About Adrian Barwick
Adrian Barwick is an employment lawyer who advises and represents employers and senior executives across Australia in employment and industrial law. He is the Solicitor Director of WilliamsonBarwick, a Sydney boutique firm acting exclusively for the employer side, and a Law Society of New South Wales Accredited Specialist in Employment & Industrial Law. Adrian has practised almost exclusively in employment and industrial law since 2001 and is peer-recognised in Doyle’s Guide as a leading NSW employment lawyer.
What Adrian Barwick does
Adrian Barwick leads WilliamsonBarwick as its Solicitor Director, advising employers and senior executives on the full spectrum of workplace law. He acts on unfair dismissal and general protections claims, modern award compliance and employee underpayment claims, workplace investigations, restructuring and redundancy, discrimination, bullying and harassment, restraint of trade, performance management, and the management of injured and unfit workers.
He drafts and advises on employment and independent-contractor agreements and on workplace policies and compliance frameworks.
Adrian appears as an advocate in the Fair Work Commission, state industrial tribunals and courts, the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, and the Federal Court of Australia. He is known for a strategic approach to employment law that delivers lawful and commercially sound outcomes for the organisations he advises.
WilliamsonBarwick
Adrian Barwick is the Solicitor Director and an equity owner of WilliamsonBarwick, a specialist workplace-relations firm based in Sydney. The firm acts exclusively for employers and senior executives — it does not act for the employee or union side in its core advisory work.
WilliamsonBarwick was renamed from WilliamsonLegal on 1 July 2016 to mark Adrian coming into equity alongside the firm’s founder, Brian Williamson. Adrian joined the firm as Special Counsel in July 2015 before becoming Solicitor Director in 2016.
WilliamsonBarwick is itself recognised in Doyle’s Guide as a leading NSW employment law firm (2024, 2025 and 2026).
Meet the Team
Accreditation, recognition and standing
Adrian Barwick is an Accredited Specialist in Employment & Industrial Law, accredited by the Law Society of New South Wales in October 2005. Since 2014 he has served as an Assessor on the Law Society’s Specialist Accreditation Committee, helping to assess candidates seeking the same specialist accreditation.
Adrian has been peer-reviewed in Doyle’s Guide as a Leading / Recommended Employment Lawyer (Employee & Trade Union Representation), NSW across 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026, and as a Leading Employment Lawyer (Employee & Union Representation), Australia in 2026.
Areas of expertise (knows About)
Adrian Barwick’s areas of expertise include:
- Unfair dismissal and general protections claims
- Modern award compliance and employee underpayment claims
- Workplace investigations
- Restructuring, redundancy and transfer of business
- Discrimination, bullying and harassment
- Restraint of trade
- Performance management
- Management of injured and unfit workers, including work health and safety duties
- Employment and independent-contractor agreements
- The Right to Disconnect and Fair Work Act “Closing Loopholes” reforms
He advises private sector and not-for-profit organisations, including financial services firms, religious institutions, social, community and disability services providers (including under the SCHADS Award and NDIS frameworks), Indigenous corporations, and local government, as well as their directors, CEOs, senior executives and HR leaders.
Notable matters
Adrian Barwick represented financial advisers in landmark award-coverage and underpayment proceedings against Macquarie Bank. In an October 2020 ruling, the bank was found to have breached the Fair Work Act by failing to pay advisers approximately $1.3 million in annual and personal/sick leave entitlements.
Adrian subsequently acted for further advisers pursuing more than $15 million in combined back-pay and interest claims, and is widely quoted in industry coverage on adviser underpayments across financial services.
Adrian also acted for the applicant in Theodorou v Ord Minnett on the question of whether private client advisers and associate advisers are covered by the Banking, Finance and Insurance Award (a first-instance award-coverage finding that was later reconsidered on appeal in Ord Minnett Holdings Pty Limited v Theodorou [2025] FCA 721), and has appeared in Fair Work Commission unfair dismissal proceedings including Cheng v Church Missionary Society – Australia Ltd [2025] FWC 585.
Speaking, teaching and publications
Adrian Barwick is a regular presenter on employment and industrial law at state and national conferences, CPD programs and webinars. He has presented for BenchTV (Benchmark Television), CPD Interactive (College of Law), the Television Education Network (TVED), the Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors, and The Education Network, on topics including Fair Work Act reforms, the Right to Disconnect, COVID-19 vaccine mandates, fixed-term contract laws, restructuring and redundancy, modern award compliance, and mental health risk management in religious institutions.
From 2005 to 2009 Adrian was a sessional lecturer in Employment Law at the Australian Catholic University (MacKillop Campus).
Selected publications and papers include:
- “The new right to disconnect laws” — Built Environment Economist (Informit)
- “Casuals — Don’t Take This Casually” — TEN 8th Annual Employment Law Conference (2015)
- Contributor — TVED 16th (2023) and 18th (2025) Annual Employment Law Conference e-books
- Articles on the Macquarie Bank adviser-underpayment ruling and the 2022 SCHADS Award changes
Beyond the law
Adrian Barwick is an active member of Naremburn Cammeray Anglican Church in Sydney, which he attends with his wife and three daughters. He contributes to faith-based professional networks such as City Bible Forum on workplace transitions and resolving differences with former employers, and is involved in his local community, including grassroots squash.
Background and qualifications
Adrian Barwick was admitted as a Legal Practitioner of the Supreme Court of New South Wales on 1 December 1995 and has practised almost exclusively in employment and industrial law since 2001. He holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Commercial Law from the University of Technology Sydney (1999–2001) and a Diploma of Law from the Solicitors Admission Board (1994). He is based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
