7 Wentworth Selborne is “the go-to chambers for construction barristers” (Legal 500) with market-leading expertise and tremendous depth at both Senior and Junior counsel level.

More than half of the barristers from our floor appear in construction and infrastructure matters, ranging across the spectrum from appellate matters on billion dollar nation-building infrastructure projects through to Home Building disputes.

Our Barristers also regularly appear in domestic and international construction and infrastructure arbitrations, expert determinations, references, and mediations.   

7 Wentworth Selbourne is a pre-eminent planning and environmental law floor.  

Members of our floor appear in all jurisdictions of the Land and Environment Court and have complementary expertise across the spectrum of commercial and real property disputes litigated in the Supreme Court and other forums. This depth of experience and expertise has also made many of our members the Counsel of choice for matters in the NSW Court of Appeal concerning planning and environmental law.

The Senior and Junior Counsel at 7 Wentworth Selborne have extensive experience across all areas of planning and environmental law and have worked together successfully on many cases and advices.

7 Wentworth Selborne has one of the strongest insurance practices in Australia. Our barristers regularly provide strategic advice to insurer and insured clients on the early resolution of claims and, where that is not possible, on litigation strategy.

Our barristers have, between them, an in-depth knowledge of all classes of insurance business and extensive experience in dealing with coverage and indemnity issues across all lines of business. They are regularly briefed in some of the largest and most complex insurance cases in the country. In recent times they have advised and appeared for numerous parties to insurance disputes arising from major events such as the COVID 19 Pandemic and the 2011 Queensland Floods, allegations against a major financial services firm involving systemic compliance issues (relating to the provision of financial advice and the charging of “fees for no service”), corporate collapses such as those of major retailer Dick Smith, investment bank Babcock & Brown and financial services firm Linchpin Capital Group, as well as foreign bribery and corruption allegations against global construction industry contractor CIMIC Group.

Our Barristers also regularly appear for insurers and insured clients where their interests coincide, in the defence of public liability and professional indemnity claims and claims against company directors and officers. Our Barristers also regularly advise and appear for insurers and insured clients in subrogated recovery actions arising out of damage to insured property.

The members of 7 Wentworth Selborne act in matters across the spectrum of public law and administrative law matters in all Federal and State courts and tribunals. Members are briefed both for and against public bodies at every level of government.

Significant matters include acting in successful constitutional challenges to Executive power in the High Court of Australia, appearing for Federal economic regulators in major civil penalty proceedings in the Federal Court, and appearing in significant judicial review proceedings in the Full Court of the Federal Court and the Court of Appeal.

Members are also frequently briefed in commercial and common law matters involving the Commonwealth and State governments which raise complex public law issues. This includes mass tort claims against the Commonwealth involving novel duty of care questions, and class actions against the State government arising out of major infrastructure projects.

Our floor has specialist expertise and experience acting and advising in administrative law and merits review proceedings in the Land and Environment Court, including challenges to major planning decisions as well as regulatory matters involving State regulators such as the New South Wales Building Commissioner and other authorities responsible for enforcing environmental laws.

Class actions

Members of 7 Wentworth Selborne regularly appear in class action proceedings, whether prosecuting on behalf of the class or defending the action, as well as appearing for interested parties in settlement approval applications.

Whether in the Federal Court of Australia or a State Supreme Court, in shareholder class actions or consumer class actions, our floor has extensive experience in dealing with the complex issues that arise in the commencement, prosecution, defence and settlement of class actions. 

7 Wentworth Selborne has a unique white collar crime and regulatory practice genuinely combining deep expertise in large scale complex commercial litigation with specialist criminal law skills.

Our members are instructed by prosecuting and regulatory government agencies and defendants, both corporations and individuals, in leading white-collar crime and regulatory cases, including the prosecution of ANZ and other major banks for cartel conduct, prosecutions in relation to allegations of foreign bribery and dishonestly influencing a public official relating to tax liabilities, prosecutions arising out of ICAC Inquiries, proceedings concerning wilful misconduct in public office, civil penalty proceedings brought by ASIC, and High Court proceedings involving the construction of key terms used in the Criminal Code. Such cases often give rise to complex issues requiring expertise in both commercial and criminal law. They require specialist skills by practitioners with experience in these dual areas.

Our barristers have extensive experience in white-collar crime and regulatory proceedings, regularly appearing in high-stakes matters before Australian Courts. Our specialist advocates offer a breadth of experience in both prosecuting and defending complex criminal charges and are committed to providing the best legal advice and representation, backed by a deep understanding of the particular pressures faced by both defendants and government agencies. The floor’s practice benefits from its extensive complementary expertise in commercial disputes, with which it often intersects in novel and unexpected ways.

Recent white collar and regulatory cases of particular note, without published judgement, in which our barristers have appeared include:

Secretary, Department of Health and Aged Care v Gaia Organics Aust Pty Ltd & Ors, Federal Court of Australia, NSD 172/2025 (ongoing) — acting in proceedings commenced by the Department of Health against two entities and their directors to enforce the advertising prohibitions on nicotine vaping products.

Dividend stripping investigation - acting in an investigation commenced by the Australian Taxation Office in relation to dividend stripping operations, for the purpose of considering whether to commence promoter penalty proceedings (ongoing).

R v Corner – acting in a prosecution of the CFO of BigUn Ltd for alleged insider trading.

R v Alex & Ors [2024] NSWSC 1565 – representing the prosecutor in prosecution of six individuals for allegedly defrauding the Commonwealth by causing several corporations not to remit to the ATO approximately $14 million of PAYG withholding tax.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Westpac Banking Corporation (Penalty Hearing) [2024] FCA 52 and related procedural hearings including Westpac Banking Corporation (2021) 153 ACSR 122 -acting for ASIC in Federal Court Proceedings against Westpac Banking Corporation for insider trading, unconscionable conduct and breaches of s912A of the Corporations Act relating to Westpac’s interest rate trading on October 20,2016, when the $16 billion privatisation of Ausgrid was announced.

‍AFP v Greenfield (ongoing) – representing the prosecutor in an ongoing prosecution of two union officials, arising out of the Trade Union Royal Commission, for allegedly accepting corrupting benefits.

Board of Inquiry into the Criminal Justice System in the Australian Capital Territory (2023) – acting for the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions at the Board of Inquiry into the conduct of criminal justice agencies involved in the trial R v Lehrmann and issues that may have wider implications for the prosecution of criminal matters, particularly sexual assault trials in the ACT.

‍Rex v Dirani (2023) – prosecuting an individual charged with conspiring with others to commit acts in preparation for a terrorist act, specifically the obtaining of a firearm that was used to kill NSW Police Force employee Curtis Cheng outside Parramatta police headquarters in 2015.