Penny Thew

Called to the Bar in 2005, Penny is highly regarded for her expertise in all aspects of employment and discrimination law, contractual disputes and restraints of trade. With over 25 years’ experience in advocacy, advising and dispute resolution, Legal 500 and Doyle’s Guide rank Penny as a leading barrister in her areas of expertise.

Penny appears in all courts and is entered on the High Court of Australia Register of Practitioners. She is appointed as a sessional Senior Member of the Administrative Review Tribunal and a sessional Appeal Panel and Tribunal Member of the Actuaries Institute of Australia Disciplinary Scheme. Between 2017 and early 2026, she was appointed a sessional Tribunal Member of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Penny is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and is a Graduate Member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD).

Penny is an executive member of the Australian Labour Law Association and the Women Lawyers Association of NSW, as well as a member of the Bar Association’s Industrial, Employment, Health and Safety Committee and Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee.

Prior to being called to the Bar, Penny practised as a solicitor primarily in the area of employment law, before which she was a policy adviser with (what is now) the Australian Human Rights Commission. She has tutored in Civil Practice for the Law Faculty of the University of Technology, Sydney, performed an internship with the International Labour Organisation in Geneva, Switzerland and was retained as the employment law legal adviser to the NSW Bar Association. In 2015, Penny drafted the Bar Association’s inaugural Model Best Practice Guidelines on the prevention of bullying, harassment and discrimination.

Penny is regularly called upon to deliver seminars and papers on employment and discrimination law compliance issues, including for the NSW Bar Association and the Law Society of NSW, and has co-authored submissions for the Bar Association and the Law Council of Australia. In 2023, 2024 and again in 2025 Penny was awarded Commercial Barrister of the Year.

Penny holds a Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales, a Masters of Labour Law and Relations from the University of Sydney and a Diploma of International Commercial Arbitration from the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators convened at the University of Oxford, Worcester College. In 2008, Penny completed the Advanced Advocacy Course at the University of Oxford, Keble College.