John practises mainly in public law, including administrative and criminal matters. He maintains a broad practice, and has been briefed for example in royal commissions, inquests, extradition and migration proceedings, criminal trials and appeals and regulatory disputes.
Before coming to the Bar, John was Senior Associate to the Honourable Justice Maxwell AC, President of the Court of Appeal. He has also worked on the Royal Commission into Family Violence, in legal policy at the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet and as a commercial and public lawyer in Melbourne, London and Adelaide.
John has a masters in philosophy (BPhil) from the University of Oxford. He is a Lecturer at the University of Melbourne Law School, where he has taught Administrative Law, Disputes and Ethics and Philosophical Foundations of Law. He has been a member of the Policy Committee of Liberty Victoria and the Bar's Equality and Diversity Committee.
John read with Richard Knowles KC and his senior mentor was Christopher Winneke KC.
Listed below are some matters in which John has been briefed.
Public and administrative matters
- Royal Commission into the Casino Operator and Licence: instructed by the Commission
- Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants: instructed by the Commission
- 'Bourke Street Inquest' (Coronial inquest into the deaths of Matthew Poh Chuan Si, Thalia Hakin, Yosuke Kanno, Jess Mudie, Zachary Matthew Bryant and Bhavita Patel): acted for Mr Frank Caridi (with Dr Kristine Hanscombe KC, Kate Bowshell and Stella Gold)
- Acted for requested persons in extradition proceedings: see, e.g., Traljesic v Bosnia & Herzegovina [2017] HCATrans 23 (led by Lisa De Ferrari SC); Ghodskani v United States of America (VID 19/2019) (led by Claire Harris KC)
- Acted for 63 complainants in proceedings against the Commonwealth in the United Nations Human Rights Committee, concerning the separation of families seeking asylum in Australia (led by Kylie Evans SC).
- Regularly briefed by the Victorian Government and associated entities, including:
- Regularly briefed in appeals, judicial review and merits review proceedings under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), including applications for special leave and numerous unled appeals in the Full Federal Court.
Some recent successes include:
Some further cases include:
Criminal matters
- Appeared for the accused in DPP v Arslan (CR 16-01041), a trial for intentionally causing serious injury, ending in acquittal (led by Ruth Shann SC)
- Appeared for the appellant in Bouch v The Queen (2017) 270 A Crim R 478, an appeal before a bench of five in the Court of Appeal against conviction for culpable driving causing death and dangerous driving causing serious injury (led by Theo Kassimatis KC)
- Appeared for the appellant in Madafferi v The Queen [2017] VSCA 302, an appeal against conviction for federal drug trafficking offences (led by Christopher Dane QC and Marcus Dempsey, now his Honour Judge Dempsey of the County Court).