About Jessica
Jessica Ortner is a Senior Associate in the firm’s litigation & dispute resolution group.
Jessica has acted in a diverse range of matters including commercial contractual disputes, restructuring and insolvency disputes, intellectual property infringements, white collar crime investigations, regulatory investigations and enforcement proceedings, employment law disputes and judicial review proceedings. She has represented private and public ASX-listed companies and high-net-worth individuals.
Prior to her joining the firm, Jessica worked as a judge’s Tipstaff and Associate at the Supreme Court of New South Wales and as a lawyer at Allens Linklaters in the Intellectual Property and Disputes and Investigations teams. In her role at Allens, she was seconded to Westpac to work in the Regulatory Investigations team.
Jessica holds a Bachelor of Laws with Honours and Bachelor of Arts with Distinction from the University of New South Wales. She is admitted to practice as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court of Australia.
Practice focus
Jessica’s practice focuses on:
- commercial litigation & dispute resolution
- restructuring & insolvency
- white collar crime
- regulatory investigations
"Jess is consistently responsive, thorough and detail orientated while never losing sight of the bigger picture. These skills are critical in her ably assisting clients to navigate complex challenges."
Experience
Jessica has acted on a range of matters, including:
Restructuring & insolvency
- Administrators of the Arrium Group, in relation to:
- breach of duties proceedings (relating to a $1.5 billion claim) and public examination proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales
- judicial review proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia in Victoria
- Administrators of NetComm Wireless, in relation to:
- general administration issues including administrators’ liability, drafting and negotiating deeds of company arrangement and creditor and employment issues
- the successful acquisition of NetComm Wireless by a NASDAQ-listed US company
- Liquidators of GetSwift, in relation to successful remuneration proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Litigation & dispute resolution
- ASX-listed Phoslock Environmental Technologies Limited in relation to a shareholder class action brought in the Federal Court of Australia relating to breaches of continuous disclosure obligations over accounting irregularities and other alleged misconduct
- A material management business in relation to a successful stay of proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia and two successful concurrent appeals in the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia
- Chargrill Charlie’s in relation to Supreme Court of New South Wales proceedings arising out of a corporate restructure of the Chargrill Charlie’s business
- Various individuals in relation to employment law disputes, including complex breach of confidence proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales
- A document and information management business in relation to breach of warranty proceedings in the Supreme Court of New South Wales
- A real estate agency in relation to an agency franchise dispute
- Various individuals in respect of commercial contractual and ownership disputes
White collar crime
- A publicly-listed company in relation to AFP and ASIC investigations into cross-border foreign bribery and other corporate misconduct
Corporate regulatory investigations
- Various ASIC investigations and High Court of Australia proceedings against a leading Australian bank relating to breaches of the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), acting as both external and in-house lawyer (pre-ABL)
- Various individuals and companies in relation to freedom of information requests
Intellectual property
- Trademark and patent litigation in the Federal Court of Australia (pre-ABL)
- Managing IP portfolios for a range of public and private international and Australian companies (pre-ABL)
Public interest
- An individual in civil proceedings brought against the New South Wales Police Force for false imprisonment, assault, battery and malicious prosecution
- Various charitable clients in respect of estate issues
Directorships & memberships
Jessica is a Director of Shalom Australia and The Honig Foundation.
