Hicks Oakley Chessell Williams is a well-respected law firm whose origins began in 1961 in Mount Waverley, an Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
Hicks Oakley Chessell Williams is an incorporated practice, initially formed as a partnership in 2000 by a merger between the firms of Hicks & Oakley and Chessell Williams.
The current Directors and Principal Lawyers are Matthew Hicks, Lachlan Vallance and Vincent Caruso. Sarah Lindsey and Natalie Talia are both Principal Lawyers. David Williams, John R Sharkie, Simone Wunderlich, Brooke Boothby, Neville Sampson, John Davies, Garry Philpott and Will Summons are Consultant Lawyers.
Our experienced solicitors at Hicks Oakley Chessell Williams provide high quality legal services to clients including corporate, small business and private. With extensive years of professional experience we provide specialist advice from experienced advisors. Lawyers in our Melbourne office and Mount Waverley office, in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, are able to assist you with a wide range of practice areas.
If you are involved in a small to medium business legal advice can be essential for your business's well-being. Our business lawyers are skilled and experienced in acting for corporate clients as well as for professionals, the self-employed and family businesses. We have national and international clients including local subsidiaries of international organisations and local companies exporting or licensing production internationally.
We work as a team with our clients' accountants/financial advisers. A team approach is also essential with "Start Up Companies". We can assist with the initial formation, technical research, strategic planning, funding, State and Federal Government involvement, joint ventures, international licensing and global production.
Our corporate clients sometimes seek different levels of service. We tailor our service to suit the complexity of the matter, the issues raised and the budget involved.
Our corporate team can assist with prompt and professional advice in the following areas:
Our office locations
Our commercial lawyers are conveniently located at both our Melbourne CBD and our Mount Waverley law offices, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
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The law relating to employment and industrial relations is complex and drawn from a wide variety of sources - Federal and state legislation, awards, collective agreements and common law make up the mosaic that is employment law. It is important that legal advice is obtained on specific employment contracts or workplace situations.
We can assist employers in the drafting of letters of engagement, through to the preparation of more formal employment contracts for executives. In addition, we can advise and draft, where required, policies and procedures documents in relation to matters such as occupational health and safety, harassment, discrimination and discipline.
Specific Areas of Employment & Workplace Relations HOCW Lawyers can assist you with:
Our commercial lawyers are located at both our Melbourne office and our Mount Waverley office, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
Our experience includes long term relationships with clients who have developed major international businesses from very small beginnings. Our role has included all commercial documentation, strategic advice, legal advice and a lead part in negotiations in addition to directing teams of advisers.
The preparation of a patent specification requires a Patent Attorney. We frequently work with Patent Attorneys on our client's behalf. In addition, we are equipped to handle corporate disputes relating to potential patents or patent infringement.
We offer expertise in the following areas:
Our intellectual property lawyers are located at our Mount Waverley office, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
Our family lawyers have the support of specialists, both within and outside our law firm, for expertise in accountancy, financial planning, real estate, litigation and dispute resolution.
We offer family law advice in the following areas:
Generally there are two kinds of approaches:
Our family lawyers encourage and support clients to try the second approach first. Our aim is to achieve the best result for our client in the most cost effective way.
However, there are some matters where it becomes necessary to litigate the matter in Court. This may be due to a matter of urgency to protect children or property and in those matters we work with experienced family law barristers to achieve the best result for our clients. Our family law specialists offer constant advice as to how the case is progressing so that a decision can be made early as to whether to proceed with court action or not.
Petra Thomson
Petra Thomson as Principal Family Lawyer, led the Hicks Oakley Chessell Williams family law team for three years up until December 2021. She has been practising in the area of family law in Melbourne since 1996 and is a highly skilled and well regarded practitioner.
Petra has made a tremendous contribution not only to the Family Law team, but to the greater HOCW team and we thank her for her wonderful input. We wish Petra all the best with the next chapter and look forward to keeping in touch.
Our office locations
Our family lawyers are conveniently located at both our Melbourne CBD and our Mount Waverley law offices, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
Providing high quality wills & estates legal services in Mount Waverley, Glen Waverley, Chadstone, Ashburton and surrounding Melbourne suburbs...
We provide excellent customised estate planning structures for individuals, couples and families. It may be a simple Will a more complex testamentary trust or include Powers of Attorney, an Advanced Care Directive and an Appointment of a Medical Treatment Decision Maker, i.e. documents that prescribe how you will be cared for if you are unable to make your own decisions.
Our wills & estates team can assist administrators and executors of estates in obtaining grants of representation, probate, or letters of administration. We can also advise on will disputes relating to the estate. If you have been appointed as an executor we can assist you in understanding what your rights and responsibilities are in carrying out your duties.
A grant of probate or letters of Administration must be obtained in order to claim a Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) from an aged care facility. Contact us for a 'deceased estate checklist' to get the process underway.
If you believe that you should have been included in a will but haven't or if insufficient provision has been made for you; you are an executor or beneficiary and are disputing the terms of the will; or you are an executor faced with a challenge by a beneficiary contact us for expert advice.
Like superannuation, death benefits payable under a life insurance policy do not form part of a deceased's estate. We can advise you how to make and update a binding death benefit nomination.
We provide legal advice on business succession planning in your retirement and in planning your estate.
Our office locations
Our wills, estates and probate lawyers are conveniently located at both our Melbourne CBD and our Mount Waverley law offices, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
Other reasons to engage a specialist property lawyer as your conveyancer may include more complex issues that arise such as: subdividing land; updating a title and registering, changing or removing an easement. Buying and selling real estate and buying and selling property - there are many things for you to consider and our conveyancers and property lawyers have the experience to help you with what could be one of the largest transactions you will ever enter into.
We will keep you informed of the costs, fees and charges associated with buying and selling property. We can answer your question about whether you should ask a conveyancer or a lawyer to assist you with your particular property purchase or property sale.
Our property lawyers and conveyancers provide services in the following areas:
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Hicks Oakley Chessell Williams is a member of Property Exchange Australia (PEXA),
Australia's online property exchange network.
Our office locations
Our property and conveyancing lawyers are conveniently located at both our Melbourne CBD and our Mount Waverley law offices, a South Eastern suburb of Melbourne.
