Step into the heart of Criminal Law in 2024. Gain a comprehensive view with exclusive insights from the bench, navigate evolving domestic violence laws, master child sexual assault case strategies, harness the power of evidence, and explore crucial trial tactics. Address complicity and attribution challenges, understand the nuances of assisting clients with Australian visas, and confront the latest in drug and alcohol law. Don't miss the ethical dilemmas surrounding NGMI verdicts. The only question that remains: will you seize this opportunity in person or online?

Presenters

Matthew Johnston, Barrister, Forbes Chambers
Matthew specialises in criminal law appearing for both defence and prosecution. Matthew has extensive experience in trials, bail applications and sentencing at all levels of the criminal justice system including the Local Court, Children’s Court, District Court and the Supreme Court. Matthew conducts complex trials including murder, ‘white collar’ fraud, drug importation, computer forensics, sexual assault and serious property offences. Matthew’s appellate practice includes advice and appearance in sentence and conviction appeals and interlocutory (5F) applications before the Court of Criminal Appeal. Matthew has experience before the Coroner’s Court (as Counsel Assisting and on behalf on interested parties), NSW Crime Commission, Australian Crime Commission, ICAC, Police Integrity Commission, the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal and the Land and Environment Court. Matthew has extensive experience acting on behalf of defendants under the Crimes (High Risk Offenders) Act before the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. In addition to his criminal practice Matthew has experience in disciplinary proceedings and professional misconduct matters.


Ms. Kim Hunter, Criminal Defence & Immigration Lawyer, Hunter Flood Lawyers
Ms Kim Hunter is a criminal defence and immigration lawyer as well as an Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law from Hunter Flood Lawyers in Sydney. Kim has a law degree, 3 first places in law exams (Criminal law, evidence & succession), second place in Constitutional Law and 2 Butterworths Law prizes. Kim Has always had her own private law practice and since becoming an Accredited Specialist in Immigration Law now only practices in criminal defence and immigration law. Kim has formerly lectured in post graduate law at Australian National University and regularly lectures for the Law Society of NSW, Legal Aid and various other professional bodies and organisations including the MIA. Kim has been invited to be on an expert panel for a research project funded by the Australian Research Council, to be undertaken by leading Professors from Charles Sturt, Flinders and Monash universities in Australia and Oxford University in the UK on the topic of ‘Crimmigration’ – the intersection of criminal and immigration laws in Australia.


His Honour Judge Warwick Hunt, The District Court of New South Wales
His Honour graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Laws in 1980 and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1982. His Honour is the first in his family to practise law, although his grandfather, a dairy farmer in northern NSW, was involved in the law as a JP. His Honour practiced as a solicitor for 13 years, including working, at the New South Wales Legal Aid Commission as both a duty solicitor as well the solicitor in charge of the Prisoners’ Legal Service. His Honour left Legal Aid and trained as a massage therapist. Later, between 1989 and 1995, his Honour practised as a sole practitioner and accredited criminal law specialist. In that year his Honour was appointed as a member of the Consumer Claims Tribunal, the Residential Tenancies Tribunal and the Residential Building Disputes Tribunal. In 2000 his Honour was appointed as a magistrate of the Local Court, serving for fve years in the most difcult Local Courts of Burwood, Liverpool, Wollongong and Campbelltown. Importantly, his Honour later came to serve as the children’s magistrate in Campbelltown and Illawarra where in that capacity his Honour was held in high regard by the profession. His Honour also served as a coroner, and was well known in that role for his ability to manage multi-party inquests and to manage interpersonal dynamics arising from such complex cases. His Honour was called to bar in 2007. His Honour read with now Justice Anthony Payne and Hament Dhanji, now of senior counsel. Mr Moses SC noted that when contacted in connection with his speech, Dhanji confessed that his Honour was really much more useful to him than he was to his Honour. His Honour took a room in Forbes Chambers and remained there for nine years until his most recent appointment to the court. His Honour practised principally in criminal law but also appeared in commissions of inquiry and coronial inquests, as well as a signifcant amount of work in child protection and adoption law. His Honour was one of three counsel assisting the Special Commission of Inquiry into Police Investigations of Child Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Diocese of Maitland and Newcastle. His Honour appeared in many trials, as well as appeals before the Court of Criminal Appeal. Mr Moses also noted that his Honour had contributed signifcantly to life at the bar through work on many committees, and most memorably, delivering his Honour’s speech, as Mr Junior, at the 2015 Bench and Bar Dinner while impersonating Dame Edna. Mr Moses noted that his Honour comes to the court with a deserved reputation as learned and highly respected advocate. His Honour stated that he was very honoured to be appointed as a judge of the court and particularly to be replacing retired Judge Brian Knox, who himself replaced the late great Judge Bob Bellear. a proud Noonuccal, Jarowair and Ni Vanuatu man, and the frst Aboriginal judge appointed in Australia. His Honour also noted another important lineage of which he was part, namely, practitioners called to serve in judicial ofce having learned the ropes of the criminal justice system on the ropes at the Legal Aid Commission, the Public Defender’s Ofce or in community legal centres, each of which is enormously relevant grounding for his Honour’s new role. His Honour will sit predominantly in the court’s criminal jurisdiction, which deals with the majority of serious criminal ofences in NSW. Judge Warwick Hunt was sworn in as a judge of the District Court of New South Wales on 8 August 2016. Arthur Moses SC spoke on behalf of the bar.


Ms. Kirsten Edwards, Barrister, Forbes Chambers
Kirsten is a barrister at Forbes Chambers practising predominantly in criminal law and coronial inquests. Kirsten’s appearances as junior counsel in the High Court include IMM, Hughes, Kadir & Grech, Dansie and, in relation to DNA evidence, Forbes and Aytugrul. Kirsten’s experience in complicity law includes working on submissions for the High Court cases of Miller v The Queen and Mitchell et al v The King and appearing in the Supreme Court (with Phillip Boulten SC) for Harriet Wran who was charged with murder on the basis of extended joint enterprise combined with constructive murder (ultimately pleading to lesser charges). Kirsten is an Adjunct Associate Professor at UNSW and has also lectured at UTS and Sydney Law Schools. Before coming to the Bar, she was an Associate to Justice Michael Kirby, completed a Masters in Law at Yale Law School as a Fulbright Scholar and spent three years as a duty solicitor at the Legal Aid Commission. In 2005 Kirsten spent 6 months working with the Innocence Project in the USA for prisoners on death row and serving sentences of life without parole.


Dr. Yega Muthu, Director and Principal Solicitor, YM Lawyers Pty Ltd
Drawing on his experience from both academia and professional practice, Dr Yega Muthu established YM Lawyers to provide a service to clients built on insight and excellence. From years of experience, Yega has specialised in mental health law, guardianship,criminal law, human rights, succession and personal injury. In view of his mental health practice, he views his role in protecting vulnerable people in the community from exploitation. Subsequently, recognising his aptitude Yega was granted the judicial position as the ‘Lawyer’ member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal from 2008-2012. Yega also obtained his PhD in law focusing on psychiatry from Macquarie University. Yega maintains his role as a solicitor in practice including teaching Mental Health Law at the Australian Catholic University, where he is an Adjunct Associate Professor.


Ms. Helen Christinson, Partner, Hugo Lawyers
Helen Christinson is a Partner at Hugo Law Group and practices exclusively in Criminal Law. Whether appearing in Coronial inquests, bail applications, sentence matters, defended hearings or other applications in the Children’s Court or Local Court, conviction and severity appeals in the District Court, or high-profile trial and sentence matters for State and Commonwealth offences, Helen is a detail-focused, empathetic, energised and tenacious advocate. She has a wide range of legal experience from Local Court traffic matters to complex murder trials in the Supreme Court. In 2023 and 2024 Helen was recognised by members of the profession as a Recommended Criminal Defence Lawyer in the Doyle’s Guide – Sydney.


Her Honor Judge T. Bright, District Judge, District Court of NSW
Her Honour completed a Bachelor of Economics/Laws (Honours) at the University of Sydney. Her Honour then spent 2 years working as a solicitor with Freehill Hollingdale & Page before joining the ODPP as a solicitor. In 2002 Her Honour was appointed a Crown Prosecutor and remained in that position for 14 years before being appointed to the District Court in 2017. Her Honour sits only in the criminal jurisdiction of the Court.


Mr. Self Rumbewas, Barrister, Black Chambers
Self Rumbewas has considerable advocacy experience having worked across different jurisdictions in Australia. Prior to being called to the Bar, Self worked in criminal defence as a trial advocate at the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) in the Northern Territory, and before that at the Aboriginal Legal Service in New South Wales for a numbers of years. He has appeared unled in jury trials, local court hearings and appeals. Self also has an established background in civil litigation and alternate dispute resolution. For a number of years, as a both a lawyer and law clerk, Self’s legal career was embedded in commissions of inquiry matters, notably, the Commonwealth Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse. He accepts briefs in a range of matters including criminal and civil matters, and is able to appear in regional locations.


Mr. Ian Lloyd KC, Barrister, Trust Chambers
Ian Lloyd KC was called to the NSW Bar in 1977. He took silk in 1989. He is also a member of the bar in Hong Kong, New York and England & Wales. Mr Lloyd is one of Sydney’s leading criminal law silks. Mr Lloyd was during the 1980s a Senior Crown Counsel with the Hong Kong Government and in the early 1990s the Senior Crown Prosecutor for NSW. Mr Lloyd is also a former Justice of the Court of Appeal of the Fiji Islands and Conjoint Associate Professor with the University of Newcastle Law School. He has previously lectured in law at the University of Technology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the University of Notre Dame, Sydney.


Gavin Henderson, Forensic Biology/DNA, Forensic & Analytical Science Service
Gavin graduated from Macquarie University in 1998 and holds a Bachelor of Science with Honours in Molecular Biology. In 2000 he was employed as a Forensic Biologist at what was then known as the Division of Analytical Laboratories (the organisation’s name was changed to Forensic & Analytical Science Service (FASS) in 2010). In 2002 Gavin became a Senior Forensic Biologist (Court Reporter), and spent the next decade giving evidence at many dozens of criminal trials around NSW, on cases ranging from break & enter through to sexual assault, murder and terrorism. In 2012 Gavin obtained his current position as Training Officer for Forensic Biology/DNA at FASS. His role involves the development, implementation, maintenance and coordination of training and professional development programs for the more than 80 scientific staff in the Forensic Biology/DNA unit. Beyond this, Gavin acts as a training consultant for other FASS departments, and more widely for NSW Health Pathology. He has also provided forensic program advice for universities including UTS, WSU and the University of Canberra. Gavin is the Chair of the ANZPAA/NIFS Training Project Working Group, a national body seeking to harmonise Forensic Biology/DNA training across all Australian and New Zealand jurisdictions. Gavin is an ongoing member of the Australian Institute of Training and Development (AITD), the Australia & New Zealand Forensic Science Society (ANZFSS) and the International Society for Forensic Genetics (ISFG).


Hayley Dean, Solicitor Advocate, Legal Aid
Hayley Dean is the current Solicitor Advocate at Legal Aid NSW Parramatta, undertaking trial, sentencing and committals work. Hayley is a member of the Coercive Control Training Committee of Legal Aid NSW. Hayley is currently working on a coercive control podcast and has written a paper about Coercive Control, as well as sharing her materials with the NSW DPP in their rollout of training. Hayley has been employed as Solicitor of Legal Aid since 2008 predominantly working on trials, CCA matters and Local Court. Hayley started her solicitor career nearly 19 years ago with Commonwealth DPP, and then the NSW DPP. Hayley gained Specialist Accreditation in Criminal Law in 2013.