Norton Rose Fulbright to welcome employment and labour partner Melinda Bell in Melbourne

Global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright announced today that Melinda Bell will join as a partner in the Melbourne office.

Melinda has over 15 years’ experience providing strategic and practical advice on a range of employment and industrial relations law issues for clients in the public and private sectors. Her advice covers general employment law, commercial transactions, enterprise bargaining and industrial relations, underpayments issues and investigations.

Among Melinda’s clients are international and domestic organisations that are active in Australia. She has advised US and European companies conducting mergers and acquisitions in Australia, as well as transactions in the financial services, government, construction, real estate, retail and franchising sectors. She also regularly advises on unfair dismissal, general protections and industrial dispute matters at the Fair Work Commission. Melinda will join from Hall & Wilcox.

Norton Rose Fulbright chief executive partner in Australia Alison Deitz commented:

“The new Federal Government’s industrial relations agenda is sweeping and will have extensive impacts on clients. Reforms may pose substantial risk to some business models, and all businesses will have to navigate highly technical changes. Coming on top of challenges organisations face in managing their workforces in the COVID-19 environment, our clients will experience unprecedented levels of complexity in how they manage workplace related risks. Melinda has a long history of providing this advice to international and domestic clients, and will be a strong addition to our Melbourne and national employment and labour teams.”

Melinda Bell commented:

“A major reason I wanted to join global law firm Norton Rose Fulbright is the firm’s ability to provide seamless cross-border advice to multinational organisations across a range of industries. The firm is keenly focused on the multitude of risks organisations need to manage on a daily basis. Joining a strong national employment and labour team, as well as a global partnership of workplace and risk advisors, will bring substantial benefits to my practice and clients, both in Australia and overseas.”