers, international mining companies, insolvency practitioners, financiers, state and local governments, Native Title bodies, and public and private companies.

 

As a native Mandarin-speaker able to read and write both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Catherine has extensive experience in acting for Mandarin-speaking clients in dispute resolution, conducting trials and hearings with the use of interpreters, calling overseas lawyers as expert witnesses on the application of foreign law in cross-jurisdictional matters, and the enforcement of foreign judgments.

 

Immediately prior to joining the private Bar in May 2019, Catherine was an employed barrister in the Litigation and Administrative Law team at the Department of Housing and Public Works where she appeared for the State of Queensland in trials and hearings. She also advised the Department and the Minister on complex legal issues in administrative decision-making, construction procurement disputes, tenancy disputes, high-profile infrastructure disputes, negligence claims, regulatory enforcement, as well as housing and construction industry legislative amendments.

 

Commercial

 

Catherine accepts instructions across all areas of commercial law. Her recent and current commercial briefs include:

 

• Wang v Hur & Ors (CA No. 10224/22) – acting (led by Mr David de Jersey KC) for the respondents in the Queensland Court of Appeal in respect of an appeal brought by the plaintiff against the trial decision in Wang v Yang & Ors [2022] QDC 162 (in which Catherine also appeared led by Mr de Jersey KC) regarding a claim for misleading and deceptive conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, oral and written misrepresentations, and negligent misstatement;

 

• LCM Recoveries Pty Ltd v Love Sunshine Pty Ltd & Ors (BS14269/21) – acting (led by Mr David de Jersey KC) for the defendants in a Supreme Court of Queensland claim brought by the liquidators of a company against a former director of the company and a former unsecured creditor of the company for voidable transactions;

 

• acting as sole counsel, and later junior counsel led by Mr Peter Somers, for the plaintiffs in a complex, multi-million dollar property development dispute matter in the Federal Court of Australia in relation to four large-scale multi-unit developments. The plaintiffs sought orders against another director and shareholder the corporate group and the development vehicle companies for the appointment of a receiver, the correction of company share registers, and winding up of the companies under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), as well as declarations of a constructive and/or resulting trust in respect of the plaintiffs’ interests in the developments;

 

• acting unled for the applicants in a Supreme Court of Queensland originating application arising out of a body corporate management rights dispute with joint investors. The applicants sought and successfully obtained relief under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to declare a member’s meeting void in which the respondents had purported to remove the client as a director of the company and transferred her shares to others, as well as urgent injunctive relief to restrain the respondents from wrongfully interfering with the company’s body corporate and leasing management business;

 

• Khromeenkova v A & L Builders Pty Ltd & Haley (BS2799/20) – acting unled for the builder in resisting a Supreme Court of Queensland application brought by the principal, a commercial property developer, pursuant to s 127 of the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld) to remove the builder’s caveat lodged over the development site to secure a debt for unpaid invoices issued for the building works under the commercial building contract;

 

• Shih & Anor v Hung & Auslife International Pty Ltd (BD1647/21) – acting unled in the defence of a District Court of Queensland claim in which the plaintiff alleges breach of a share sale agreement, total failure of consideration, and unjust enrichment;

 

• acting unled for the trustee in bankruptcy in a Federal Court of Australia application seeking orders to sell the bankrupt’s residential property.

 

Administrative Law

 

Catherine accepts instructions across all areas of administrative law and government law. Her recent and current government briefs include:

 

• acting unled for the Commissioner of State Revenue in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in a number of QCAT applications for review of the Commissioner’s decisions in respect of the HomeBuilder Grant under the First Home Owner Grant and Other Home Owner Grants Act 2000 (Qld);

 

• acting unled in the Supreme Court of Queensland for the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy as the second respondent to an application for judicial review of decisions made by the Department in respect of the applicant’s public housing tenancy;

 

• acting unled in the Queensland Court of Appeal for the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy in an appeal brought by a former public housing tenant against a QCAT Appeal Tribunal decision to terminate their state tenancy agreement;

 

• acting unled for the Department of Housing and Public Works in a QCAT application brought by a former public housing tenant seeking to reinstate their state tenancy agreement, which had been terminated on the grounds of abandonment of the premises and the discovery of a clandestine drug laboratory at the premises.

 

Recent cases

 

A selection of Catherine's recent cases include: 

 

• Wang v Yang & Ors [2022] QDC 162 (led by Mr David de Jersey KC) – defence of a claim brought by a shareholder and director of the defendant company for misleading and deceptive conduct and unconscionable conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, oral and written misrepresentations, and negligent misstatement.

 

• Yue v CN-AU Capital Pty Ltd & Anor [2021] QSC 248 (led by Mr Matthew Hickey OAM) – application brought by the defendant mortgagee to remove the plaintiff mortgagor’s caveats lodged over his own properties which secured the mortgage. The plaintiff brought a cross-application seeking specific performance of a deed of settlement and a mandatory injunction to sell the main development site to discharge the mortgage on the grounds of a clog on the equity of redemption. (Catherine had been briefed as sole counsel for the plaintiff in the substantive claim in the Supreme Court of Queensland regarding breach of the sale contract for the development site).

 

• Australia Abalone World Pty Ltd v Yin [2020] QDC 190 – application to strike out a claim for want of prosecution after 7 years and 9 months of delay by the plaintiff. Catherine later appeared in an application in the same proceeding in which her clients, the defendants, successfully joined a third party to the proceeding and obtained the Court’s leave to file a counterclaim against that third party twelve years after the events which gave rise to the counterclaim occurred (please contact Catherine for a copy of that judgment, and the subsequent judgment on costs in which her clients were also successful, which have not been published online).

 

• ATD19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2021] FCCA 565 (led by Mr Gavin Rebetzke) – application in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia for judicial review of a protection visa decision on the grounds of unreasonable failure to exercise the discretion conferred by s 473DC of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to invite the applicants to give new information, and apprehended bias.

 

• ATD19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2022] FCA 576 (led by Mr Gavin Rebetzke) – the appeal of the abovementioned matter to the Federal Court of Australia. Catherine was responsible for arguing the ‘apprehended bias’ ground for review at the first instance hearing and the appeal hearing.

 

• Collison v Metro North Hospital and Health Service [2020] QDC 311 – application in which Catherine’s clients successfully resisted a costs application brought by the defendant following the making of a consent order for leave to commence proceedings on an urgent basis under s 43 of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld), and obtained a costs order in favour of her clients for costs thrown away.

 

Committees and Pro Bono work

 

• Catherine is the National Vice-President of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA), a national not-for-profit organisation which promotes cultural diversity and inclusion in the legal profession.

 

She co-founded the AALA Queensland Branch in 2016 and served as the Queensland Branch Secretary and a National Executive Committee Member until November 2020. She continued to serve on the Queensland Branch Committee until she was elected as AALA National Vice-President in November 2022.

 

• Catherine also serves on the Bar Association of Queensland's Equal Opportunity and Diversity Committee.

 

• Catherine is a barrister member of LawRight. She accepts pro bono referrals through LawRight and volunteers as duty lawyer at its Magistrates Court Enforcement Hearing Service.

 

• Catherine undertakes pro bono work for refugees in judicial review applications and appeals in respect of decisions to refuse the grant of protection visas.

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