We are seeking a senior Disputes Advisory and Expert Witness practitioner to join our client in Sydney at Senior Director level. The ideal candidate will be a Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ) or CPA Australia or equivalent with at least 10 years of relevant experience, the most recent 3+ years at Director or equivalent senior-leadership level, and a track record of testifying or signed-off expert-witness reports admissible under Federal Court Practice Notes on expert evidence, NSW Supreme Court rules, and international arbitration. The successful candidate will lead the most complex multi-jurisdictional quantum, damages and valuation disputes, take signed-off testifying-expert positions in Federal Court, NSW Supreme Court, ACICA and ad hoc arbitration matters, carry a meaningful named-account pipeline across the Australian and Trans-Tasman disputes bar, and contribute to the practice's strategy as an emerging Partner-track operator.

Confidential Client. Applying to this position means that you are interested to have an initial confidential discussion about how we can help you to identify and join a new disputes advisory and expert-witness practice. With your authorisation we will exclusively run the entire application and recruitment process for you, keeping you apprised at every step. With over 30 years' combined experience of helping the most talented disputes practitioners to make safe exits to launch rewarding new careers, we have the experience, network and ability to help you.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead high-stakes quantum, damages and valuation disputes, typically running AUD 750k - 4m in fees, with full responsibility for engagement strategy, methodology, signed-off expert report and (where instructed) testimony.
• Take signed-off testifying-expert positions in the Federal Court of Australia, the NSW Supreme Court, the Federal Family Court, ACICA, AIAC and ad hoc UNCITRAL arbitration matters; lead concurrent-evidence (hot-tub) and joint-expert-statement procedures under Federal Court Practice Notes on expert evidence.
• Direct the most complex damages-quantification work: discounted cash flow on cross-border or developing-market subjects, market-multiples and precedent-transaction analysis at investigation depth, but-for and counterfactual modelling, Monte Carlo and regression where the matter requires probabilistic quantum, and complex lost-profits / business-interruption / wasted-expenditure analyses.
• Lead post-M&A purchase-price disputes, shareholder disputes, JV-deadlock valuations, IP-infringement royalty and lost-profits claims, construction quantum, mining-and-resources disputes, agribusiness disputes, competition-law follow-on damages, and class-action damages assessment under the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976.
• Engage external counsel, instructing solicitors and arbitration tribunals at the most senior level; deliver privilege-discipline, chain-of-evidence rigour and cross-examination preparation suitable for testifying-expert exposure under the Federal Court Code of Conduct for Expert Witnesses.
• Develop and own a sustained pipeline of named accounts at General Counsel, CFO and Head of Litigation level, and at relevant law firm partner level; originate or co-originate AUD 1.5m+ annually in qualified disputes opportunities.
• Convert reactive case work into multi-year retainer engagements covering disputes-readiness, valuation-policy review, accounting-disputes-prevention frameworks and standing expert-panel positions.
• Set methodology and tooling-strategy direction within the disputes sub-practice; directly supervise, mentor and advocate for Directors and Senior Managers - championing their advancement at promotion rounds, sponsoring sustained upskilling on emerging methodology and AI tooling, and shaping their external profile-building on testifying-expert development.

Required Qualifications and Skills:

• Chartered Accountant (CA ANZ) preferred, or CPA Australia, or equivalent professional accounting qualification (ACA / ICAEW, ACCA, CPA US, HKICPA, ISCA).
• At least 10 years of relevant experience in disputes advisory, forensic accounting, quantum analysis or expert-witness support, with the most recent 3+ years at Director or equivalent senior-leadership level.
• Demonstrable track record of leading bet-the-company quantum, damages and valuation matters with signed-off testifying-expert reports admissible in Australian-court or international-arbitration matters.
• Direct experience operating with General Counsel, CFOs, Heads of Litigation, instructing solicitors at partner level and arbitration tribunals.
• Working knowledge at supervisory-policy depth of the Australian disputes framework: Federal Court Practice Notes on expert evidence and the Federal Court Code of Conduct for Expert Witnesses, the NSW UCPR Code of Conduct for Expert Witnesses, ACICA arbitration rules and procedural conventions, the IBA Rules on the Taking of Evidence in International Arbitration, class-action procedure under the Federal Court of Australia Act 1976, and Family Court single-expert procedure where relevant.
• Authority on damages-quantification methodology at expert-report level: DCF, market multiples, precedent-transaction analysis, but-for and counterfactual modelling, Monte Carlo simulation, regression, lost-profits, business-interruption and wasted-expenditure techniques.
• Familiarity with industry-standard disputes-advisory tooling, including financial-data platforms (such as Bloomberg, Capital IQ or Refinitiv), valuation databases (such as Mergermarket or Pitchbook), modelling environments (such as Microsoft Excel with Power Query or Argus), simulation tools (such as @Risk or Crystal Ball), and visualisation tools (such as Power BI or Tableau).
• Demonstrable history of converting disputes engagement relationships into multi-year retainer or advisory work, or standing expert-panel positions.
• Established relationships with law firm partners in international arbitration, commercial litigation, class actions, construction, M&A litigation, shareholder disputes, competition-and-consumer-law and IP litigation practices who refer and instruct disputes advisory and expert-witness work; sustained named-account level engagement is the strongest evidence.
• High-agency operating style, calm and credible under tribunal and cross-examination pressure, with the methodological discipline to ensure expert-report findings are evidence-based, structured and defensible.

Preferred Experience:

• CFF (Certified in Financial Forensics, AICPA) or CFE (Certified Fraud Examiner, ACFE) where the disputes work crosses into financial-accounting forensics or fraud quantum.
• CA ANZ specialist designation in Forensic Accounting; ASA (American Society of Appraisers) or RICS valuation accreditation where the disputes work centres on real-asset or business-valuation issues.
• CIArb membership (FCIArb / MCIArb) and arbitrator-track standing.
• Postgraduate qualification: Master of Accounting, Master of Finance, MBA, or LLM with disputes / arbitration / valuation relevance.
• Cross-border disputes experience across Australia / NZ / PNG and the broader APAC region.
• Published authorship on damages, quantum or valuation themes; conference-level speaking on disputes advisory.
• Track record of admitted expert-witness testimony and concurrent-evidence (hot-tub) appearances under Federal Court or NSW Supreme Court rules, ACICA, AIAC, ICC or ad hoc UNCITRAL.
• Growth-mindset operating posture and visible engagement with the AI developments reshaping disputes advisory: candidates who track tooling shifts (such as AI-assisted comparable-transaction analysis, ML-aided market-evidence enrichment, or LLM-supported expert-report drafting under Federal Court Code of Conduct defensibility review), share that knowledge with the Director and Manager bench under their supervision, and have a track record of building team-upskilling programmes on emerging methodologies.

Compensation:

Competitive package commensurate with seniority and experience, including base, performance-based bonus, long-term incentives and (where applicable) partner-track equity participation.

Next Steps:

This opportunity is open to Australian citizens, permanent residents and qualified candidates with relevant Australian work-rights status who match the above criteria. Please apply to receive prompt contact from an experienced and specialist disputes advisory and expert-witness recruitment consultant.

Search & Counsel is a trading style of Feltan Associates Pte Ltd; an international Executive Search, Recruitment and Consulting business based in Singapore, licensed and regulated by the Singapore Ministry of Manpower to conduct recruitment services for clients. UEN: 202225620G. EA Licence 23S1672. All rights reserved.