Rebecca Hoare

Partner
Norton Rose Fulbright Australia

Brisbane
Australia
T:+61 7 3414 2635
Brisbane
Australia
T:+61 7 3414 2635
Rebecca Hoare

Rebecca Hoare

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Biography

Rebecca Hoare is an environment and planning lawyer based in Brisbane.

Rebecca Hoare has nearly 20 years' legal experience and practises in environmental, planning, climate change, carbon farming and carbon pricing, native title, and Aboriginal cultural heritage law in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia. Rebecca's experience includes:

  • Acting for a range of federal and state government agencies and private clients in the transport, infrastructure, mining and resources sectors;
  • Advising on major project and environmental approvals and land access arrangements for major infrastructure and mining projects, including negotiating native title agreements and representation in specialist courts;
  • Providing ongoing advice on operational requirements of resources, energy construction and transport clients;
  • Advising clients across all sectors on sustainability initiatives, carbon pricing, carbon farming, and energy efficiency schemes and greenhouse gas reporting schemes; and
  • Providing 24/7 environmental and emergency incident response assistance, including regulator and other stakeholder management, internal investigations under privilege and representation in criminal prosecutions (which can involve custodial sentences) and civil enforcement action.

Rebecca has been recognised by peers in the Best Lawyers list for mining law, planning and environment law, climate change law and land use and zoning law, and is ranked in Chambers Asia Pacific Guide as a leading lawyer for environment (which includes climate change). 

In 2018, she was recognised by Best Lawyers as 'Lawyer of the Year' for Land Use and Zoning Law and was part of the national team recognised by Best Lawyers as 'Law Firm of the Year' for Environment and Planning in 2018 and 2019.

Rebecca also won the Euromoney Australasian Women in Business Law Award for environment and planning in 2014, and the UDIA Women in Development Excellence Award for environmental law in 2008.

Rebecca is a director of Jaramer Legal, a majority Indigenous owned law firm formed in a joint venture between Norton Rose Fulbright and Mailman Law.

Professional experience

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  • Bachelor of Laws (Honours), University of Queensland (1997)
  • Bachelor of Arts (Honours), University of Queensland (1996). Thesis in German on comparison between environmental management systems in Australia and Germany.
  • Supreme Court of Queensland 2003
  • Supreme Court of Victoria 2000

Planning and Development

  • Represented the developer of the Howard Smith Wharves Revitalisation Project in the Planning and Environment Court. 
  • Representing the developer of Brisbane Skytower, a residential development in Mary Street, Queensland, in three separate but related appeals. 
  • Representing the Department of Infrastructure, Local Government and Planning in several appeals, including a submitter appeal against the 'Grace on Coronation' development which is proposed for the former ABC site on Coronation Drive, Toowong.
  • Acting for RES Solar on a range of planning and environment matters.

Environmental Advice

  • Lakeland solar PV: Advising Conergy on environmental and planning aspects of the development of a PV solar generation facility in Cooktown, Queensland.
  • Undertaking due diligence inquiries for two separate clients regarding the Kidston Pumped Storage Hydro Project and the Kidston Solar Project, Queensland.
  • Advised Defence in relation to the issues arising from the use of Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) containing Perfluorinated Chemicals (PFCs) at the Oakey Army Aviation Centre, including advising on environmental notification requirements, environmental investigations, environmental risks and risk management, certain aspects of stakeholder consultation, (including review of correspondence to local landholders).
  • Advising Joy Global (an international mining products and services company), conducting a gap analysis of its environmental management system and providing a comprehensive sustainability review, outlining recommendations and priorities for its transition to sustainability.  Joy Global is using this sustainability roadmap as a touchstone in its global strategic planning to drive deep organizational change in this area.
  • Advising a range of construction clients such as Lend Lease Engineering, McConnell Dowell, Laing O'Rourke, John Holland, Bechtel and Thiess in relation to live construction projects such as Northern Pipeline Interconnector (Stage 2), the construction of coal seam gas pipelines for QGC and the Gold Coast Rapid Transit Project

Environmental Enforcement

  • Acting for two alleged executive officers of Linc Energy Limited in a prosecution by the Queensland Department of Heritage and Environmental Protection in relation to alleged serious environmental harm arising from underground coal gasification activities at Chinchilla. The prosecution of Linc Energy and five related individuals has been described as the biggest environmental prosecution in Queensland's history.
  • Leading lawyer for environment (which includes climate change), Chambers Asia Pacific Guide
  • Recognised as a best lawyer for mining law, planning and environment law, climate change law, and land use and zoning law, Best Lawyers
  • Lawyer of the Year for Land Use and Zoning Law, Best Lawyers 2018
  • Law Firm of the Year for Environment and Planning, Best Lawyers 2018-2019
  • UDIA Women in Development Excellence Award, Environmental Law 2008
  • Euromoney Australasian Women in Business Law Awards, Environment and Planning 2014
  • German
  • English
  • French

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