Partner Michael Harrison

Michael is an energy and resources and project development lawyer. Michael has longstanding experience across the following industries: energy, mining (metals and minerals), agriculture and natural resources, oil and gas (upstream, midstream and downstream), ports (air and sea), rail (freight and passenger, heavy and light), roads, steel, waste and water (including potable and waste water projects, and desalination projects). Michael has acted on all aspects of the development of projects in these industries, and associated financing (debt and equity participation), and also acts on acquisitions and disposals. Michael has acted for governments, bidders and financiers in respect of privatisations of airport, electricity (generation, distribution and transmission, and retail), gas, rail (above and below), waste and water assets and businesses.

Over the last decade, on project development work, Michael has acted for project developers / sponsors for the most part. During the 2000s, Michael acted for private sector and public sector on a 50/50 basis, working on many government procurements using many forms of delivery methodologies (including on over 20 PPPs, across economic and social infrastructure). Michael has worked on projects and transactions across the region for over 20 years, including Republic of China, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Myanmar, India, Pakistan and Vietnam. Also Michael has worked in multiple African, Middle Eastern, European and American jurisdictions.

Michael is qualified in England and Wales, New South Wales, Western Australia, Victoria, and is a Solicitor of the High Court of Australia. Michael has been recognised for many years in leading legal directories as a leading practitioner in a number of areas (including, energy, mining, natural resources, oil and gas, projects and infrastructure, transport, and water), and was recently inducted into the Legal 500 Asia Pacific Legal Hall of Fame for Energy and Resources lawyers.

Michael has been named as Best Lawyer in six areas of specialisation for 13 consecutive years on Best Lawyers. Each year a single Best Lawyer is chosen, and for seven consecutive years Michael has been named as the Best Lawyer in one of those specialisations, Energy (twice), Mining (twice), Natural Resources (twice), and Oil and Gas (once).