Catherine Chiang

Catherine was called to the Bar in 2018 in Queensland, and has a dual practice at the Victorian Bar and the Queensland Bar with a focus on:

• commercial litigation;
• property development disputes;
• corporations, directors, and shareholders disputes;
• building and construction disputes;
• equity;
• insolvency;
• administrative law and government law; and
• commercial disputes involving Chinese Mandarin-speaking litigants.

Catherine has worked exclusively in the legal industry since 2008, and previously practised as a commercial litigation solicitor in national and boutique commercial firms. She has represented large-scale property developers, commercial landlords and tenants, building contractors, engineers, international mining companies, insolvency practitioners, financiers, state and local governments, Native Title bodies, and public and private companies in a wide range of disputes.

As a native Chinese Mandarin-speaker able to read and write both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Catherine has extensive experience in acting for Chinese Mandarin-speaking clients in dispute resolution, conducting trials and hearings with the use of interpreters, calling overseas lawyers as expert witnesses on the application of foreign law in cross-jurisdictional matters, and the enforcement of foreign judgments.

Immediately prior to joining the private Bar in early 2019, Catherine was an employed barrister in the Litigation and Administrative Law team at the Department of Housing and Public Works (Qld), where she advised the Department and the Minister on complex legal issues in administrative decision-making, construction procurement disputes, public housing tenancy disputes, high-profile government infrastructure disputes, common law claims, regulatory enforcement, as well as housing and construction industry legislative amendments (including significant reforms to residential tenancy laws and building industry security of payments legislation in Queensland). Catherine continues to be briefed by the Department and other government agencies, including by the Commissioner of State Revenue (Qld) and Crown Law.

With chambers in both Melbourne and Brisbane, Catherine travels regularly between the two cities, and is a member of both the Victorian Bar and the Bar Association of Queensland. She is regularly briefed to appear and advise in matters in both jurisdictions.

Catherine's junior mentor was Mr Peter Somers and her senior mentor was Mr Andrew Crowe KC.

Commercial

Catherine accepts instructions across all areas of commercial law. Her recent and current commercial briefs include:

• acting (led by Mr Marcus Clarke KC) for the plaintiffs in the Supreme Court of Victoria in respect of a dispute over funds and profit distribution entitlements arising from a number of property development projects in Melbourne;
• acting (led by Mr Marcus Clarke KC) for the respondents in respect of a claim for damages for building defects and the use of combustible cladding in a residential multi-unit construction;
• acting (led by Mr David de Jersey KC) for the respondents in the Queensland Court of Appeal in respect of an appeal brought by the plaintiff against the trial decision in Wang v Yang & Ors [2022] QDC 162 (in which Catherine also appeared led by Mr de Jersey KC) regarding a claim for misleading and deceptive conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, oral and written misrepresentations, and negligent misstatement;

• acting (led by Mr David de Jersey KC) for the defendants in a Supreme Court of Queensland claim brought by the liquidators of a company against a former director of the company and a former unsecured creditor of the company for voidable transactions;

• acting (led by Mr Pe

ter Somers) for the plaintiffs in a complex, multi-million dollar property development dispute matter in the Federal Court of Australia in relation to four large-scale multi-unit developments. The plaintiffs sought orders against another director and shareholder the corporate group and the development vehicle companies for the appointment of a receiver, the correction of company share registers, and winding up of the companies under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), as well as declarations of a constructive and/or resulting trust in respect of the plaintiffs’ interests in the developments;

• acting for the applicants in a Supreme Court of Queensland originating application arising out of a body corporate management rights dispute with joint investors. The applicants sought and successfully obtained relief under the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) to declare a member’s meeting void in which the respondents had purported to remove the client as a director of the company and transferred her shares to others, as well as urgent injunctive relief to restrain the respondents from wrongfully interfering with the company’s body corporate and leasing management business;

• acting for the builder in a Supreme Court of Queensland application brought by the principal, a commercial property developer, pursuant to s 127 of the Land Title Act 1994 (Qld) to remove the builder’s caveat lodged over the development site to secure a debt for unpaid invoices issued for the building works pursuant to the commercial building contract;

• acting for the trustee in bankruptcy in a Federal Court of Australia application seeking orders to sell the bankrupt’s residential property;

• acting for the defendants in a District Court of Queensland claim for breach of a share sale agreement, total failure of consideration, and unjust enrichment.

Administrative Law

Catherine accepts instructions across all areas of administrative law and government law. Her recent and current government briefs include:

• acting for the Commissioner of State Revenue in the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal (QCAT) in a number of QCAT applications for review of the Commissioner’s decisions in respect of the HomeBuilder Grant under the First Home Owner Grant and Other Home Owner Grants Act 2000 (Qld);
• acting for the Department of Communities, Housing and Digital Economy in the Queensland Court of Appeal as the respondent to an appeal brought by a former public housing tenant against a QCAT Appeal Tribunal decision to terminate their state tenancy agreement;
• acting for the Department of Housing and Public Works in a QCAT application brought by a former public housing tenant seeking to reinstate their state tenancy agreement, which had been terminated on the grounds of abandonment of the premises and the discovery of a clandestine drug laboratory at the premises.

Recent cases

A selection of Catherine's recent cases include: 

• APS Industrial Services Pty Ltd v Adcon Contracting Pty Ltd [2023] VCC 400 – successfully defended a $1.1M claim in the County Court of Victoria pursuant to the Building and Construction Industry Security of Payment Act 2002 (Vic).
• Wang v Yang & Ors [2022] QDC 162 (led by Mr David de Jersey KC) – successfully defended a District Court of Queensland claim brought by a shareholder and director of the defendant company for misleading and deceptive conduct and unconscionable conduct under the Australian Consumer Law, oral and written misrepresentations, and negligent misstatement.
• Schoensleben-Vogt & Anor v Commissioner of State Revenue [2023] QCAT 16 – acted for the Commissioner of State Revenue as the respondent to an application for review of the Commissioner's decision to refuse payment of the HomeBuilder Grant on the basis that the transaction was not an eligible transaction for the grant, because construction had commenced prior to the building contract being entered into. The Tribunal confirmed the Commissioner's decision.
• Jian & Hui [2023] FedCFamC1F 107 – acted for the respondent mother in a family law parenting matter trial in Division 1 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia.

• Yue v CN-AU Capital Pty Ltd & Anor [2021] QSC 248 (led by Mr Matthew Hickey OAM) – application in the Supreme Court of Queensland brought by the defendant mortgagee to remove the plaintiff mortgagor’s caveats lodged over his own properties which secured the mortgage. The plaintiff brought a cross-application seeking specific performance of a deed of settlement and a mandatory injunction to sell the main development site to discharge the mortgage on the grounds of a clog on the equity of redemption.

• Australia Abalone World Pty Ltd v Yin [2020] QDC 190 – application in the District Court of Queensland to strike out a claim for want of prosecution after 7 years and 9 months of delay by the plaintiff. Catherine later appeared in an application in the same proceeding in which her clients, the defendants, successfully joined a third party to the proceeding and obtained the Court’s leave to file a counterclaim against that third party twelve years after the events which gave rise to the counterclaim occurred (please contact Catherine for a copy of that judgment, and the subsequent judgment on costs in which her clients were also successful, which have not been published online).

• ATD19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs[2021] FCCA 565 (led by Mr Gavin Rebetzke) – application in the Federal Circuit Court of Australia for judicial review of a protection visa decision on the grounds of unreasonable failure to exercise the discretion conferred by s 473DC of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) to invite the applicants to give new information, and apprehended bias.
• ATD19 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs [2022] FCA 576 (led by Mr Gavin Rebetzke) – the appeal of the abovementioned matter to the Federal Court of Australia. Catherine was responsible for arguing the ‘apprehended bias’ ground for review at the first instance hearing and the appeal hearing.
• Collison v Metro North Hospital and Health Service [2020] QDC 311 – application in the District Court of Queensland in which Catherine’s clients successfully resisted a costs application brought by the defendant following the making of a consent order for leave to commence proceedings on an urgent basis under s 43 of the Personal Injuries Proceedings Act 2002 (Qld), and obtained a costs order in favour of her clients for costs thrown away.

Committees

• Catherine is the National Vice-President of the Asian Australian Lawyers Association (AALA), a national not-for-profit organisation which promotes cultural diversity and inclusion in the legal profession. She co-fou