Union Services


Our Industrial and Employment Team     Print this page

Slater and Gordon’s Industrial and Employment Practice group handles all types of legal and strategic matters for trade unions as well as employment-related issues for members of unions that Slater & Gordon represents.

Marcus Clayton manages the Industrial & Employment group at Slater & Gordon's Melbourne office and has national responsibility for the firm's industrial work for the many unions we represent around Australia. Marcus has acted in numerous cases for unions including branches of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) in the Royal Commission into the building and construction industry. He has also been involved in a number of important public interest cases.

Marcus joined Slater & Gordon in 1980 and specialised in personal injuries litigation and criminal law after admission to practice in 1982 until leaving the firm in 1989. He returned to Slater & Gordon in 1998 and was appointed National Practice Group Leader in 2003. Marcus graduated from Melbourne University with a Bachelor of Laws and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in politics and history. In his period away from Slater & Gordon he worked for five years as a community lawyer for the Western Suburbs Legal Service in Melbourne.

Phillip Pasfield is a Practice Group Leader in the firm's industrial and employment practice. He has represented unions and their members and practised in all major Courts and Tribunals including the High Court, the Federal Court, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission and the Industrial Relations Commission of NSW.

Phillip has extensive experience in relation to many industries including coal mining, telecommunications, postal, air transport, social and community services, building and construction, maritime and oil refining.

With over 25 years experience, Phillip has been involved in a number of major cases arising out of industrial disputation including the:

  • Deregistration of the BLF
  • Pilots dispute
  • BLF Funds case
  • Hunter Valley No.1 dispute
  • Constitutional challenge to the Workplace Relations Act 1996
  • Private Arbitration case
  • Exceptional Matters Order in relation to the dismissed Blair Athol miners

Phillip joined the firm in 2001 and is located in the firm's Sydney office.

Toby Borgeest is a Practice Group Leader of the firm in the Industrial and Employment group of the firm.

Toby has a wide range of experience of litigation in industrial relations, employment, equal opportunity, commercial, class action, defamation and criminal matters.

Toby is an accredited specialist in workplace relations law, having obtained accreditation in the inaugural intake of specialists in that area within the Law Institute Specialist Accreditation Scheme in 2003. He has also served as a member of the Executive of the Workplace Relations Section of the Law Institute of Victoria.

Toby joined the firm as an articled clerk in 1997 and is located in the firm's Perth office.


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