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Experience

Ben has a broad practice advising and representing clients across diverse practice areas at both trial and appellate level. His main areas of practice cover tort, criminal, administrative and sports law.

Experience

Ben has particular expertise in managing large and complex litigation and significant inquests and inquiries.

Tort and Professional Negligence

• Ben's experience covers intentional torts, medical negligence and novel tort claims including those for pure economic loss and cases involving interplay between the common law and the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006.
• Many of his cases have involved complex issues surrounding duty of care and the application of the Limitation of Actions Act 1958.
• He has particular interest in medico-legal matters.

Criminal Law

• He has appeared or both prosecution and defence in matters spanning homicides, drug trafficking and importation, terrorism, white collar and regulatory crime, complex fraud and in criminal test cases, at both trial and appeal levels.
• He also acts in regulatory prosecutions, including extraditions, white-collar crime, alleged breaches of regulatory codes and in criminal proceedings related to the collapse of publicly-listed companies.

Administrative and Regulatory Law

• Ben’s experience covers judicial and merits review proceedings in superior courts, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) and before Boards of Inquiry.
• He has experience in representing parties in investigations by the Independent Broadbased Anti-Coruption Commission (IBAC), Australian Crime Commission (ACC), Crime Misconduct Commission (Qld) (CMC) and Ombudsmen (including the CFOS).

• Professional Disciplinary Matters: He regularly appears for health professionals in prosecutions and disciplinary proceedings commenced by the Legal Services Commissioner and the Australian Health Professions Regulation Authority (AHPRA).

Sports Law

• Ben is recognised internationally as a leading sports lawyer. Since 2015 he has received consistent recognition in the international and Australian editions of ‘Who’s Who Legal’; specifically he is "recommended" in the fields of Sports and Entertainment Law.
• He regularly represents athletes and sporting associations domestically and internationally, in a variety of tribunals (including the FIFA Dispute Resolution Chamber, the AFL Tribunal and Appeals Board and before the Court of Arbitration for Sport).
• He has expertise in advising clubs and sporting organisations in their legal and integrity structures, processes and other related issue.
• He has appeared for athletes, for National Sporting bodies and for the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (now Sport Integrity Australia).
• He currently holds appointments with:
• Cricket Australia - Counsel Assisting its Code of Conduct Commission;
• National Basketball League - Tribunal Member;
• Australian Olympic Committee - Olympic Selection Appeals Tribunal (Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games);
• Australian Rules Football Players Association - Arbitration Panel;
• Football Australia National Dispute Resolution Chamber.
• Ben is a member of both the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANZSLA) and the Sports Lawyers' Association (of America) (SLA).

Inquests and Inquiries

• Ben is experienced in high-profile and complex inquests and inquiries.
• He was counsel assisting the 2020 Victorian COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine Inquiry.
• Other examples include the inquests into the 2017 Bourke Street massacre, the deaths of Tyler Cassidy, Luke Batty, Terrence and Christine Hodson as well as the applications to set-aside the findings in relation to the deaths of Jennifer Ruth Tanner and Adele Bailey in respect of which he was counsel assisting the State Coroner.
• He also appears in medico-legal inquests as well as those arising from deaths in suspicious circumstances, from police shootings, high-speed pursuits, and deaths in custody and care (including those related to medical care).

Ben often acts on behalf of model litigants and is familiar with Model Litigant Principles, including the obligations of such and how they apply in practice.

Past Experience (including Publications)

Ben studied law following from his being awarded the John F. Kearney QC scholarship. Prior to that, Ben undertook studies in Science. He has lectured in areas of both Law and Science at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His main areas of interest lie where Law and Science intersect.

Ben has been published internationally: see "Anatomy of a Courtroom: A Legal Perspective" in Petherick, Turvey and Feruguson (Ed) (2009) Forensic Criminology (Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, MA).

Prior to coming to the Bar, Ben was a solicitor at the Victorian Office of Public Prosecutions.

For its duration, Ben was the professional supervisor of the University of Melbourne's Innocence Project where he worked closely with students in reviewing cases of alleged Miscarriages of Justice.

Memberships and Positions

Ben is a member of the Criminal, the Commercial and the Common Law Bar Associations of Victoria.

He is also a member of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association (ANZSLA) and the Sports Lawyers' Association (of America) (SLA).

Ben is a member of the Victorian Bar Readers Course Comittee, Chair of the Exam Standing Review Committee, Dever's List Committee and Deputy Chair of the Sports Law Section. He is a former member of the VicBar Pro Bono Committee.

Ben is an Accredited by the Victorian Bar as Advocacy Instructor. He regularly coaches moots and presents in the Readers' Course.

From 22 Apr 2010, liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation.