Paul Cutrone

If the health and safety of your people are your responsibility – you need Paul in your corner.

Recognised for his ability to combine keen insight with practical advice about legal risk management, governance and due diligence, investigations and enforcement action, including prosecutions – he’s a specialist in the health and safety requirements in Australia, and globally.

From briefing your board on responsibilities to being alongside you when the unimaginable happens, Paul’s clients are confident he will be there when and wherever needed.

Firm/Organization: Seyfarth

Blogs: Workplace Law & Strategy

Latest Articles

Workplace Law & Strategy

We care about machines, but will they care about us?

By Paul Cutrone, Sam Witton & Sarah Goodhew

April 15, 2019

Our clients care deeply about innovation and technology. We know this from our engagement with clients including discussions triggered by reflecting on the findings of the CSIRO’s Workplace Safety Futures report. Our clients care about “machines” (including “robots”, artificial intelligence, biometrics and the harnessing of big data) being developed as a result of innovation and technology because of the unprecedented efficiencies and improvements in safety they unlock. These benefits come with a potentially profound human…

Workplace Law & Strategy

Safeguards, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

By Sam Witton, Jane Hall, Paul Cutrone & Sarah Goodhew

February 28, 2019

It is widely proclaimed that we are in the midst of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” (4IR). The leaps and bounds that are being made daily in information technology and biotechnology signal the end of homo sapiens or provide liberating freedom for the working masses, depending on which commentator’s view you believe. For us, the daily lived experience of the 4IR in working and home life is not yet as cataclysmic nor as emancipating as the…

Workplace Law & Strategy

5 years on – in human resources, industrial relations and workplace health and safety law

By Rachel Bernasconi, Paul Cutrone, Ben Dudley, Luke Edwards, Chris Gardner, Jane Hall, Darren Perry, Henry Skene & Michael Tamvakologos

December 12, 2018

On 12 December 2013 Seyfarth Shaw announced our Australian offices were officially open for business. Today marks five years since those doors opened. What better way to reflect than to ask ourselves, what have been the biggest changes in our specialist areas of law over those five years? “It has become increasingly difficult to make enterprise agreements that are compliant, genuinely enterprise-focused and fit for purpose due to increasing modern award complexity combined with the…

Workplace Law & Strategy

A Modern Slavery Act for Australia

By Michael Tamvakologos, Paul Cutrone, Rachel Bernasconi & Geoffrey Beinart-Smollan

December 18, 2017

The Australian Government’s inquiry into establishing a Modern Slavery Act reflects a growing domestic and international commitment to eliminate the exploitative practices of modern day slavery, and recommends new reporting and due diligence obligations for businesses operating in Australia. Hidden in plain sight Over 40 million people around the world are trapped in conditions of modern slavery, according to estimates from the Walk Free Foundation and International Labour Organization, including an estimated 4300 victims…

Workplace Law & Strategy

Knock, knock… who’s there and do I have to let you in?

By Paul Cutrone, Henry Skene, Erin Hawthorne, Sam Witton & Stephen Crilly

December 1, 2017

Does an employer have to let a union official in? Only if they have a permit! Right of entry disputes are common – partly because of the multiple laws that at a glance seem to overlap in a way that can be confusing. The latest chapter in this saga has recently played out in the High Court. The good news is there is now additional clarity that can be applied in practice when the union comes knocking. Why…

Workplace Law & Strategy

Industrial manslaughter – will the response to community outrage deliver results?

By Jane Hall, Paul Cutrone, Sam Witton & Nick Neil

November 3, 2017

The community was rightly outraged by the tragic loss of life in incidents at Dreamworld and Eagle Farm. The recent legislative response to those tragedies has attracted significant media attention, with laws recently rushed through Queensland parliament, introducing new offences into the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (Qld), the Electrical Safety Act 2002 (Qld) and the Recreational Water Activities Act 2011 (Qld), from 23 October 2017. Much of the focus in the…

Workplace Law & Strategy

A word of advice, on advice

By Paul Cutrone & Jane Hall

July 26, 2016

Are you getting the best advice when it comes to health and safety compliance? When we deliver legal briefings, both in Australia and internationally, top-of-mind for Boards and Senior Executives is the health, safety and welfare of people affected by their operations. This is how it should be – so everyone breathe a collective sigh of relief (insert sigh). When it comes to seeking commercially sound legal advice on these issues – whose advice should you be…

Workplace Law & Strategy

Are your HSE reporting processes a game of snakes and ladders?

By Jane Hall & Paul Cutrone

March 22, 2016

Getting access to a service provider can be like a game of snakes and ladders. A colleague in our office has been trying to update her new bank details with a service provider. Her attempts to provide that information and resolve the issue have been challenging to say the least. Interactions included numerous unsuccessful calls to their customer service line, navigating through complex main menu options, voice recognition failings, and the final assault, enduring the repetitive…

Workplace Law & Strategy

Confronting the confronting questions

By Paul Cutrone & Jane Hall

March 3, 2016

15 Australian workers have been killed so far in 2016, and based on statistics below, an additional 175 people may die in work related incidents this year. Whilst many organisations properly devote vast resources and time to managing health and safety, and have processes in place to respond in a time of crisis, many don’t have a plan for managing the people issues during a crisis.…

Workplace Law & Strategy

Director prosecution and conviction in New South Wales

By Paul Cutrone, Justine Turnbull, Sarah Goodhew & Thomas Sorrenson

January 11, 2016

The NSW work health and safety regulator has brought a successful prosecution against a company director resulting in a criminal conviction and fines against the director and the company. An order was also made requiring the director to pay the costs of the prosecution. It appears that this is the first such successful prosecution under the harmonised Federal safety legislation in NSW. However, the fines imposed in this case ($15,000 against the director and $150,000 against…

Paul Cutrone

We care about machines, but will they care about us?

Safeguards, in the Fourth Industrial Revolution

5 years on – in human resources, industrial relations and workplace health and safety law

A Modern Slavery Act for Australia

Knock, knock… who’s there and do I have to let you in?

Industrial manslaughter – will the response to community outrage deliver results?

A word of advice, on advice

Are your HSE reporting processes a game of snakes and ladders?

Confronting the confronting questions

Director prosecution and conviction in New South Wales

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