Meet our Law team
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A group of leading scholars drive our agenda for cutting-edge legal critique, teaching and public debate.
Discipline Lead and Course Coordinator Academic Staff Adjunct Staff Practice Professorial Program Law Advisory Committee (LAC)
Discipline Lead and Course Coordinator
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Clinical Professor David Heilpern
Chair of Discipline (Law)
David Heilpern was a Magistrate and judicial trainer from 1998 to 2020. Prior to this appointment, David was a litigation lawyer on the North Coast where he co-founded the law school at SCU in 1992, David graduated with a Masters in Law from SCU and was the Alumni of the Decade in 2005. In August 2022 was appointed as a Dean and Chair of Discipline (Law) at SCU. David is passionate about legal education, seeking to ensure that students are stimulated, excited and fulfilled.
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Dr John Orr
Law degrees Course Coordinator, and Senior Lecturer
John has taught law subjects for over 20 years, including corporate law, equity and trusts and contract law. He is a nationally recognised scholar in higher education law and university governance. There is a strong nexus between Dr Orr's research and teaching. He is the Course Coordinator for the Faculty's law courses and the Chair of the Faculty Board. John is also a long-time National Director of the peak Education law body, the Australia and New Zealand Education Law Association.
Academic Staff
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Associate Professor Georgina Dimopoulos
Associate Professor
Georgina is an Australian lawyer and a socio-legal researcher with expertise in legal and policy evaluation, and doctrinal, qualitative and empirical research, across the areas of family law, children's rights, privacy and family violence. Her book, Decisional Privacy and the Rights of the Child (Routledge, 2022), presents a new model for enabling and listening to children’s voices in decision-making processes.
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Warwick Fisher
Lecturer
Warwick's teaching areas are business law, contract law and property law. Warwick has taught at SCU for over 30 years and was the recipient of the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence in 2021 and 2022.
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Dr Jonathan Harlen
Lecturer
Jonathan has for many years juggled two successful careers: the first as a solicitor/advocate, the second as a novelist. He has published more than 30 novels for adults, young adults and children, and his works have been published internationally in nine countries. He teaches Civil Litigation, Wills and Estates, Intellectual Property, and Legal Research and Writing.
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Yvette Holt
Lecturer, and 1st Year Co-ordinator
Yvette has been teaching law for 20 years, in human rights law, criminal law and procedure, international law, contract law and mooting. She is a criminal lawyer and has previously worked as a litigation solicitor, a legal research officer, and as an associate to a Federal Court judge. Yvette has volunteered at community legal centres, including the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, the Redfern Legal Centre, the Refugee Advice and Casework Service and the Disability Discrimination Legal Centre.
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Associate Professor Jennifer Nielsen
Associate Professor
Jennifer is an experienced legal academic with a sustained record of innovation and academic leadership in teaching, research and community engagement. As a socio-legal scholar, she engages law critically.
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Dr Rohan Price
Lecturer
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Dr Aidan Ricketts
Lecturer
Aidan is a legal academic, social change trainer, author and activist. He has over 20 years of teaching experience in Australia and overseas, and teaches Australian Legal System, Legal Process, and Drugs Crime and the Law.
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Dr Tom Round
Lecturer
Tom has lectured in law units at the University since 2004, and currently teaches Administrative Law, Constitutional law, and Local Government and Planning Law.
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Dr Brendan Walker-Munro
Senior Lecturer
Prior to joining SCU, Brendan was a Senior Research Fellow with UQ’s Law & the Future of War research group. He has published 30 articles in the UNSW Law Journal, Federal Law Review (both ‘top 4’), Adelaide Law Review, Cambridge Law Review, and in specialist journals such as Military Law and Law of War Review, Critical Criminology, and Torts Law Journal.
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Associate Professor Helen Walsh
Associate Dean (Education)
As a teaching scholar, Helen’s primary focus is on providing a smooth transition experience for first-year students and a supportive and positive learning environment that fosters respectful relationships and promotes intellectual engagement.
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Associate Professor Mark Wellard
Associate Professor
Mark is a leading insolvency, corporate and commercial law academic, having previously practised as a lawyer in Australia, the UK and as Legal Director of ARITA, Australia's peak professional association for insolvency practitioners. Mark is a member of The Law Council of Australia's Insolvency & Restructuring Committee. Mark's professional experience and engagement inform both his teaching and research. Mark is passionate about readying law students for the demands of legal practice.
Adjunct Staff
Adjunct appointees are individuals whose appointment to the academic staff will enhance the teaching and/or research profile of law at Southern Cross University as well as stimulate cooperation between the Faculty and other members of academic, business and professional communities.
Adjunct appointees enrich the Faculty's visibility, networks, research and teaching culture. These positions are reserved for individuals of outstanding achievement and distinction in their academic, professional and industry endeavours and who have been recognised by their peers as pre-eminent in their fields.
Judicial Adjunct Staff
Professor Geoffrey Dunlevy
Adjunct Professor
Geoffrey is a long standing member of the judiciary and a former president of the Law Society of NSW. He has a Masters of Laws with First Class Honours. Geoffrey is an experienced teacher of lawyers, judicial officers and law students in a number of law areas including criminal practice and procedure, criminal law, professional conduct, civil procedure, contracts and torts. His research interests include the economics of different approaches to criminal justice.
Professor Ian Freckelton, AO KC
Adjunct Professor
Ian is an experienced King's Counsel in full time practice as a barrister throughout Australia; a nationally accredited mediator; a former Judge of the Supreme Court in Nauru; a board and committee member; an investigator of allegations of misconduct; an Honorary Professor of Law, Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine; a fellow of learned academies; a journal editor, a speaker at international gatherings; an author, editor and book reviewer, and a scholarly traveller.
The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG
Adjunct Professor
The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG is one of Australia’s – and the world’s – leading advocates for human rights and social justice. Until his retirement, he was the longest serving member of the High Court of Australia. He is the recipient of the Australian Human Rights Medal, the UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education and the Gruber Justice Prize. Southern Cross University's Michael Kirby Lecture Series is held annually in his honour.
The Hon. Margaret McMurdo AC
Adjunct Professor
The Hon. Margaret McMurdo AC is the former President of the Queensland Court of Appeal – and the first woman in Australia to hold such a position. Made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 2007, she currently chairs the Legal Aid Board of Queensland and Southern Cross University’s Law Advisory Committee.
The Hon. Justice Brian Preston
Adjunct Professor
The Hon. Justice Brian Preston is Chief Judge of the NSW Land and Environment Court where he made Australian legal history by prohibiting a coalmine on grounds it would contribute to climate change. The subjects of his writings include: the law and the environment; sustainable development; biodiversity; climate change; heritage; environmental impact assessment; environmental crime; the courts and the environment; public interest litigation; and administrative law and environmental law.
Political and Academic Adjunct Staff
Professor Greta Bird
Adjunct Professor
Greta is a founding member of the Law Discipline at Southern Cross University and a well regarded critical legal feminist and race theorist. The Professor Greta Bird Lecture Series in Legal Theory and Critique is held regularly in her honour. Her research interests include multiculturalism and the law, Indigenous studies, law and society, feminist critique, and critical race theory.
Associate Professor Andy Gibson
Adjunct Associate Professor
Andy has considerable lecturing and practice experience in Business Law, International Business Law, Law of Torts, Sports Law, and Midwifery Law. According to the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association, sports lawyers in Australia view him as one of the leading sports law academics due to his research experience in the area of Sports Law.
Fabian Horton
Adjunct Lecturer
Fabian is recognised as a thought leader in law and technology. His professional standing includes roles as Chair of the Futures Committee of the Law Council of Australia, and Foundation Chair and member of the Technology and Innovation section of the Law Institute of Victoria. His research interests include Cyber Law, Privacy, and the Impact of Technology on Law and Society.
Dr Terry Hutchinson
Adjunct Professor
Terry is a researcher and expert in young people and the criminal justice system. Her research revolves around a sound use of the evidence base particularly in relation to children and youth justice, and she recently completed a funded Australian Institute of Criminology project (CRG 19/16-17: Examining Process: Court appearances via video link for young people in detention in Queensland). Terry has published extensively in the area of postgraduate legal research training.
Professor John Page
Adjunct Professor
John is a scholar of critical property law and theory. His research explores the diversity of property in the common law tradition, and how property intersects with public space, the materiality of place, and the propertied design of lived landscapes. His PhD focused on the concept of property diversity, and its implications for community, obligation, and sustainable urban design. John has had a long association with Southern Cross University including various leadership roles.
Associate Professor Mandy Shircore
Adjunct Associate Professor
Mandy was an Associate Professor at SCU from 2022 to 2024. She has held positions as the Director of Pro Bono Centre (UQ), academic and Head of Law (JCU) and has worked as a lawyer in the private and public sector, in the community legal sector as solicitor, as a clinical legal educator and a management committee member. Her research interests include torts law, health law and legal education.
The Hon. Tamara Smith MP
Adjunct Professor
The Hon. Tamara Smith MP is the NSW Greens MP for Ballina. She is the first woman to represent the electorate and the first Greens MP to hold a regional seat in any Australian parliament. An alumna of the Law Discipline at Southern Cross University, she sits on the Faculty’s Law Advisory Committee.
Professor Crystal Triggs
Adjunct Professor
Crystal is the principal author and Head of Project Strategy and Delivery of the Bugmy Bar Book. This is the principal resource for First Nations people in the legal system, endorsed and utilised by the judiciary in each state and territory. She was previously principal solicitor for the Aboriginal Legal Service for the North Coast of NSW.
Practice Professorial Program
The Practice Professorial Program in the Law Discipline at Southern Cross University fosters professional engagement and builds linkages between the Faculty and professional practice.
It does so by inviting accomplished and respected current or former legal practitioners to take up pro bono adjunct professorial roles and to work with the Faculty on relevant activities.
The program is a unique opportunity for the profession to influence the academic life of the Faculty, while also enabling staff and students to engage with leading local, national and international practitioners.
Law Advisory Committee (LAC)
Southern Cross University’s Law Advisory Committee (LAC) consists of prominent local, regional and national stakeholders who advise the Dean of Law and the Management Team on the strategic direction by providing advice on and assistance in core business, as well as by linking ‘town’ and ‘gown’.
To give just one example: in the early years, the Law Advisory Committee was fundamental in securing accreditation for the Bachelor of Laws from the NSW Legal Practitioners Admission Board.
Membership of the committee is by invitation of the Vice Chancellor and extends to stakeholders within the broader community who have an interest in the quality of programs offered, the kind of research undertaken and the calibre of graduates produced by the Faculty.
The first Chair of Southern Cross University’s Law Advisory Committee was The Honourable Andrew Rogers AO QC. A former Chief Judge of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Honourable Andrew Rogers was also the inaugural Chancellor of Southern Cross University.
The current Chair is The Honourable Margaret McMurdo AC QC, former president of the Queensland Court of Appeal, a position she held from 1998 - 2017. She was the second president and first woman appointed as a presiding judge of an appellate court in Australia. She is the current Chair of Legal Aid, Queensland.
Current membership
Chair:
The Honourable Margaret McMurdo AC, former President of the Queensland Court of Appeal
Members:
The Honourable Ms Tamara Smith MP, Member for Ballina
Ms Sophie Anderson, Barrister, Commercial Bank Chambers
Ms Julie Granger, Barrister, 7 Wentworth Selborne Chambers
Mr Ronny Susanto JP
Ms Johanna Byrne, Associate, Rae & Partners Lawyers
Adjunct Professor Greta Bird, Southern Cross University