The Chief Justice of Western Australia, the Hon David K. Malcolm AC, today announced the appointment of two senior lawyers from the State Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions as Senior Counsel in Western Australia.
The appointments are Mr Bruno Fiannaca and Ms Troy Sweeney.
Applications for appointment closed on 31 August 2005. This year, 32 applications were received. 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 Chief Magistrate, the Solicitor General, the President of the Law Society of WA, the President of the WA Bar Association, a representative 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 2 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.
Mr Bruno Fiannaca
Mr Bruno Fiannaca was born in Western Australia in June 1961. He obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Western Australia in 1984. He was admitted to practice in Western Australia on 4 February 1985, having completed his articles with the State Crown Solicitors in 1984. He entered onto the roll of the High Court on 20 September 1985. He has been employed as a legal officer in the State Crown Solicitor’s office from 1985, progressing to the position of Consultant Crown Prosecutor (now Consultant State Prosecutor) on 1 January 2001.
Since 1992, he has specialised in the field of criminal law as a Crown Prosecutor. He has prosecuted regularly in the Supreme and District Courts and has appeared regularly for the State on appeals in the Court of Criminal Appeal (now the Court of Appeal). He has appeared on a special leave application in the High Court. He is a member of the International Association of Prosecutors and a member of the Executive of the Australian Association of Crown Prosecutors.
Ms Troy Sweeney
Ms Sweeney was born in Western Australia in December 1963. She obtained the degrees of Bachelor of Jurisprudence and Bachelor of Laws at the University of Western Australia in 1985. She was admitted to practice in Western Australia on 2 April 1987, having completed her articles with Robinson Cox working in the fields of commercial litigation, personal injuries and property. She commenced with the Crown Solicitor’s Office on 31 July 1989 as Counsel and has been responsible for the management and prosecution of criminal cases since that time. She is now a Senior State Prosecutor.
She has had continuous and extensive experience in prosecuting criminal trials in the Supreme and District Courts for some 15 years and has appeared frequently before the Court of Criminal Appeal, and now the Court of Appeal, arguing appeals against sentence and conviction.
She has been involved with the work undertaken by the Attorney General in relation to the area of criminal procedure in trials alleging sexual offences and last year was invited by the Attorney General to meet with the Attorney General of New South Wales to discuss the different approaches taken in this jurisdiction to the use of closed circuit television, pre-recordings and the experiences behind the proposed reforms. She recently met with members of a committee formed in South Australia to consider these same issues. Both meetings were an opportunity to promote the success of this State’s progress in the use of remote facilities for children and affected witnesses.
She has also been involved in several seminars and workshops dealing with Forensic Advocacy.
| Media Contact: | Val Buchanan Public Information Officer for the Courts Tel: 9421 5303 Pager: 9324 4319 |
