ABOUT
Our why
Most organisations facing a significant workplace moment have lawyers advising on process and obligation, accounting firms advising on structure and financials and HR advising on people. What they rarely have is someone whose sole focus is the conversation itself.
That gap is where Highett Partners works.
We are a specialist communications firm for organisations navigating consequential change — enterprise bargaining, workforce change or restructuring, leadership transition and reporting obligations. Not change management delivery. Not BAU internal or external communications broadly. Specifically the high-stakes moments where what leaders decide, what they say, how they say it, and when they say it determines whether the organisation comes through intact.
The cost of getting it wrong is real and familiar. Industrial action that outlasts any reasonable resolution. Talent that quietly leaves after an announcement that felt dishonest. A new leader who never quite recovers from a first impression that missed.
We work with boards, chief executives, general counsel, and HR leaders to build the communications architecture that sits alongside the legal and operational advice — so that what people hear matches what was intended.
We are a small firm. That is deliberate. The work we do requires judgment, not scale, and our clients engage us because they want the principals in the room.
THE TEAM
Scott Thompson
FOUNDING PARTNER
Scott has spent three decades advising Boards, CEOs, leaders and organisations through consequential moments — from large-scale enterprise negotiations, payroll disputes, workforce restructures to CEO succession and governance issues. He has led advocacy to Federal Parliament on behalf of ASX 200 businesses as a Director and Head of Strategy and Public Affairs for the Business Council of Australia. A former award-nominated journalist he has been a consultant adviser and strategist for over two decades, leading some of Australia’s most successful business campaigns for brands including Origin, BHP, Rio Tinto, Glencore, SkyBus and more. He founded Highett Partners on the conviction that communications strategy is most valuable when it is singular, focused, and held by someone with direct accountability for the outcome.
Leanne Edwards
PARTNER
Leanne brings deep experience in strategic communications, advocacy and change across complex organisational environments. Her work spans policy, workforce change, stakeholder engagement, and the communications dimensions of significant corporate events at organisations including Coles, the Business Council of Australia and the Committee for Melbourne. A qualified lawyer, she works alongside clients at the strategy level, with a focus on getting the language and timing right when the stakes are highest.