Supreme Court

11 December 2003 - APPOINTMENT OF SENIOR COUNSEL

Announcement by The Hon David K Malcolm AC
Chief Justice of Western Australia

The Chief Justice today announced the appointment of two Barristers as Senior Counsel in Western Australia -- Mr Stephen David Hall and Mr Graeme Harold Murphy.

Applications for appointment closed on 31 August 2003. This year, there were 34 applications which is a new record. Following the closure of the applications, the Chief Justice has undertaken an intensive period of consultation, including consultations with the Judges and Masters of the Supreme Court, the Judges of the Federal Court in Western Australia, the Chief Judge of the Family Court of WA, the Chief Judge of the District Court, the President of the Industrial Relations Commission, the Chief Stipendiary Magistrate, the Solicitor?General, the President of the Law Society of WA, the President of the WA Bar Association, the President of the Women Lawyers' Association and nominated representatives of existing Queen's Counsel and Senior Counsel.

The appointment of Senior Counsel is made only on the basis that, in the opinion of a substantial majority of those consulted by the Chief Justice, the candidate meets the published criteria for appointment in Practice Direction No 1 of 2001, namely, eminence in the practice of the law, especially in advocacy; unquestioned integrity; availability; and independence. They rank in order of precedence in accordance with the respective dates upon which they were first admitted to practice.

Stephen David Hall

Mr Hall was born in Western Australia on 23 May 1962 and educated at Lockridge Senior High School. He obtained his degrees of Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Western Australia in 1983 and 1984. He was admitted to practice in Western Australia in 1985 and in the Northern Territory in 2000. From 1985-1986 he was employed by Lohrmann, Tindal and Guthrie. In 1986 he joined the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in Perth. In 1988 he became a Senior Legal Officer in the General Prosecutions Branch, becoming Principal Legal Officer in 1990 and from 1991-1999, Senior Assistant Director in the Commercial Prosecutions Branch.

Mr Hall joined the Independent Bar in November 1999 as a member of Wickham Chambers, practising in criminal law both as prosecuting and defence counsel, administrative law, insolvency and company law, consumer protection, disciplinary boards and tribunals and coronial inquests. In 2001, he was counsel assisting the Royal Commission into the Finance Broking Industry (the Temby Royal Commission) and has been counsel assisting the Royal Commission Into Whether There has Been Corrupt or Criminal Conduct by Any Western Australia Police Officer (the Kennedy Royal Commission) in 2002 and 2003.

Graeme Harold Murphy

Mr Murphy was born in New South Wales. He obtained degrees as Bachelor of Economics in 1978 and Bachelor of Laws in 1980 from the University of Sydney. He was admitted to practice in New South Wales in 1980 and practised as a litigation solicitor at the firm now known as Phillips Fox and later Blake Dawson Waldron where he became a Senior Associate in 1984, principally in commercial litigation and medical defence cases.

In 1985 he joined the leading firm of Clifford Chance in London as a litigation solicitor until 1987, practising in the field of commercial litigation and arbitration. He returned to Sydney in 1987 and rejoined Blake Dawson Waldron where he became a partner in 1988 involved in trade practices litigation. In 1989 he moved to Western Australia as a commercial litigation partner with Blake Dawson Waldron and was involved as junior counsel in major litigation following the collapse of the Rothwells merchant bank and a number of other major cases.

In mid 1994, Mr Murphy commenced practice solely as a Barrister at Francis Burt Chambers. Since that time, he has been engaged as counsel in a series of major matters, including the special investigation pursuant to the Special Investigation (Coal) Contract Act 1994 (WA), the Bell Group litigation in the Federal Court and a significant number of other cases both as counsel and junior counsel on instructions from a wide range of solicitors.