Obituary - Peter Fox QC

Peter was born in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Melbourne University where he received the Sir Harrison Moore Exhibition in Constitutional Law and graduated with honours.

Peter was admitted to practise in 1975 and commenced a varied career. He was a partner at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Melbourne, Sydney and New York, an Associate at Sullivan & Cromwell (New York) and Senior Counsel at the World Bank (Washington). He maintained an international focus throughout his career, including consulting for the United Nations on projects in PNG and Indonesia.

Peter came to the Bar in 1996 and read with Will Houghton QC and Charles Scerri QC. He was also admitted to the Bar in New York State and PNG. He mentored three readers—Catherine Button, James Moss and Marian Clarkin Hardy. He took silk in 2014.

Peter served on the Bar Care Committee, the Law Reform Committee, the Readers’ Course Committee, the Library Committee and the Innovation and Technology Committee. He served on the Bar’s Health & Wellbeing Committee for seven years, including as Chair in 2013. He was also a member of the Bar’s Community Choir.

Peter was passionate about human rights and pro bono work—commitments that extended beyond the Bar. In 2016, Peter was appointed by the Law Council of Australia Board of Directors to its Standing Committee on Business and Human Rights. He also served on United Nations expert working groups on business and human rights in 2009-11 in the development of the ‘Ruggie Principles’ (UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights).

Peter’s teaching posts included lecturing at RMIT, at the University of Singapore in the 1970s while on secondment to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University Law Centre in 1994 and as a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School since 1997, where each year he led a highly-regarded course on Project Financing.

Peter is remembered as a brilliant lawyer, a good friend and a generous colleague with one of the most extensive libraries at the Bar.

The Bar extends its condolences to Peter’s family, especially to his daughters Amy and Sara (mother Anne Casey deceased) and to his wife Stephanie.