The matters we accept.

01 / Indictable offences

Trials in the District and Supreme Courts.

We act in indictable matters from arraignment through to verdict. The work runs across both jurisdictions: District Court trials in New South Wales, Supreme Court trials in serious matters in both NSW and the ACT, and pre-trial argument including section 192A NSW Crim Pro Act and equivalent ACT applications.

Where senior or junior counsel is required, we brief carefully and we sit in every conference. The instructing solicitor does not disappear once the barrister is briefed.

Common briefs: armed robbery, aggravated assault, kidnapping, manslaughter, murder defence (briefed in led-junior position), serious driving offences causing death.

02 / Sexual offences

Recent and historical allegations.

Sexual offence trials are won and lost on detail. Brief contents are read line by line. Disclosure is pressed. Forensic, medical, and digital evidence is tested by a lawyer who knows what to look for.

The work calls for discretion. Many of our clients in this area are professionals, executives, or people whose work depends on a clean record. The file is run accordingly. Communications are restricted to a small circle. The matter is not discussed outside the office.

We act for the accused. We do not act for complainants in criminal proceedings.

03 / Serious drug offences

State and Commonwealth matters.

Supply, deemed supply, manufacture, large commercial quantity, and importation. Practical issues run through every drug brief: validity of warrants, lawfulness of stops, integrity of intercepts, custody and continuity of exhibits, identification, and the proper construction of admissions.

Where a Commonwealth prosecution is on foot we work with the unique features of CDPP practice, including the use of agreed statements, deferred sentence indications, and assistance discounts in section 21E of the Crimes Act 1914 (Cth).

04 / Fraud and white-collar

Allegations against professionals and directors.

Many fraud briefs are won, or made manageable, before charge. We act at the investigation stage where regulators have made contact: ASIC, the ATO, AUSTRAC, state police fraud squads, and Commonwealth agencies. Early advice on the right to silence, document production, and search warrants often shapes whether charges are laid at all.

Where charges are laid, the practice is to read the prosecution’s working papers as carefully as the brief itself. Disclosure obligations in fraud are wide. We use them.

05 / Family violence

AVOs, FVOs, and the criminal charges that follow.

Family violence proceedings are two cases at once. The protection order proceeding has a low standard of proof and moves fast. The criminal charges that often run alongside have a much higher standard, and the decisions made in the order proceeding can echo for years.

We act for accused persons in defended hearings and at the criminal listings. We are careful not to take instructions from anyone other than the accused. We are honest about what consenting to an order means for the criminal matter.

06 / Appeals

Conviction and sentence appeals.

Court of Criminal Appeal in New South Wales. Court of Appeal in the ACT. We give honest advice about prospects before fees are taken. We will not run an appeal that has no proper basis.

Appellate work calls for a different kind of preparation: error identified with precision, transcript read with the same care as the brief, authorities marshalled, and an oral argument that fits the bench’s appetite for it.