Meet our Law team

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Dr Rohan Price

Lecturer

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.