Robert Johnston Partner

Robert is one of Australia's leading commercial litigation lawyers specialising in large scale, complex disputes and class actions.

In the last 25 years, Robert has been involved in many of Australia’s most high profile commercial cases including directors' and officers' liability, auditor and other professional indemnity claims, trustee cases, regulatory proceedings, insolvency matters including the multi-billion dollar major infrastructure project “traffic forecasting” cases and more recently many of the significant shareholders' class actions.

In this time, Robert has dealt extensively with regulators including ASIC, APRA, the ACCC and the ASX represented clients and also has strong  Royal Commissions and other major enquiries experience.

Robert has been involved in class actions in Australia since the regime was introduced and is recognised as one of Australia’s leading lawyers in that field. He defended AMP in the first major shareholder class action, defended Permanent Trustee in ASIC’s first ever major class action and has been appointed by the Federal Court as an expert to assist the court in a ground-breaking appeal involving contingency fees.

Robert is also a recognised insurance expert advising on policy wordings and recoveries.

Robert is endorsed by his peers as a leading expert in the areas of dispute resolution, class actions, insurance and reinsurance and professional malpractice negligence including in Legal Who’s Who, Chambers and Partners, Legal 500 Asia Pacific, Euromoney’s Expert Guides, Doyle’s and Best Lawyers. He is regarded as “'strategic and approachable”, a lawyer who “really looks after his clients” with an “outstanding level of personal service”. Clients say Robert Johnston stands out for his mastery of the class action discipline with one interviewee describing him as "good in the class action space and right across it" while another identifies his presence as one of the key reasons for using the practice.