LLB, University of Sydney 1979
Admitted to practice in NSW (13 July 1979)

Graduate, Australian Institute of Company Directors, Directors Course 1992

Graduate, LEADR Mediators Course 1994

Accredited Commercial Litigation Specialist, 1996

Member, Law Society of NSW
Fellow, Australian Institute of Company Directors

1979 – 1981
Solicitor, Knudsen & Turk

1981 – 1988
Solicitor and Senior Associate at P. W. Turk & Associates, later TurksLegal

1988 – 2017
Partner and head of Commercial Disputes & Transactions Group, TurksLegal

2017 – 2019
Managing Partner, TurksLegal

2020 – 2021
Consultant, TurksLegal

2021 – Present
Director, Profit Through Management Pty Ltd

Commercial Litigation
Commercial Transactions
Insolvency

Legal work has predominately been in the area of commercial litigation with corporate clients spanning a number of sectors including banking and finance, insurance, manufacturing and construction.

Commercial transactional work has involved negotiation and drafting of complex agreements chiefly for clients in the insurance and manufacturing sectors and for insolvency practitioners.

In the area of insolvency, work has chiefly been for specialist accounting practices conducting corporate insolvencies (receiverships, liquidations, voluntary administrations and the administration of deeds of company arrangements) and personal insolvencies (trusteeships in bankruptcy and arrangements under bankruptcy legislation).

Pieter has been involved in a number of leading cases spanning many years and concerning a diverse range of issues. Examples of the breadth of Pieter’s practice include:

• Acting for the successful plaintiff in one of the first ever insolvent trading claims: Pioneer Concrete Pty Ltd v Ellston (1985) 10 ACLR 289
• Acting for the successful insurer in the case which established the law concerning challenges to premium calculations under the NSW WorkCover scheme: Employers Mutual Indemnity (Workers Compensation) Ltd v A Donald Pty Ltd [1997] NSWSC 501
• Representing WorkCover in several the precedent-making cases including: WorkCover Authority of New South Wales v Picton Truck & Trailer Pty Ltd [2004] NSWCA 371 (reinstatement of deregistered companies) and WorkCover v Tucker [2012] NSWDC 226 (claim against culpable directors of an uninsured corporate employer)
• Representing creditors and insolvency practitioners in numerous insolvency administrations covering a wide range of litigation and transactional work, including running in 2015 & 2016 a suite of unfair preference actions resulting from the collapse of the Retail Adventures
• Acting as lead lawyer in the negotiation and first ever sale of a jointly regulated health fund (and acting in related Federal Court proceedings to secure the establishment of the resulting scheme)
• Representing the successful Land Council in a case establishing a precedent for construction of legislation governing social housing tenancy agreements: Coffs Harbour and District Local Aboriginal Land Council Lynwood [2017] NSWCA 317.