Profile

Ian Hughes
Partner

Ian is a Partner in our Dispute Resolution practice with a career spanning more than 40 years.

/ Experience

Ian’s extensive experience has seen him handle some of the country’s largest legal battles, including the multi-million dollar claims on behalf of major international organisations such as Peptech Limited v Abbot Pharmaceuticals; Charter Pacific v CSIRO and Reserve Bank of Australia; Mackay Refined Sugars v CSR Limited; acting for the liquidators following the collapse of Compass Airlines and Pyramid Building Society in Victoria; Agip Coal v Idemitsu Kosan over Ensham coal deposit, leading to largest civil damages award in Queensland ($30 million at that time); and Australia Red Cross in relation to the first High Court case concerning transfusion of HIV-positive blood). 

Ian has been a Council Member of the Queensland Law Society (QLS), a member of the QLS Insurance Professional Indemnity Claims Liaison Committee, an inaugural member of the QLS Ethics Committee and a member of the Ethics Committee of the Australian Red Cross Society (Queensland Division).

/ Exceptional outcomes
  • Acting in an arbitration of a disputed payment in a complex claim related to construction of a high rise complex in Port Moresby. 
  • Representing an employer in the manufacturing industry in seeking reviews of improvement notices issued by Work Health and Safety Inspectors alleging a failure to manage a risk of falls in the workplace. The matter involved making submissions to the Regulator, Office of Industrial Relations, who has to date made a preliminary decision to uphold the improvement notices.
  • Acting for a leading Queensland entrepreneur in a dispute over a deceased estate.
  • Acting in relation to a multi-million dollar claim by shareholders over allegedly unlawful conduct by directors of a power savings technology company.
  • Acting in relation to a multi-million dollar strategy to recover and assist with recovery of misappropriated trust funds.
  • Acting for the administrator of one of Australia’s largest deceased estates.
  • Acting in $60 million damages related to entitlement to unissued shares in $2 billion Saudi Arabian gold project.
  • Advice and preparation of $50 million claim over misrepresentations concerning purchase of a major poultry production company.
/ Recognition
  • Featured in The Best Lawyers in Australia 2024-2025 for Commercial Law