General manager says ‘misunderstandings’ to blame for lengthy workplace dispute

The former general manager of a Sydney law firm says she commenced litigation due to a “series of misunderstandings” in the workplace.

Eight years after she made a claim for allegedly unpaid entitlements, former Atanaskovic Hartnell general manager Elizabeth Kelly has filed a notice of discontinuance with the High Court of Australia.

Kelly had been awarded $160,000 by the Federal Circuit and Family Court in March 2022, but this decision was overturned on appeal by the full court of the Federal Court of Australia last October.

In that appeal judgment, Justices Berna Collier, John Logan and Scott Goodman found Judge Rolf Driver had copied and pasted Kelly’s submissions to “such a significant degree” that he could not have brought an “active, independent and impartial mind” to the matter.

Although a retrial was ordered, Kelly’s latest move brought it to an end.

In a statement shared with Lawyers Weekly, HR Leader’s sister brand, the firm’s co-founder, John Atanaskovic, said Kelly has repaid over $425,000.

“Atanaskovic Hartnell and I are pleased that, following our successful appeal to the full court of the Federal Court and final court orders, our litigation with Kelly is at an end,” Atanaskovic said.

In a separate statement, Kelly said she had a “productive, widely educative and enjoyable working experience” with Atanaskovic Hartnell.

Kelly chalked up the events that led to the dispute as a “series of misunderstandings towards the end of my employment”.

“Also, in circumstances involving litigation, media sometimes use terms like bullying and, even worse … continually recycle them.

“I have not myself used them, and I have never spoken to the media about John or [Atanaskovic Hartnell]. I hold no grudge against John or the firm, and expect and genuinely wish them to have continued success,” Kelly said.

It was in one of Judge Driver’s early 2023 judgments that the word was included: “In former times, Atanaskovic would be described as a person who does not suffer fools gladly. In modern parlance, he would be described as a bully. That is the description which I prefer.”

The full court of the Federal Court was satisfied an inference could be drawn from Judge Driver’s judgment that he did not “make an independent decision on the whole of the evidence and the law”.

The firm submitted that much of its own submissions were ignored in favour of the “near verbatim copy” of Kelly’s submissions.

The Federal Court case is Atanaskovic Hartnell Corporate Services Pty Limited v Kelly [2024] FCAC 137 (31 October 2024).