Greetings, and welcome to my academic profile page.

I've been an academic and lawyer since 1994, except for a 20-month stint as Executive Associate to the Chief Justice of Australia, Chief Justice Gerard Brennan, from November 1996 to May 1998.

I am interested in access to justice, public law, and risk management in a variety of contexts.

I have a strong interest in human rights, and was shortlisted for an Australian Human Right Award in 2010. I have been actively involved in a number of communications from Australians to the United Nations Human Rights Committee. I am a member of the Advisory Council of Remedy Australia. Remedy Australia is a human rights organisation which believes Australia should comply with UN decisions on human rights complaints, both past and future.

I was Head of La Trobe Law School for just over five years, until mid-2019. During this period the School achieved an ERA of 4 ("above world class" in research) for the first time in its history.

Until the end of 2021, I am a Research Professor of Law and Public Policy. In 2022 I will resume my role as Chair of Law and Public Policy (a role I held from April 2014-June 2019).

My legal practice and research has been fairly diverse, spanning administrative law, constitutional law, human rights law, industrial law, media law and risk management in a number of different contexts. I have appeared as counsel in the High Court in a number of cases, and also in the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, the Northern Territory, Queensland and Victoria. I was recently appointed to the Queensland Parliament’s Human Rights Advisory Panel.

Recently I have:
• been working on a radio series about significant High Court decisions for ABC Radio National. The series will be broadcast in 2020. A link to the series is here:

https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/the-history-listen/section-71/12206738

• co-written a history of disability services in New South Wales with historian Matthew Richardson.
• joined the boards of the MJD Foundation, Sports Medicine Australia and the Community Broadcasting Foundation.
• completed a collaborative research project exploring the ethics of using social media to conduct research and recruit research participants (including a publication in PLOS-One).
• been working with the Australia Indonesia Disability Research and Advocacy Network on a number of projects, including a training program for young disability advocates.

I am also a member of the Australian Fitness Industry Standards Council and a member of the Board of Sports Medicine Australia. These appointments followed on from my work leading the Australian Fitness Industry Risk Management Project, an ARC Linkage Project (2011-2014).