Health, Aged Care, Disability and Retirement Living
Thomson Geer provides a full range of legal solutions to clients in the health, aged care, disability and retirement living sectors. 

Our services include compliance and regulatory advice, mergers and acquisitions, commercial and contract advisory, training and policy development, dispute resolution, as well as intellectual property, employment, financing, property development and construction.

Our people are regarded as within the top two or three expert teams in Australia, acting for over 25 clients in relation to navigating the Royal Commission into Aged Care, Quality and Safety and ongoing challenges from this and Australia's ageing population and community expectations.

Compliance and regulatory advice


Regulation in this area is changing more than in any other area in Australia. Our sometimes cost and resource constrained clients need recommendations on the available options as well as advice on systems to approach and maximise inhouse capability.

Thomson Geer advises on all aspects of the Aged Care Act and Principles. We advise on regulatory compliance issues including additional services, security of tenure, prudential compliance and overpayment of fees. We assist providers to respond to findings of non-compliance, notices to agree and sanctions, as well as helping clients return to compliance following adverse findings. We also provide policy advice when new laws are introduced or amended.

We also advise on retirement village laws unique to each state; the National Disability Insurance Scheme and how it interacts with aged care services; Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission regulation and compliance; and retirement living financial models, contract structures, off the plan sales and disclosure documentation.

Mergers and acquisitions


Our team has extensive experience assisting clients on the acquisition and sale of aged care and retirement living assets, including financing of those transactions. We work with clients from deal conception, through expression of interest, exclusivity, due diligence, deal structuring, contract negotiations and completion in asset or share sale structures.

Commercial and contract advisory


We work closely with our clients on day to day operational commercial contracts including procurement and services contracts. We provide management agreements for aged care providers to provide step in management services. We advise on corporate structuring as well as governance frameworks for providers.

Training and policy development


Our commitment to the health, aged care and retirement village sectors goes beyond legal advice. We also present popular and well-received online training programs covering: 

  • Substitute decision making
  • Incident management and the Serious Incident Response Scheme
  • Aged care reform
  • Privacy
  • Defensive documentation
  • Information management
  • Key personnel obligations including our Compliance Essentials Masterclass for aged care key personnel.

Dispute resolution


We have represented clients in a wide range of dispute matters. Our team have advised more than 25 private and not-for-profit aged care providers in the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. We also have significant experience reviewing regulatory and administrative decisions including appeals to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and the Federal Court of Australia. We regularly advise our clients in Coronial matters and advise on workplace health and safety issues and retirement village disputes. We offer specialist debt recovery services for our aged care clients and regularly advise on guardianship appointments and disputes in the various state Tribunals.

Health, medical research and privacy law


Thomson Geer advises clients in respect to a wide range of health law matters. We assist with accreditation matters for health providers and National Health Practitioner Regulation. We work with medical research organisations in relation to governance and clinical trials. Our team also works on privacy issues and Freedom of Information laws and all aspects of substitute decision making including guardianship appointments in the various State Tribunals.

Agreements (automated and bespoke)


Thomson Geer provides an automated online service for residential aged care providers that simplifies the process of creating resident agreements. We also prepare resident contracts, home care agreements, brokerage agreements, respite agreements, retirement living agreements and disclosure documents as well as service agreements for National Disability Insurance Scheme providers.

Retirement village conveyancing


We assist retirement village operators with all their conveyancing needs for residents moving into and out of retirement village units through Thomson Geer's TG Legal + Technology division. 

Our professional team deliver efficient, compliant and comprehensive management of ingoing and outgoing village contracts from initial issue of the contract through to surrender.

The team ensures that ingoing and outgoing contracts are administered sensitively in compliance with the Retirement Villages Act applicable in the relevant jurisdiction and relevant Regulations. 

What others say

First Tier, Health & Aged Care Law Firm, NSW, Queensland
Doyles Guide 2022, 2021
Law firm of the Year, Retirement Villages and Senior Living Law
Best Lawyers Peer Review 2021, 2019
Law Firm of the Year, Real Property Law
Best Lawyers Peer Review 2022
Band 5, Real Estate
Chambers Asia Pacific 2022, 2023
EXPERIENCE
Key people

Built around principle of quality and value.

Andrea Wookey

Partner
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Melbourne
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Arthur Koumoukelis

Partner
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Sydney
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Julie McStay

Partner
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Brisbane
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Lauren Townsend

Partner
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Melbourne
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Katrina Chambers

Partner
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Brisbane
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Lucinda Smith

Partner
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Sydney
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Marc Wyld

Partner
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Sydney
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Tom Boyce

Partner
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Sydney
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Madeline Walsh

Partner
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Brisbane
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Mark Branagan

Partner
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Melbourne
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Philip de Haan

Partner
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Sydney
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Mark Borrello

Managing Partner – Perth
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Perth
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Adam Brooks

Partner
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Melbourne
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Nikolas Miljkovic

Partner
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Sydney
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Joanna Ling

Special Counsel
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Sydney
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Martin Matthews

Special Counsel
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Perth
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Samantha Culshaw

Special Counsel
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Sydney
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Jim Baillie

Special Counsel
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Sydney
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Sandra Ivanovic

Special Counsel
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Sydney
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