Health & Community

Our Health & Community team advises the health, aged care, retirement living, lifesciences (pharmaceuticals, medical devices and health and medical research), disability, education and community service sectors.

With significant advances in medical technology, coupled with a growing population and better life expectancy, the Australian health & community sector is strong, with growth expected to continue.

With this comes a raft of legal issues including: regulatory advice, incorporation, corporate and commercial advice (including mergers and acquisitions), real property and infrastructure advice (including acquisition and development of the right sites), financing arrangements and capital raising, drafting effective commercial agreements and taking the right approach to tax for your organisation.

In particular, people are at the centre of the health and community sector – whether they are the senior citizens, the disabled, the sick or the vulnerable, or the staff and carers who assist them. For management, it is vital that employment and industrial relations issues are dealt with in a way that recognises the nuances of the sector and balances the needs of all concerned.

Hall & Wilcox is a trusted advisor to health and aged care providers, medical practitioners, industry associations, health insurers, research organisations, clinics and hospitals, government and both for-profit and not-for-profit.

Areas of law in which we assist the sector include:

Corporate and commercial

Advising on mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate advisory and board advice, compliance with the Corporations Act and the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act and capital raising, commercial agreements (including procurement) and intellectual property

Regulatory

The Health & Community sector is highly regulated. We regularly advise on legislation which regulates the sector including aged care, retirement living, disability, hospital and health services legislation, the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law and Codes of Practice.

Our health law advice includes advising on consent, guardianship, advance care directives, human tissue legislation, health practitioner and therapeutic goods regulation etc.

Employment and workplace relations

Advising on employment contracts, awards, enterprise agreements, anti-discrimination and equal opportunity policies and issues, termination disputes, transfer of business issues, management of performance and misconduct issues, restructuring strategies and the implementation of workplace change, industrial relations litigation and immigration.

Property and projects

Advising on health, aged care, retirement living, disability and community housing infrastructure projects, including preparing documents for retirement village developments, sales, purchases, acquisitions and subdivisions and preparing and negotiating agreements.

Corporate and commercial

Mergers and acquisitions, corporate advisory and board advice, compliance with the Corporations Act and capital raising.

Banking and finance

Acting for lenders and borrowers in syndicated loan agreements and preparing operating and equipment lease finance transactions.

Tax

Advising on fringe benefits, payroll tax, PAYG and WorkCover issues, corporate restructures, mergers, acquisitions and disposals, indirect tax such as GST and planning and property taxes such as land tax.

Privacy

We draft and advise on privacy laws and privacy complaints and draft privacy policies and compliance documents and management and employee training programs.

Insurance and medical defence

We act for medical defence organisations, workers compensation insurers, act for health care providers and health professions Australia wide in a broad range of professional indemnity, public liability, product liability and disciplinary claims. We are a trusted advisor to our loyal client base. Our work extends from claims management to policy development and risk assessments.

Commercial litigation

Hall & Wilcox currently acts for over 16 approved Aged Care providers in relation to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

Other services

We can also advise on issues around intellectual property, technology, insurance, disputes and debt recovery.

Health law seminar series

Hall & Wilcox, the Australasian College of Health Service Management and the Australian Healthcare & Hospitals Association recently brought together experts from across the health and community sector for a seminar discussing the important issue of protecting the vulnerable in health, aged care, disability and community.

View our video seminar series.