Clare Lawrence

Clare specialises in Indigenous land law and land access. She works nationally, focusing on native title, Indigenous cultural heritage and the State and Territory based land rights schemes.

She acts for government, Traditional Owners, and private sector clients in the infrastructure, telecommunications, power and utilities, mining, and oil and gas industries. Her work takes her from remote sites to board rooms, as poor management of Indigenous heritage protection has emerged as a key business risk.

Clare continues to cement her status as a market leader in this space by contributing to the reform of key legislation in the field, and spearheading Ashurst's native title thought leadership and seminar programs, which includes our annual publication, Native Title Year in Review.

She has been ranked as a leading lawyer in Native Title by Chambers Asia-Pacific, since 2015, and was awarded 2023 Native Title Lawyer of the Year (Melbourne) by Best Lawyers. In the Ashurst Melbourne Office, Clare is a Reconciliation Champion working to deliver the outcomes from Ashurst's stretch Reconciliation Action Plan in the Victorian context.