Peter Briggs
Peter heads the Australian Environment, Planning and Communities team.
Peter is one of Australia’s leading environment and planning lawyers with over 35 years of experience. Peter advises major corporate and government clients on complex environment and planning disputes, transaction, investigations and regulatory matters.
He assists clients in securing all planning, environmental and regulatory approvals for major energy and renewable projects, infrastructure and urban developments, as well as mining and waste projects. He provides strategic, integrated advice on land access, native title and approvals, and advises on planning law, pollution, heritage, native title, Indigenous heritage and biodiversity matters. His expertise also extends to environmental incident response, crisis management, regulatory investigations and the defence of environmental prosecutions.
Peter is one of the most experienced and well respected advisers in Australia in relation to remediation and development of contaminated land and related disputes. He has worked on some of Australia’s most complex and high‑profile contaminated sites.
He also conducts specialist litigation, including environment and planning, real estate, compulsory acquisition and valuation disputes.
Peter is a thought leader in the renewables sector and is actively involved in the Clean Energy Council and with the Clean Energy Investor Group on planning and policy issues affecting the industry.
Peter has been consistently recognised for many years as one of Australia’s leading environment and planning lawyers by Best Lawyers (2008 – 2027), Who’s Who Legal, Doyles and Chambers Global. Peter has also been endorsed by PLC Which Lawyer, Who’s Who Legal and Asia Pacific Legal 500.
He is ranked as a "Band 1" lawyer in Chambers Asia-Pacific for 16 years, as a lawyer who is highly regarded for his wide-ranging expertise, which embraces environmental impact assessments, land contamination matters and environment and planning-related dispute resolution, and who “brings a commercial focus and thinks outside the box."
Experience & capabilities
Selected matters
- AGL Energy on land access and approvals in relation to the Nyngan Solar Plant, the Broken Hill Solar Plant (both part of the Commonwealth Solar Flagships Program) and the Silverton Wind Farm
- Global mining client in relation to the process for obtaining key state approvals and successfully defending a Land and Environment Court challenge to a Part 3A project
- Global mining client in relation to a Hunter Valley mine, including advice on the process for obtaining key state approvals, compliance with conditions of environmental approvals, advice in relation to a dust and blasting incident, advising on an EPA investigation; and defending an EPA environmental prosecution
- Transport for NSW in relation to a full suite of strategic environment, planning, incident response (including training), native title, Aboriginal cultural heritage, land access and acquisition advice to Transport for NSW (and its predecessors) since 2003 on major rail projects
- Health Infrastructure: strategic advice to Health Infrastructure (a division of the Health Administration Corporation) on the planning and environmental issues associated with its proposed major hospital developments at Westmead, Maitland, Gosford, St George and Northern Beaches from 2014 to present
Background
Peter holds a Bachelor of Arts (University of Sydney) 1981, Diploma of Education (University of Sydney) 1985 and Bachelor of Laws (Hons) (University of Sydney) 1990. He is admitted to practise in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, the Australian Capital Territory, Western Australia and the High Court of Australia.
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