Chantal Tipene
PartnerAbout Chantal
Chantal is a government law specialist with more than 15 years' experience providing specialist legal advice to the Commonwealth, State and local government. Her experience ranges from major procurement and tendering projects to advising on administrative law matters and is an information law specialist with deep experience in privacy, FOI, surveillance and other compulsory information access processes. She understands the pressures that government departments face from her recent in-house experience as the Deputy General Counsel of the NSW Police Force.
In 2011, Chantal was recognised by the Law Society of New South Wales as an Accredited Specialist in Government and Administrative Law.
What she does
Chantal has broad-ranging practice, meeting the legal needs of government across commercial law matters (contracting, procurement and probity), administrative law including both merits review and judicial review, and statutory interpretation matters.
She also advises on litigation, including solicitor advocacy, particularly in the NSW Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Chantal is highly sought after in the Information Law space and her team advise and support clients in compliance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), including the collection and handling of personal information, undertaking Privacy Threshold Assessments (PTA), Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA), handling complaints and Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) investigations.
Who she works with
Chantal works with Commonwealth and State Government entities.
Qualifications
Chantal holds a Bachelor of Arts/Law from Macquarie University, a Graduate Diploma in Legal Practice from the College of Law and a Masters of Law (Commercial) from the University of Sydney.
She became an Accredited Specialist in Government and Administrative Law in 2011 and is a member of the NSW Law Society's Government and Administrative Law Committee. Chantal is also a member of the NSW Law Society's Specialist Accreditation Board.
Life before Sparkes
Prior to rejoining Sparke Helmore in January 2016, Chantal was the Deputy General Counsel and Manager for the NSW Police Force's Commercial Law Unit from 2012 to 2016. In this role she provided commercial law advice to the NSW Police Force and worked with the General Counsel to provide strategic legal advice to the organisation on a range of high-profile issues including, most recently, the Martin Place siege.
Chantal previously worked in Sparke Helmore's Government Group from 2005 to 2012 and started her career as a Legal Officer on the Special Commission of Inquiry into the Waterfall Rail Accident.
Life outside of Sparkes
Chantal doesn't sit still for long and fills up her free time exercising and travelling to new places. She managed to combine these two passions in her recent trip to Norway, where she hiked the Besseggen Ridge, and India, where she studied Ashtanga yoga.
