Sarah Bryden

Expertise

Sarah has over 15 years’ experience acting in large scale and complex commercial disputes.  Her particular interests are in disputes relating to defective building works. 

Sarah is also passionate about Holding Redlich’s pro bono practice and has recently acted in pro bono matters including on behalf of refugees from Nauru seeking entry to Australia as transitory persons under the Medevac legislation.

Sarah is an avid weekend warrior who spends her free time cycling and running the streets of Brisbane and elsewhere.

Sarah has also been appointed to the National Sports Tribunal Legal Assistance Panel. 

Experience

Sarah is an experienced litigator. Her considerable commercial experience includes appearing personally for clients in Tribunals, mediations and settlement conferences as well as instructing senior and junior counsel in complex litigation in both state and federal jurisdictions. She has recently been involved in one of Queensland’s longest Supreme Court trials.

Sarah has a depth of experience in managing large scale and complex commercial disputes and she has proven to clients her ability to quickly analyse matters, determine critical strategic issues and advise on how these issues may impact her client’s end goal.  

Some examples of the recent disputes that Sarah has been involved in include:

• acting for a major property developer in Federal Court proceedings in a claim for misleading and deceptive conduct
• acting for a client in a potential dispute before the National Sports Tribunal
• acting for a major Queensland mining company in unique proceedings in the Land Court of Queensland in compensation proceedings arising from special purpose legislation enacted by the Queensland Parliament
• acting for clients in defamation proceedings relating to defamatory tweets
• acting for a major property developer in Supreme Court proceedings involving conspiracy to injure and malicious prosecution claims 
• acting for a major head contractor defending a number of disputes in relation to the Enforced Land Force Stage 2B Facilities project (ELF) 
• acting in various disputes about contractual entitlements of subcontractors involved in the construction of the Queensland Cilento Children’s Hospital
• acting for plaintiffs in a major claim against a well-known property developer and builder. The claim involved approximately 190 individual plaintiffs who brought proceedings in the Supreme Court against the builder and developer of Festival Towers, a high rise mixed use building in Brisbane. The claim was for breach of contract, negligence and breach of the Trade Practices Act resulting from defective work in the construction of the building
• acting as an advocate for the Queensland Building and Construction Commission in QCAT in a review by an individual of a decision by the Commission not to direct a builder to rectify defective works.  Sarah was asked to act for the Commission at the last minute and she demonstrated her ability to quickly and decisively determine relevant issues and manage a complete hearing in a very short time frame.