Tom Jarvis

Tom Jarvis is a senior litigator with over 35 years’ experience acting in corporate and commercial litigation, regulatory disputes, Corporations, markets, financial services and consumer credit law, competition, antitrust and administrative law. Tom is a trusted adviser to Government. He has effectively managed large and complex litigation, appearances before royal commissions and public inquiries on behalf of a wide variety of Government bodies, agencies and departments including ASIC, the ACCC, the National Competition Council, AUSTRAC and the eSafety Commissioner.

Experience

Tom has acted in, and has successfully concluded, commercial and civil disputes for large corporations and major professional services firms, Government Departments, Agencies, GBE’s and statutory authorities, including matters that require a keen appreciation of political and cultural sensitivities and reputational risk.

Tom’s particular skill lies in the strategic management of protracted legal disputes - to pre-empt, resolve or litigate them. With more than 35 years’ experience, Tom is well placed to identify the legal issues and commercial drivers behind a dispute and where possible, to formulate a strategy for the resolution of that dispute which aligns with the objectives of his client. Tom has successfully negotiated favourable settlements in many instances well prior to trial, resulting in significantly reduced costs for his clients. He is an advocate for legal project management and the application of technology to streamline the delivery of litigation services.

Tom has extensive experience litigating before Australian courts on behalf of clients from a wide variety of industry groups, including the banking, construction, energy, financial services, FMCG, franchising, government, infrastructure, manufacturing, media, primary industry, professional services, resources, retail, technology and transport sectors.

'Tom Jarvis is technically very competent and what lifts his advice is his ability to put forward pragmatic solutions and to be comfortable with the "what's your gut feeling/we need a quick view" questions that are thrown at him.'

‘Tom Jarvis has great attention to detail and strategic thinking in civil litigation.’

APL 500 2025

Career highlights

Tom's recent experience includes:

• acting for ASIC in the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry and subsequently securing total penalties in excess of $40 million for ASIC in matters arising out of the Banking Royal Commission against Westpac subsidiaries BT Funds Management and Asgard Capital, Aware Super, CBA subsidiary Colonial First State, Youi and TAL
• acting for ASIC in significant continuous disclosure proceedings against the ANZ bank arising out its failed $2.5 billion 2015 capital raising (including on appeal by ANZ to the Full Court of the Federal Court) and against GetSwift Limited and three of its directors which resulted in the highest ever penalty for a company for contravening the continuous disclosure laws and the second highest penalty ever awarded against an individual for breaching the Corporations Act
• acting for ASIC in separate proceedings against Falcon Capital Limited (as responsible entity for the First Guardian Master Fund) and Mr David Anderson and Mr Simon Selimaj and United Global Capital Pty Ltd and Global Capital Property Fund Limited in which ASIC successfully obtained interim freezing orders to protect investor funds, and subsequently orders that receivers be appointed over the assets and that the companies be wound up on just and equitable grounds, respectively
• acting for ASIC in a continuous disclosure proceeding against Magnis Energy Technologies Limited and Mr Frank Poullas. The proceeding concerns a failure to disclose material information concerning the company’s self-described “flagship” lithium-ion battery manufacturing facility in New York
• acting for the ACCC at first instance, and on appeals to the Full Court and the High Court and at the penalty stage, in a systemic unconscionable conduct case arising out of an abuse of the federal government’s VET Fee-HELP vocational education scheme against Productivity Partners Pty Ltd and Mr Blake Wills in which the ACCC secured pecuniary penalties of over $30m and an order that Mr Wills be disqualified from managing corporations for a period of 3 years
• acting for AUSTRAC in a civil penalty proceeding brought against Mount Pritchard District and Community Club for alleged serious and systemic non-compliance with Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws
• acting for the eSafety Commissioner in a dispute with Telegram concerning its non-compliance with compulsory notices for the provision of information in connection with its compliance and enforcement activities
• acting for VicForests, a Victorian Government statutory authority, in a suite of interrelated proceedings commenced in the Supreme Court of Victoria by environmental groups seeking to obtain declaratory and injunctive relief to prevent timber-harvesting operations in Victorian State forests
• acting for Capgemini, an information technology consulting company, in relation to its contractual rights and obligations pursuant to agreements with counterparties including in particular in relation to agreed variations to, and the termination of, relevant master services agreements, user acceptance testing disputes and claims for liquidated and unliquidated damages
• acting for Viterra Malt Pty Ltd – application to the Supreme Court of Victoria to re-open the trial in a proceeding brought by Cargill following hard fought litigation in the Victorian Supreme Court over the sale of Joe White Malting, assisting with the orderly resolution of that proceeding at first instance including applications for confidentiality and costs orders and assisting with the formulation of grounds of appeal
• acting for the Founder and Executive Chairman of Thorney Investment Group – an investment fund with over $1.5bn in assets, in relation to a proceeding in the Supreme Court of Victoria against Ms Heloise Pratt and the Visy Group concerning the future control of the investment business. A settlement on all issues was achieved.