Hannah Mills

Hannah Mills is a Director in Cowell Clarke’s Employment & Workplace Relations Team.

Hannah is a highly experienced employment lawyer who advises employers on all aspects of the employment lifecycle. Her expertise spans strategic employment and industrial relations advice, workplace disputes, organisational change projects and restructures, workplace compliance and remediation projects, investigations and post-employment restraints.

Before joining Cowell Clarke, Hannah co-founded and led specialist employment law firm The Workplace, where she was a trusted advisor to listed, multinational and leading Australian employers across all industries. Hannah brings a uniquely strategic and commercial approach to the law and workplace relations; having majored in Human Resources/Industrial Relations, worked in the M&A team of a global law firm and as a Senior Solicitor in a leading HR technology business and run a successful law firm for more than 10 years.

Hannah combines deep technical expertise with a dynamic, solutions-driven approach, building long-lasting partnerships with clients across all industries.  

Demonstrated Experience

• Board-level wage compliance and remediation: Led a major wage review project for an ASX-listed organisation and advised its Board on the associated remediation strategy and steps required to address identified compliance issues.

• Employment litigation: Acting for prominent ASX-listed and blue-chip organisations in complex employment proceedings before the Federal Court of Australia and Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, including matters attracting media attention and involving significant commercial and reputational risk.

• Post-acquisition organisational transformation: Advised a listed financial services group on the employment aspects of a significant post-acquisition integration and transformation, including workforce restructuring, organisational redesign, harmonisation of employment frameworks, consultation obligations and complex compliance and risk-management issues.

• Enterprise bargaining through major industry reform: Advised one of NSW's largest privately owned childcare providers through significant regulatory and industry change, including negotiation of its first enterprise agreement with two unions. The agreement received 97% support its 1000+ workforce and was approved by the Fair Work Commission within days.

• Strategic Board-level workplace advice: Advised a listed organisation on high-risk workplace complaints involving psychosocial safety issues and whistleblower considerations, provided strategic advice on complaints-handling frameworks subsequently adopted by its Board.