asf@bllawyers.com.au
08 8212 9777
0418 568 954

Ali Field / Principal

BA, LLB, GDLP

 

Ali has practised for 24 years specialising in environment, natural resources and development law. She has extensive experience in the public and private sectors in these areas of law, joining Botten Levinson in 2020 after almost 20 years at the Crown Solicitors Office.

Whilst in government Ali advised and represented State government Departments, Ministers, Chief Executives, Boards and agencies across the public sector, including the EPA (where she was in-house counsel for 3 years), the State Planning Commission, the Native Vegetation Council, the Coast Protection Board, the Director of Fisheries, and the Departments for Environment and Water, Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Energy and Mining, and Primary Industries and Resources.

Ali has extensive expertise in project approvals, licensing, land and environmental due diligence, and investigation, enforcement and compliance across all the firm’s practice areas. She has a strong focus on environment and natural resource law and particularly on the recent developments in these areas in response to climate change and the increasing importance of social licence in project development. She advises and assists businesses on all aspects of environmental regulation and impact assessment.

Ali has particular expertise in hydrogen and renewable energy generation projects and undertakes work with the State’s new Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act.

Areas of expertise:

  • Hydrogen and renewable energy generation (Hydrogen and Renewable Energy Act 2023);
  • Aboriginal cultural heritage (South Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act and Commonwealth Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984);
  • Mining and resource environmental impact approvals;
  • Industrial and project environmental impact regulation – pollution and site contamination (Environment Protection Act 1993);
  • Water law;
  • Federal environmental law (the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Nature Repair Act 2023, Climate Change Act 2022);
  • Native Vegetation Act;
  • Biodiversity and natural resource law;
  • Environmental criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions.

Ali is an active member of the South Australian Chamber of Minerals and Energy’s Legislation and Regulation and Exploration Committees, the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies’ South Australian Advisory Committee, and the Energy and Resources Law Association.

She is a past committee member of the South Australian division of the National Environmental Law Association, and of the Legal Practice Committee of the Australasian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators network (AELERT), and was the Chair of the National Government Environmental Lawyers Conference Committee (2007). Until her departure from government she was a member of the National Government Environmental Lawyers Network.