Sylvia Fernandez | Partner | Sydney

Sylvia is an experienced commercial litigator, specialising in managing complex, multi-party commercial litigation.

Sylvia’s approach to practice is based on effective, strategic case management, coupled with a strong work ethic and exceptional client service.

Sylvia’s recent experience includes:

• representing the City of Sydney in relation to a range of contractual breaches relating to the sale of “Smartpole” poles. The City received judgment in its favour in October 2011 with the Supreme Court of New South Wales awarding the City over $12 million in damages and interest. Please see http://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/action/PJUDG?jgmtid=156662.
• representing BlueScope Steel in successfully defending Supreme Court of New South Wales proceedings brought by OneSteel in relation to a Sale and Purchase Deed for the supply of iron ore valued at in excess of $20 million. BlueScope Steel’s interpretation of a clause of the deed was accepted by the Court in October 2011 and BlueScope Steel was also awarded indemnity costs for a large portion of the proceedings due to strategic offers of compromise made during the course of the proceedings. Please see http://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/action/PJUDG?jgmtid=155865.
• representing Integral Energy (now Endeavour Energy), a state owned corporation in a claim over the installation of critical software systems on the advice of Electronic Data Systems, a US corporation, and others. The claim was for in excess of $100 million in damages and was conducted in the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The proceedings were one of the largest contested IT disputes in Australian legal history. The case was successfully settled in the context of a mediation.
• representing Deloitte in relation to a $70 million in damages claim for breach of warranty and trade practices claims arising from the sale of a share registry owned by Deloitte and two other groups of vendors. The case was successfully settled following the successful cross examination of the applicant’s key witnesses and prior to the completion of the hearing on the evidence.

Qualifications
Bachelor of Laws – University of New South Wales 1993
Bachelor of Arts – University of New South Wales 1993
Sylvia is on the board of directors of La Camara, the official Spanish-Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Sylvia has presented widely on topics relating to the enforcement of intellectual property rights and has presented the component on intellectual property law for Chartered Secretaries Australia’s Graduate Diploma in Applied Corporate Governance.
Sylvia is a long term member of the Litigation Law and Practice Committee of the Law Society of New South Wales and is the Law Society representative on a range of Court User group committees.