Sarah Younis

SENIOR ASSOCIATE & TEAM LEADER

Sarah completed a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Honours) degree at the University of Technology, Sydney in 2009. During her university course, Sarah studied specialised subjects in employment and industrial law. Within her degree, Sarah completed a thesis on the consequences of Good Faith Bargaining under the Fair Work Act 2009.

Sarah joined Harmers in December 2008 as a summer clerk. She continued to work at Harmers as a paralegal until the completion of her studies, and was admitted as a solicitor in April 2010.

As a Senior Associate, Sarah works across all of the firm’s practice areas. She provides commercial, strategic and practical advice on a range of employment and industrial law issues, including:

• the drafting and implementation of employment contracts and workplace policies;
• unfair dismissal and general protections claims;
• sexual harassment and discrimination claims;
• negotiation and drafting of enterprise agreements (including compliance with good faith bargaining requirements);
• award and enterprise agreement interpretation (including appearing in arbitrations before the Fair Work Commission);
• restraints of trade (including acting in injunctive proceedings);
  performance and separation management;
• termination benefits to senior executives captured by section 200B of the Corporations Act 2001;
• transfer of business, restructures and redundancies; and
• work health and safety matters (including acting in prosecutions regarding workplace fatalities and conducting WHS compliance audits).

Sarah has acted for clients in industries including construction, infrastructure, manufacturing, traffic management, financial and business services, health and automotive. She has represented clients in various Courts and Tribunals, including the Fair Work Commission, the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the Supreme, District and Local Courts of NSW, the Federal Court of Australia and the Federal Circuit Court of Australia. She has also represented clients in Full Federal Court of Appeal matters.

Sarah assists with best practice compliance training in workplace law tailored to the unique requirements of her clients. She has conducted training sessions on a variety of industrial law matters, including appropriate workplace behaviour, use of social media in the workplace, employment risk management and conducting workplace investigations.