Amy Zhang

EXECUTIVE COUNSEL & TEAM LEADER

Amy completed her combined Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree at UNSW in 2013 with distinction.

Amy joined Harmers Workplace Lawyers in 2012 as a summer law clerk and has remained with Harmers since then in various legal roles. Prior to joining Harmers, Amy volunteered extensively for organisations such as Toongabbie Legal Centre, the Australian Human Rights Centre and the Students Legal Education Group. Amy was also Managing Student Editor of the Human Rights Defender Magazine, as well as the recipient of a number of awards and prizes during her time at university.

Amy works across all of the firm’s practice areas, and has experience in areas including complex litigation, restraint of trade, sexual harassment, discrimination, work health and safety prosecutions, fair work ombudsman investigations and prosecutions, performance management, terminations, redundancies, contract, policy and enterprise agreement review and drafting, modern award interpretation, unfair dismissal and adverse action.  She has successfully acted in a number of significant and complex test cases, including at High Court level, and is well-versed in running and defending complex litigation, as well as providing day-to-day advice to clients. Amy acts for corporate, government, not-for-profit, and individual clients.

Amy also sits on the board of L&E Global, a multi-award-winning global network of leading employment law firms focused on complex cross-border labour and employment law services (with 1700+ lawyers across six continents).

In 2016 and 2017, Amy won the Workplace Relations, Employment & Safety category of the Lawyers Weekly “30 under 30” Awards. Amy also won the Dispute Resolution category in 2016, the Workplace Health & Safety category in 2020 and 2021, and the Financial Services category in 2022. These awards recognise Australia’s 30 leading lawyers under 30 years of age across all legal practice areas.

In 2020, Amy was also named as a “Recommended Lawyer” in the Labour and Employment Law category of the Asia Pacific Legal 500, was recognised in the Australasian Lawyer Rising Stars list and was named Special Counsel of the Year in the Women in Law Awards.

In 2021, Amy was also named Special Counsel of the Year in the Australian Law Awards, and was a finalist for the Australian Law Awards “Excellence” Award (open to the highest scoring firm/individual winners across all categories).

In 2022 and 2023, Amy was named on the Australasian Lawyer Most Influential Lawyers List. Amy was also named by Acquisition International as the “Leading Workplace Lawyer of the Year – Sydney” in 2023.

In 2024, Amy was named on the Australasian Lawyer Rising Stars list, and was listed as a recommended lawyer in Australia by Who’s Who Legal in its global Labour, Employment & Benefits guide 2024.

Amy was also regularly shortlisted in each of the Australian Law Awards, Women in Law Awards and 30 under 30 awards from 2015, a finalist in multiple categories in the biennial NSW Women Lawyers Achievement Awards in 2015, 2017 & 2019, and a finalist in the 2017 Asia Law Dispute Resolution Awards.

Amy is a regular contributor and commentator on workplace law and law reform in industry publications and the media. She has also guest-lectured for the University of Sydney and University of Technology, Sydney on legal research over a number of years.