Archive

Kim came to the bar with 20 years experience in insurance and personal injuries litigation, focussing in more recent years on asbestos litigation and Commonwealth workers compensation.  Since coming to the bar, Kim has practised extensively in State workers compensation claims, including statutory benefits claims, serious injury applications and damages trials.  She also has extensive experience in the areas of public liability, reinsurance, Medical Panel reviews, s138 recovery claims, claims for wrongful death and personal injury damages claims.  Kim also has an interest in professional negligence and administrative law, including statutory and disciplinary tribunals, as well as immigration and other administrative decision making appeals.  She welcomes briefs in all of these areas.

She has been involved in matters in all superior jurisdictions, at both trial and appellate level.  She has also successfully represented clients in various alternative dispute resolution forums.

Kim was previously a partner at Thomsons Lawyers (now Thomson Geer).  She was a director of the Australian Insurance Law Association from 2001 to 2019 and a committee member of the Victorian branch from 1998 to 2019.  She is a committee member of the Law Council of Australia’s National Insurance Lawyers Group and the Personal Injuries and Compensation Committee.  She also sits as a committee member on the Victorian Bar’s Compensation Law Bar Association, and is a director of the Essoign.  In 2019, Kim was appointed as a director of Volleyball Australia.

Manny specialises in medical negligence, personal injury, health law, coronial matters and professional disciplinary proceedings. He also has a broad practice and accepts briefs in a number of other areas including criminal, commercial and employment matters.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Manny was a General Surgeon. He graduated from medical school at the University of Melbourne in 2005 and undertook his surgical training through Western Health with rotations to the Alfred Hospital Trauma Unit and Goulburn Valley Base Hospital from 2006-2012. Since 2013, Manny has been a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons and has been in both public and private practice in Central Victoria. He therefore has unique knowledge, skills and experience in contemporary medical practice and disease/injury causation together with a substantial understanding of the Victorian healthcare system. 

In addition to his medical and law degrees, Manny holds a Master of Business Administration and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He was the Board Chair of the Otis Foundation for Breast Cancer Retreats from 2019-2021. 

Manny is reading with Dr Paul Halley and his senior mentor is Ms Michelle Britbart KC.

Jay has growing common law practice, with particular focus on institutional abuse, WorkCover, TAC, intentional torts, and medical negligence. He is regularly briefed to draw statements of claim, prepare advice on liability, quantum and prospects, and appear at directions hearings, mediations, serious injury applications, and interlocutory matters.

In addition to court work, Jay is frequently briefed in complex paperwork matters. His drafting includes pleadings and submissions in tort, statutory compensation, and institutional liability claims. He brings a methodical and strategic approach to litigation preparation and negotiation.

Jay also accepts briefs in criminal and quasi-criminal matters, and has experience in select administrative law and public interest litigation. He is known for a trauma-informed and client-focused advocacy style.

Experience

Before coming to the Bar, Jay held senior roles at Victoria Legal Aid, including Associate Public Defender at VLA Chambers and Deputy Managing Lawyer in the Civil Justice Directorate. He was previously a Senior Lawyer at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and began his career in litigation and employment law in regional and mid-tier firms.

Jay holds a Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Melbourne.

He read with David Seeman, and his senior mentor is Kateena O’Gorman SC.

Selected Cases

• King v Australaw Pty Ltd [2025] VSC 136
  https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2025/136.html
• Re EV (No 2) [2025] VSC 112
  https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2025/112.html
• Cousins (a pseudonym) v White [2024] VCC 1264
  https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VCC/2024/1264.html
• Pierson: Finding into death with inquest of Pierson, Phillip John (COR 2020 001612) [2023] VicCorC 28679
  https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VicCorC/2023/28679.html

Re WL (No 2) [2022] VSC 838
https://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/vic/VSC/2022/838.html

John came to the Victorian Bar in 1983 and read with Andrew Kirkham QC.

His practice developed to include both the criminal and civil jurisdictions in both the government and private sectors.

He now has extensive experience in coronial inquests. He also appeard with David Curtain QC on behalf of an electricity corporation at the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission (2009).

In addition, he appears in disciplinary hearings at VCAT (Chinese Medical Registration Board of Victoria) and has appeared before the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria (both as Counsel Assisting and representing medical practitioners) and at the Pharmacy Board of Victoria.

John’s recent appearances include the following:

Coroner’s Court as Counsel Assisting:

• train/truck collision (KERANG railway level crossing);
• suicide (BLOOMFIELD)
• murder (BOTTOMLEY & HOWE);
• motor vehicle/bicycle collision (PEOPLES);
• Victoria Police – pursuit (WSOL & BAN);
• Victoria Police – arrest (suspect with mental illness) (QUILKEY)
• Victoria Police – arrest (suspect with cardiac condition) (MILLS); and
• Victoria Police – arrest by Special Operations Group (murder suspect) (JOANNOU).

Coroner’s Court as Counsel for interested parties:

• Victorian WorkCover Authority (BAKER, JONES & ANDERSON);
• Corrections Victoria (CASTLE & JONES);
• Forensicare – Thomas Embling Hospital (SPLATT & NOTAS), Metropolitan Assessment Prison – AAU (WYLY) and Metropolitan Assessment Prison (OMEROVIC);
• Victoria Police Members – arrest (suspect with mental illness) (CHAPMAN);
• St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne (PERRY, HARRINGTON, LAPILA, PANLOCK, HUYNH, WHYTE, STEPHENS, SHERRIFF, JENNINGS and PARKES);
• St Vincent’s Correctional Health Service – deaths in custody (WESTON, ZAYAT, WETCOTT, WHELAN, KENNEDY, VO, STEPHENS, BRIGHAM, CONDIE & KARASTAVROU);
• Latrobe Hostel (RICHMOND);
• Medical practitioners (intensive care physician, surgeon, radiologist, GPs and psychiatrist) (IREDELL, MARTINOV, RODGER, ACCARDO, KELLETT, ARTHUR & COLHOUN);
• Falls Creek Ski Lifts Pty. Ltd. – skiing accident (McARTHUR);
• Road Management Solutions Pty Ltd – industrial accident (RIMANICH);
• Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council Inc. – petrol sniffers (KEN, HUNT, THOMPSON, RYAN & COOPER); and
• family of the deceased – infant (HEWITT).

Criminal matters

Defence work and prosecuting on behalf of the DPP and other government departments/agencies such as the Department of Sustainability and Environment, and the Victorian WorkCover Authority.

Supervision Orders

He regularly appears on behalf of The Secretary to the Department of Justice (instructed by Corrections Victoria, Russell Kennedy and the VGSO) in applications for Supervision Orders pursuant to the provisions of the Serious Sex Offender (Detention and Supervision) Act 2009.

Civil matters

John focuses on personal injury matters.

John has also practised away from the Victorian Bar with the following organisations:

• Aboriginal legal aid services of the Northern Territory (Alice Springs & Darwin);
• Royal Australian Air Force – prosecuting and defending at Summary Hearings and Courts Martial;
• Pitjantjatjara Council Inc. – advising on mining exploration applications; native title & land rights; personal injuries; intellectual property, submissions to the Commonwealth & State governments;
• Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park Board of Management (the Traditional Owners of the Uluru/Kata Tjuta National Park);
• Mutijulu community, Northern Territory;
• Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunyjatjara Women’s Council; and
• Native Title and Indigenous Issues Unit – Department of Justice, State Government of Victoria.

Gary practices mainly in the areas of commercial law, administrative law, criminal law, personal injury, general torts, defamation and family law.

Gary returned to Victoria in 2001 having practised in South Australia as a prosecutor and then at the South Australian independent bar from 1985 to 2000.

He has prosecuted and defended serious criminal matters over many years at all levels.

Gary has appeared in numerous appeals in the High Court, Full Federal Court as well as various State Courts of Appeal and Criminal Appeal.

Gary has appeared as counsel assisting in a number of Commissions of Inquiry in various States and the ACT and has also represented parties before such inquiries. He has appeared in high profile coronial inquests on behalf of families and potentially affected parties.

Gary has also been appointed to facilitate conclaves of experts in Supreme Court proceedings involving aviation.

He has served as an Army Officer, both Regular and Reserve, and rose to the rank of Colonel.  He was appointed a Judge Advocate and Defence Force Magistrate in 1998 and resigned that appointment to become the Inaugural Director of Military Prosecutions between 2003 and 2006.  He has served two tours in Afghanistan and also served in Iraq and East Timor.

Gary has held a private pilot’s licence and an open water diver’s licence.

Patrick has acted for clients in a wide range of contractual disputes in Victorian courts and tribunals.

In the course of his work at the bar he has also accepted briefs to advise and appear in employment law and wills disputes, as well as professional disciplinary hearings.

He has also appeared, advised or prepared pleadings and paperwork in personal injury matters including statutory benefit claims, serious injury applications and common law damages trials.

In addition, Patrick has prepared and appeared in several successful appeals in the Court of Appeal and applications to the Supreme Court for judicial review.

Before coming to the bar Patrick was a solicitor at Wotton + Kearney Insurance Lawyers. His work involved personal injury and Accident Compensation Act recovery proceedings, building and construction disputes, and preparation for the defence of large and small property damage claims.

His legal experience also extends to practising as a solicitor at the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service where he managed a large caseload involving summary and indictable crime and regularly appeared in courts throughout Melbourne and regional Victoria. As a barrister he has appeared in criminal jury trials.

Patrick was an Associate to the Honourable Justice Bongiorno at the Supreme Court of Victoria.

Dr. Andrew Newman practises in common law, administrative law and employment law.

Andrew has been regularly briefed to appear in the Supreme Court, County Court, Magistrates’ Court, Federal Circuit Court, Fair Work Commission, VCAT and AAT, as a leader, led and unled.

Andrew has extensive experience in serious injury applications, common law damages trials, statutory benefit claims, administrative review and employment-related disputes. Andrew also has an active conferencing, mediation and paperwork practice related to these areas.

Andrew is a previous Secretary and member of Lennon’s List Committee, a previous member of the Victorian Bar’s Student Engagement Committee and a current member of the Practice Development Committee. Unrelated to his practice at the Bar, Andrew was a sessional Ombudsman at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, where he determined insurance disputes between financial firms and complainants.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Andrew worked as a solicitor at the Transport Accident Commission. Andrew also worked as a legal academic, including as a Research Fellow to the Centre of Employment and Labour Relations Law and a Teaching Fellow of Corporate Law at Melbourne Law School. He has also lectured and tutored at Deakin University’s School of Law. Andrew began his career in Canada in 2006, where he worked as an Associate in the Employment and Labour Law department of a large national law firm, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP.

Andrew is a recipient of the 2011 Julian Small Foundation Annual Research Grant for his academic work. He has also received several commendations for the teaching of law, including Deakin University’s Vice-Chancellor’s Commendation for Excellence in Teaching. Andrew has acted as a legal education consultant to the Australia and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance in the design of their statutory personal injury law training programme. He has also advised a range of international and governmental organizations, including a northern Canadian Aboriginal Tribal Council and the United Nations Development Programme’s Human Rights Project in Sana’a, Yemen.

Andrew holds a PhD (Law) from Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, an LLB and BCL from McGill University, Montreal and a BA from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. He speaks and reads advanced French, intermediate Spanish, German and Dutch and beginners Macedonian.

Andrew read with Her Honour Áine Magee KC.

Publications:

Andrew Newman, ‘The legal precariousness of temporary migrant agricultural work: A comparative Canadian and Australian perspective’ (2021) 164 Precedent 43.

Andrew Newman, ‘Australia pays fast-food workers $20 an hour and the sky hasn’t fallen’, The Globe and Mail, Canada (20 February 2018).

John Howe and Andrew Newman, ‘Collective Bargaining and the Ownership of Employee Creation’ (2013) 26 Australian Journal of Labour Law 273.

Andrew Newman, ‘The Legal In/Security of Temporary Migrant Agricultural Work: Case Studies from Canada and Australia’ (2013) 18(2) Deakin Law Review 361.

David has experience in personal injuries, occupational health and safety, administrative reviews, criminal law and appeals.

Prior to coming to the Bar, David was a Senior Lawyer at Worksafe Victoria. His work included the conduct of criminal prosecutions under the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004, Accident Compensation Act 1985 and the Crimes Act 1958. David was also involved in the pre-implementation review of the Workplace Injury Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2013.

Prior to joining WorkSafe, David was a solicitor at the Transport Accident Commission. He conducted litigation that involved compensation claims for common law damages, serious injury certificates, impairment benefits, statutory benefits, legal costs, appeals and applications for review.

David undertook articles at Maurice Blackburn. He has a Masters of Business, majoring in Personal Injury and became an Accredited Specialist in Personal Injury Law in 2011.

Mr Panayi is an appellate specialist, who predominately acts for government in appeals pertaining to judicial review, administrative law, statutory interpretation, constitutional law, and human rights.  He is lead Counsel in Victorian Government appeals in the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, and preferred Counsel to the Department of Justice and Community Safety.

Mr Panayi’s trial work includes government, administrative, commercial, criminal, and family law litigation; principally in the Supreme, Federal and Family Courts, VCAT and often before juries.  He has extensive experience before Military Courts, Military Inquiries and Royal Commissions.

Mr Panayi has also appeared before International Courts, including on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia, together with the Solicitor-General and Chief General-Counsel of Australia, before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in Hamburg, in Russian Federation v Australia (Re Volga) 11 ITLOS 2002.

Mr Panayi was first called to the Bar in 1995 and practiced as a Barrister from 1995 to 1998.  He then served as an Australian Diplomat from 1998 to 2005 including overseas and domestically as Director International Law, Director Maritime Law, Executive Director Treaties Secretariat, Acting Assistant Secretary and Senior Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.  Mr Panayi is a Member of the The Honourable Society of The Inner Temple, The International Commission of Jurists, The Royal United Services Institute and holds a Commission as Lieutenant Commander, Royal Australian Navy.