SPEAKERS 

The Honourable Chief Justice James Allsop AO

From 1981 to 2001 Chief Justice Allsop practised at the Bar in New South Wales and elsewhere in Australia. He was appointed Senior Counsel in New South Wales in 1994 and Queen’s Counsel in Western Australia in 1998.

From 7 May 2001 to 1 June 2008 he served as a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia, undertaking the roles of trial and appellate judge on a full range of Federal Court work. From 2 June 2008 to 28 February 2013, Chief Justice Allsop was President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia as of 1 March 2013.

From 1981 to 2014 Chief Justice Allsop taught part-time at the University of Sydney as a tutor and lecturer in property, equity, bankruptcy, insolvency, corporate finance and maritime law. From 2015 to 2018 he taught maritime law part-time at the University of Queensland. From 2005-2009, he was a member of the board of World Maritime University in Malmö, Sweden. From 2008 to 2011 he was a member of the Board of the Australian Maritime College. On January 2010, he was elected as an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple. On 19 March 2013 he was elected a member of the American Law Institute. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. He is President of the Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History. From 2018 he was appointed Inaugural Patron of the Australian Insurance Law Association. From 2019, his Honour is Chair of the ACICA Judicial Liaison Committee, a member on Asian Business Law Institute (ABLI) Board of Governors representing the Australian Judiciary and a member of the Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association.

Craig Candy

Craig joined the Ministry in early 2015 as the Chief Digital Officer. As Chief Digital Officer he is responsible for developing, improving and maintaining technology across the Ministry of Justice, Courts and Judiciary. This includes the design, delivery, operational support of technology products and services.

The recent experience of the coronavirus pandemic provided the opportunity to respond at pace to transform traditional operations of the NZ justice system. Craig is responsible for leading the technology response to COVID-19 and has provided solutions, such as Microsoft Teams, facilitating a full end to end court procedure.

Craig acknowledges that for the justice sector to succeed we must enable a smarter justice experience. This means tapping into opportunities to innovate, digitise and create more secure environments to respond to digital customer expectations in an ever-changing global landscape. Change is our only constant and it is our responsibility to keep pace.

Craig has previously held management roles at the Department of Internal Affairs NZ, LINZ and Datacom.

Dr Matthew Collins AM QC

Dr Matthew Collins AM QC holds a PhD in law from Melbourne University and is the author of Collins on Defamation (Oxford University Press, 2014), a leading text on the law of defamation in England and Wales, and all three editions of The Law of Defamation and the Internet (Oxford University Press, 2001, 2005, 2010), the standard international text on the application of principles of defamation law to online publications.

Matt was the President of the Victorian Bar from 2017–19 and is currently a Vice-President of the Australian Bar Association. He is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, and a member of the Council of the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration.

In 2019, Matt was made a member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the law, to legal standards, and to education.

The Honourable Justice Mark Cooper

Justice Cooper is of Ngati Mahanga descent, a hapu of Waikato. Justice Mark Cooper studied law at the University of Auckland, graduating LLB (Hons), MJur (Dist) and winning the Fowlds prize in law in 1979. He commenced practice with the firm Butler White & Hanna, which later merged into Simpson Grierson, and was principal legal advisor for the Auckland City, North Shore City and Rodney District Councils, advising on a wide range of laws affecting local government, including resource management, rates and valuation.

Justice Cooper became a barrister sole in 1997, and was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 2000. He was appointed to the High Court bench in Auckland in 2004 and to the Court of Appeal in 2014.

Kate Davenport QC

Kate was admitted to the Bar in 1983. She became a Barrister sole in 1990. Kate is President of the New Zealand Bar Association October 2018 to October 2020. Kate is a member of the Rules Committee. Kate was admitted to the UK Bar by the Middle Temple in July 2015. Kate is a member of Outer Temple Chambers, 222 The Strand, London.

In 2019 Kate was appointed an Ordinary Bencher of the Middle Temple, where she is known as Master Davenport QC. Kate took Silk in 2013. Kate was awarded the New Zealand Lawyer Barrister of the Year Award in 2013.

Kate is a civil and commercial litigator with 30 years’ experience at the bar. She is also a qualified mediator. Kate also practices in the area of professional regulation. Kate writes extensively in the area of Trust Law and is a contributing editor to NZ LexisNexis Law of Trusts.

Jessica Der Matossian

Jessica Der Matossian is the Registrar of Digital Practice at the Federal Court of Australia.

Jessica is responsible for driving digital strategy and in-court technology for the Federal Court, including digital hearings, exploring artificial intelligence and its role in the justice system, and providing a framework for a ‘working digitally’ environment for the judges. She has been instrumental in establishing Online Hearings and providing enhanced digital support to the judiciary, the profession and Court staff in the continuity of the administration of justice during the COVID pandemic.

Tiana Epati

Tiana became President of the New Zealand Law Society in April 2019, the first person of Pasifika descent and the fourth woman to hold that office. Since 1897, the national lawyers’ organisation and regulator has had thirty Presidents.

Tiana is a partner at law firm Rishworth Wall & Mathieson in Gisborne where she lives with her family.

Admitted to the bar in 2000, Tiana has experience in criminal, regulatory and public law litigation. She is a criminal appeals specialist with an exceptional record at the appellate level. Tiana previously worked as a Crown prosecutor for over a decade.

Tiana was appointed a specialist Youth Advocate in criminal proceedings in 2015. She appeared as independent counsel to assist the Coroner in 2018 with several inquests conducted on the East Coast. In November 2019 Tiana became independent counsel to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in State Care and Faith-based Institutions.

Tiana was President of the Law Society’s Gisborne branch (2014-2016) and was elected Vice- President, Central North Island in April 2016. She has also served terms on the Society’s Criminal Law Reform Committee and Women’s Advisory Panel.

Tim Fawcett

Tim Fawcett is the head of government affairs for Cisco and part of Cisco’s ANZ senior leadership team. Tim is responsible for all Cisco’s government engagement activities including public policy advocacy and legislative response. Tim also leads development and implementation of Cisco’s $100m national engagement plan and is an executive sponsor for a major Cisco account.

Tim is a passionate advocate for inclusion and diversity which he believes is essential for a modern, sustainable business. Tim is a director of the Diversity Council Australia and Chair of its information technology committee. Tim was formerly a director of Launchvic, the Victorian Government’s lead entrepreneur and start up support agency, and was chair of its audit, risk and governance committee. Tim was formerly Deputy Chair of the advisory board for the University of Melbourne’s Networked Society Institute. Tim supports cancer research not-for-profit the Snowdome Foundation and is former Vice President of the Make a Difference Foundation. He holds a Master of Public Policy from the Australian National University and a Bachelor of Arts with Honours from La Trobe University.

His Honour Judge Warwick Hunt

Judge Warwick Hunt was first admitted as a legal practitioner in 1981 having graduated from the University of Sydney.

After initially working in civil litigation, his Honour practised criminal law at Legal Aid NSW (including as solicitor in charge of the Prisoners Service) and in his own practice.

In 1995 his Honour was appointed and served for some years as a member of the Consumer Claims, Residential Tenancies and Residential Building Disputes Tribunals.

In 2000 he was appointed as Magistrate of the Local and Children’s Courts of New South Wales, including service as the Children’s Magistrate at Campbelltown and Port Kembla.

His Honour was thereafter called to the bar in 2007 practising principally in criminal trial and appellate work and inquest and child protection law from Forbes Chambers, In 2013 and 2014, he was one of three counsel assisting the Special Commission of Inquiry into police investigations into child sexual abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland and Newcastle. His Honour contributed to the life of the Bar by sitting on Bar Council and various committee.

His Honour was sworn in as a Judge of the District Court in 2016. He sits principally in the criminal jurisdiction.

In the community, he is a non-executive director of WEAVE – YOUTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES.

Professor Ian Lambie

Prior to embarking on a degree in psychology, I worked as a comprehensive nurse in acute psychiatric and surgical nursing in Dunedin, Auckland and Sydney. Nursing taught me many practical and ‘coal face’ skills and provided a great foundation for my next career as a clinical psychologist.

I have an undergraduate degree in psychology from Otago University and trained in clinical psychology at the University of Auckland. Upon registration as a clinical psychologist, I worked intensively with adolescents with harmful sexual behaviours and children with conduct problems for over 10 years, prior to joining the clinical psychology programme at the University of Auckland as a staff member. Much of this work involved outdoor wilderness therapy and family therapy.

I have over 30 years’ experience working as a clinical psychologist specialising in children and adolescents – I suppose I thought it was where I could have the biggest impact on changing kids’ lives around and giving them a better future.

As both a clinical psychologist and academic, I have worked alongside a number of government departments including the New Zealand Fire Service, Police, Department of Corrections and Oranga Tamarki, as well as community groups, and my students have also helped these organisations with their projects, to ensure well-grounded, real-world research outputs.

I sit on a number of government committees and now work part-time at the university. In the other part of my job, I am Chief Science Advisor for the Justice Sector for the New Zealand Government (this role spans the Ministry of Justice, Police and Department of Corrections) and advise government on ways to improve the justice system for those whom it serves.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List 2020, I was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to Clinical Psychology and youth justice. I have a small private practice that focuses on working with young people as well providing clinical supervision.

Brett Lightfoot

As the National Director for Industry - Public Sector, Brett works with a wide range of government agencies, digital platform companies and start-ups in planning and implementing innovative technology solutions that improve the quality and efficiency of citizen digital services. Brett’s passion is improving the quality of healthcare, helping save our environment and protecting our citizens through data collaboration, business intelligence and artificial intelligence. Digital transformation brings the opportunity to completely transform how governments deliver services creating new citizen experiences and helping Australia be a world leading digital first country.

In March 2020, Brett joined StandByU as the Foundation’s Director. StandByU harness the power of technology to connect vulnerable individuals to people who know their story, understand their worries and care enough to protect them. In a world leading approach, the StandByU Foundation programs individual safety plans into next generation wearable devices, allowing at-risk individuals to discreetly trigger an alert to their chosen support network.

Prior to Microsoft Brett was the State Manager for Nortel Networks Australia QLD and prior to that the Professional Services Manager for Getronics Australia.

Tony McAvoy SC

Appointed Senior Counsel in 2015, Tony has developed a strong native title practice and has successfully appeared for claimants in several land claims.

He has also acquired significant experience in the areas of environmental law, administrative law, human rights and discrimination law, coronial inquests and criminal law.

Notably, between 2011 and 2013, Tony was an Acting Part-Time Commissioner of the NSW Land and Environment Court. Tony is also a member of the he Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA) Council.

Dr Brenda Mcgivern

Brenda was appointed as a full time member of the State Administrative Tribunal in January 2020. She is an accredited mediator and holds a PhD (Law), a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Commerce; her doctoral thesis examined the jurisdictional frameworks for court intervention in obstetric disputes.

Prior to joining the Tribunal, she worked as both a legal practitioner and academic, engaging principally in the areas of professional indemnity insurance, health law and civil liability. Having previously served on statutory bodies (including as Chair of the WA Reproductive Technology Council from 2016 to 2019), Brenda currently serves on the Council of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration (AIJA), and is Chair of the Clinical Ethics Service for the WA Child and Adolescent Health Service.

Brett McGrath

Brett began his career in private practice in 2012 at Marsdens Law Group in south-western Sydney, before joining the national firm Gadens in 2018, practicing exclusively in family law.

Elected to the Council of the Law Society of New South Wales in 2018, Brett sits on various committees including the Family Issues Committee, Diversity and Inclusion and is currently the Deputy-Chair of the Professional Conduct Committee. Brett is a sessional lecturer at Western Sydney University, coordinating the Family Law and subjects since 2018.

Brett has been a Registrar with the Family Court of Australia and Federal Circuit Court of Australia since 2019. Most recently, Brett was selected as one of two National Registrars to oversee and implement the new National COVID-19 List designed to triage and hear urgent family law matters arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as being involved in the development of the expansion of the Courts’ ADR functions.

Her Honour Magistrate Jelena Popovic

Jelena was appointed a Magistrate in 1989 and Deputy Chief Magistrate in 1997. Jelena is an advocate for culturally appropriate Indigenous Courts and of therapeutic jurisprudence in courts of summary jurisdiction. Jelena has been involved in the establishment and the maintaining of practical, court-based support programs, specialist courts and other court initiatives to provide appropriate therapeutic interventions to address factors bringing offenders to the attention of the criminal justice system.

Jelena is a Council member of the AIJA.

Jelena was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 2011 to study ‘meaningful’ sentencing of indigent, low level offenders. She was a co-recipient of the International Society for Therapeutic Jurisprudence Peggy Hora/Michael Jones Award for Distinguished Judicial Service, 2019.

Jelena retired from the Victorian magistracy in April 2020.

The Honourable Justice Janine Pritchard

Justice Pritchard commenced as the President of the State Administrative Tribunal on 4 June 2019.

Her Honour was appointed to the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 2010 and appointed as a judge of the Court of Appeal in 2018. Between June 2009 and June 2010, her Honour was a judge of the District Court of Western Australia and during that period she served as a Deputy President of the State Administrative Tribunal.

The Honourable Justice Steven Rares

Steven Rares was appointed a judge of the Federal Court of Australia in 2006. He is also an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and a judge of the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island.

He graduated in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney and, after two years working in a solicitors’ firm, he was called to the New South Wales Bar in 1980. He was appointed a Senior Counsel in 1993. In 2004 and 2005, he was a member of the Judicial Commission of New South Wales.

Justice Rares is currently a National co-convening judge and the New South Wales registry convening judge for the Admiralty and Maritime National Practice Area and a member of the Comité Maritime International’s International Working Group on Offshore Activities. Between October 2014 and October 2016, he was President of the Judicial Conference of Australia. He became President of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration in October 2019. He was also the Chairman of the Consultative Council of Australian Law Reporting from 2012 to 2019.

Craig Reilly

Craig Reilly is the Chief information Officer for the Federal Court of Australia. Craig joined the Federal Court of Australia in 2013 leading IT through a transformation program which included supporting the implementation of the national and internationally award winning electronic court file project. He modernised the Court’s technology infrastructures and architectures while implementing a more client centric IT support model. Since 1 July 2016 with the merge of the corporate service functions of the Commonwealth courts, he now delivers high-quality IT support and expert strategic advice to the Federal, Family and Federal Circuit Courts of Australia. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, Craig has led IT through a time significant and rapid change as the courts transitioned in a matter of weeks to an entirely virtual courtroom model to allow the important work of the courts to continue during the current period of social isolation.

Prior to joining the Court, Craig spent seven years as a partner in a boutique IT consulting firm, with a focus on business-IT alignment and improvement. His consulting industry experience includes media, financial services, utilities, and government. With over 25 years’ technology management experience, Craig has previously held a number of senior leadership positions in the ICT industry spanning sales and marketing, engineering, and program management.

Craig holds a BSc in Computer Science and BEng in Electrical Engineering from Sydney University and an MBA from Deakin University.

The Honourable Justice Angus Stewart

Justice Stewart is a graduate of the University of Natal (BA LLB cum laude) and the University of Oxford (BCL first class) where he was a Rhodes Scholar (Natal 1992). From 1996 to 2010, he practised at the Bar in South Africa, being appointed Senior Counsel there in 2006.

Justice Stewart practised at the Bar in Sydney from 2011 to February 2019, being appointed Senior Counsel for New South Wales in 2014. His practice at the Bar spanned public law and private law with particular specialisation in shipping and international trade, commercial disputes and international commercial arbitration. Justice Stewart was appointed a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) in 2014.

His Honour Judge Heemi Taumaunu

His Honour Judge Heemi Taumaunu was appointed Chief District Court Judge in September 2019, and leads a bench of 172 judges and 18 community magistrates.

Born in Gisborne, he is the first Māori to be appointed to the role and is a fluent te reo Māori speaker. His tribal affiliations are Ngāti Pōrou and its sub-tribe Ngāti Konohi, and Ngāi Tahu.

He was appointed a District Court Judge in 2004 after a decade practising law mainly in Gisborne and a previous career in the New Zealand Army. He studied law at Victoria University, where he was awarded the Quentin Baxter Memorial Scholarship and the Ngā Rangatahi Toa Scholarship. He was the first person from Ngāti Konohi to gain a law degree and to practise as a barrister and solicitor.

As a barrister, he became experienced in in jury trials, as a Youth Advocate and as a lawyer for child and counsel to assist in the Family Court.

Through various leadership roles in the District Court Judge Taumaunu has encouraged a wider appreciation for the value of culturally responsive justice. He led development of Ngā Kōti Rangatahi o Aotearoa, the Rangatahi Courts, and his leadership was recognised internationally in 2017 when he received the Veillard-Cybulski Award.

Judge Taumaunu has also served as a Judge of the Court Martial of New Zealand since 2012, including as Deputy Judge Advocate General and Deputy Chief Judge of the Court Martial of New Zealand.

Richard Wilson SC

Richard worked as a solicitor from 1993 to 2004, in private practice in Canberra, for the Western Aboriginal Legal Service in Walgett and as Deputy Principal Solicitor of the Sydney Regional Corporation Aboriginal Legal Service.

In 2004 he was called to the bar. At 7th Floor Garfield Barwick Chambers he practised in crime – mainly as defence counsel but not infrequently prosecuting for the Commonwealth.

In January 2012 Richard was appointed a Public Defender and in May 2018 was appointed Deputy Senior Public Defender. He took silk in 2019 and his current practice is focussed on murder trials and appellate cases.

[Richard has a keen interest in law reform, has served for many years on the Criminal Law Committee of the Bar Association and is presently Co-Chair of the National Criminal Law Committee of the Law Council of Australia. He is also Co-Chair of the Bugmy Bar Book Committee]

The Right Honourable Dame Helen Winkelmann

The Rt Hon Helen Winkelmann (GNZM) was sworn in as New Zealand’s 13th Chief Justice on 14 March 2019. She is the second Chief Justice since introduction of the Supreme Court Act 2004 which ended appeals to the Privy Council.

A graduate from Auckland University, Justice Winkelmann began work as a law clerk with Auckland firm Nicholson Gribbin (later Phillips Fox, now DLA Piper). She was admitted to the bar in 1985. In 1988, she became the first female partner and one of the youngest ever in the firm’s then 117-year history. Justice Winkelmann remained at the firm until 2001 when she began practice as a barrister sole specialising in insolvency, commercial litigation, and medical disciplinary litigation. In 2004 she was appointed as a High Court Judge; followed by Chief High Court Judge in 2010 and was appointed to the Court of Appeal in 2015.

She is the New Zealand representative on the Board of the Australasian Institute of Judicial Administration and from November 2012 – November 2019 was Chair of the Institute of Judicial Studies – the body responsible for providing continued education to judges. As Chief Justice she retains a keen interest in judicial education.