Natalie Bannister

Natalie lead’s Hall & Wilcox’s Commercial practice (which includes litigation, corporate and commercial, tax, employment, private clients, banking and finance and property and projects) and has broad experience across many areas of commercial law.

Natalie also has close to 20 years’ experience in property, planning and environment law. She acts primarily for institutional clients, utility providers, property developers and large companies. Her experience includes property due diligence, sales and acquisitions; commercial and retail leasing including managing national property portfolios; land contamination including compliance, risk allocation and liability, management and clean-up; obtaining development approvals; planning advice and compliance (including in respect of Aboriginal and European Heritage, native vegetation, traffic, noise, flooding and water quality impacts); rates and land tax objections; compulsory acquisition of land and compensation and property disputes and advice about easements, rights of way and adverse possession.

She regularly acts as an advocate before VCAT and at planning panel hearings.

Natalie has been recognised as a leading Australian lawyer in Doyle's Guide to the Australian Legal Profession. She has also been recognised in The Best Lawyers in Australia in Real Property Law every year since 2017 and was a Finalist at the 2020 Lawyers Weekly Women in Law Executive of the Year.

Natalie is customer-service focused and is constantly evolving and improving the way she delivers legal services to make it as easy as possible for clients to do business with her. Natalie takes an innovative approach to pricing, using fixed fees and other alternative fee arrangements to deliver price certainty and value for money. Natalie is responsive to clients and always does what she says she will do.

Natalie is passionate about supporting women to progress in business, and she co-founded the Professional Environmental Women’s Association (PEWA) in 2013.