About

Chris’ practice covers administrative law, migration law, regulatory law, tribunal proceedings, and complex statutory interpretation cases. He appears in court and tribunal proceedings across Australia and the Asia Pacific region.

Chris is an interstate member of the Victorian Bar and is admitted as a barrister in the Supreme Court of Nauru. He successfully completed the England and Wales Bar Transfer Test, having worked in London at Hickman and Rose solicitors and the head office of international media law organisation Article 19.

Before being called to the NSW Bar in 2022, Chris worked as a lawyer at Victoria Legal Aid, the Federal Court of Australia, and oversaw Craddock Murray Neumann’s judicial review practice representing asylum seekers detained on Nauru.

Qualifications:

Bachelor of Laws (University of Technology, Sydney) – 2013

Bar Transfer Test for Qualified Lawyers intending to practise at the Bar of England and Wales – 2020

Called to the NSW Bar – 2022

Select cases:

Gehlert v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [2024] FCAFC 129

Ghimire v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] FCA 816

Korat v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] FCAFC 59

Warda v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] FCA 1252

BTA18 v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2023] FCA 1272

CRRN v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2023] FCA 1050

Publications:

The Weight of Expectations: Ismail v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs [2024] HCA 2 on AUSPUBLAW (8 April 2024)

Yes Minister, you must exercise your intervention power personally: Davis v Minister for Immigration, Citizenship in the Journal of the NSW Bar Association (winter 2023)

Justice deferred: Plaintiff M1/2021 v Minister for Home Affairs on AUSPUBLAW (30 May 2022)

The confused construction of ‘non-refoulement’ in the Ministerial Directions for visa cancellations on AUSPUBLAW (29 April 2020)

The Immigration Assessment Authority and the Erosion of Fairness in Australia’s Refugee Framework for the University of Oxford’s Border Criminologies blog (6 December 2019)