Matthew is the principal lawyer and director of Clarkson Legal. A lawyer with over 20 years’ experience in the practice of law particularly in the areas of property and commercial transactions, taxation, construction law, licensing law, and wills and estates law.
Matthew is a Novocastrian, having grown up in Newcastle and living the greater part of his life there. His working life has been the epitome of the career of the later generations being a number of “careers” spread over a broad range of pursuits and employers including being an employee of a number of local firms, a sole practitioner in an incorporated legal practice, a co-director of an incorporated legal practice and recently returning to sole practice.
Throughout his legal career Matthew’s focus has been the law as it affects property, whether that be the buying, selling or leasing of land, the succession to property through wills and intestacy and the attendant disputes that often arise in business or out of property transactions and property ownership. Each dealing in property gives rise to some form of tax consequence and this ultimately led to Matthew undertaking a post-graduate degree in taxation, the Masters of Taxation through the University of NSW. Matthew now uses the knowledge acquired over the course of his legal career and his studies to pursue his client’s interests in disputes with the ATO in addition to advising in relation tax generally and on matters concerning superannuation.
Matthew also has experience in the various facets of construction law. He has been involved at the front end with contract negotiation and at the other end, has acted for a number of builders and developers in building disputes including claims under the Security of Payments regime, and prosecuting and defending claims under the Home Building Act 1989.
Liquor licensing is also an area in which Matthew regularly practices including assisting clients in the making of new applications of various kinds, advising in regard to the licensing issues, acting on the sale, purchase and lease of hotels, licence transfers and gaming machine regulation, licensing and transfer and the requirements of the Anti-money laundering regime.
