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Experience

Stephen obtained his LLB from Melbourne University with honours, and in 2010 was awarded a Master of Laws from there with an H1 average across the following subjects: The Insurance Contract, Professional Indemnity Insurance, Insurance Litigation, Advanced Litigation, Proof in Litigation, Trial Advocacy, Advanced Evidence and Shareholders' Rights and Remedies.

Before coming to the Bar, Stephen spent more than a decade in Middletons' commercial litigation department acting for clients like Qantas, AAMI and Esso, and professional indemnity insurers such as the LPLC. He has conducted commercial and insurance litigation in every Victorian Court, the Federal and High Courts, and in VCAT and the Legal Profession Tribunal, and has published and presented widely on insurance law, professional liability, practical evidence, proportionate liability, and professional ethics.

Stephen has an expertise in relation to general insurance law on which he has published widely. He was until 2010 the editor of the Commercial Bar Association's Insurance and Professional Negligence newsletter. He also has a general commercial litigation practice.

Since coming to the Bar, Stephen has also continued to specialise in professional-client disputes, with a particular emphasis on the law relating to lawyers, including fee disputes and the professional negligence of solicitors, barristers, environmental consultants, accountants, insurance brokers, mortgage brokers, and estate agents, typically in VCAT's Civil List and Legal Practice Lists, the County Court's and Supreme Court's Commercial Lists, and the Costs Court. Stephen also specialises in professional discipline. He regularly represents lawyers in investigations by the Legal Services Commissioner and Law Institute. He appears in professional discipline prosecutions, particularly in VCAT's Legal Practice List, as a result of which he has a keen interest in lawyers' ethics. In relation to these specialisations, Stephen publishes the Australian Professional Liability Blog.

From 01 Jul 2008, liability limited by a scheme approved under Professional Standards legislation.