Ian Robertson-Clark SC

I am 62 years old (or so I’m told).

I graduated in April 1986 from the University of Adelaide with a Bachelor of Economics (Accounting) and a Bachelor of Laws (Honours). My Honours supervisor was John Bradsen (now, Bradman). Later that same year, I completed my Graduate Diploma in Legal Studies, then recently introduced as a substitute for Articles. I have since completed a Master of Laws (1996) . My dissertation supervisor was Emeritus Professor Andrew Ligertwood and the marker was Kevin Nicholson (later Nicholson J of the Supreme Court of South Australia).

I was admitted in December 1986 as a member of a fused profession, a barrister and solicitor. I commenced practice as a solicitor at the moderately sized practice (by Adelaide standards) of Aldermans, in November 1986. My principal was Tony Abbott. I worked in general commercial litigation but was always trying to get on my feet in Court. In the early years, this was confined to Chamber arguments and small motor vehicle trials. However, Aldermans was an insurance defence practice and, before too long, I was taking two trials a week in the Industrial Court defending workers’ compensation claims.

In June 1988, Aldermans merged with another moderate size Adelaide practice, the commercial, conservative firm of Piper Bakewell and Piper. The new firm was christened, Piper Alderman, and operated from the east end of Flinders Street in Adelaide. It was not the national firm it is today, having about 18 partners and about the same number of solicitors. From the beginning of the merger, the nature of the practice changed as it took on large commercial litigation, principally driven by Charles Bagot. In the period to my departure, I was fortunate to have bit parts in Paringa Mining & Exploration Co plc v North Flinders Mines Ltd, Crusader Resources NL v Santos Ltd and Beach Petroleum NL and Anor v Johnson & Ors.

By the end of my practice as a solicitor, I was largely a full-time, in-house-Counsel although I would soon learn that this was no true substitute for being a specialist barrister. One of my last cases was the failed attempt to overturn a verdict that my client contended was unlawfully obtained, Monroe Schneider Associates Inc & Anor v Raberem No.1 Pty Ltd & Ors. That case would prove important later in the High Court’s determination of Clone Pty Ltd v Players Pty Ltd (in liq).

I joined the independent referral Bar in Adelaide at Bar Chambers in December 1994. I acquired the Hon. Michael David’s interest at the oldest Chambers in South Australia when he left to start-up Christopher Legoe Chambers. I spent nearly the next decade there, mostly marked by a series of large pieces of commercial litigation; The Duke Group Ltd (in liq) v Pilmet & Ors, Southern Equities Corporation Ltd (in liq) v Arthur Andersen (the Bond Corp Case) and Harris Scarfes Ltd (R&M appointed) v PWC & Ors. In addition, I conducted the Coonawarra Boundary Dispute, a case to define the geographic indication for the 'Coonawarra' wine region. I regard this (to borrow from John Mortimer QC and the venerable Horace Rumpole) as my Penge Bungalow Murder, “alone and without a leader”, because my friend and a mentor, Alan Sullivan KC, could not attend for the trial and so I conducted it. These were followed with a long (eight month) conspiracy case in Hobart (R v Turner & Ors), prosecuted by the Commonwealth DPP for the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, which I took for jury experience, but in which my client pleaded on the day the jury was to be arraigned. All of this gave me invaluable Court experience, the opportunity to work with excellent lawyers, solicitors and barristers, and taught me that challenges arise when you least expect them and are to be met by doing the best that one can.

From 2006 to 2015, I practised principally from Commercial Chambers in Adelaide with my close friend, Craig McCarthy, and later, Martin Hoile, who came from Bar Chambers to join us. These were hard, exploratory years and included the trial in Harris Scarfes. About this time, I returned to work in the Northern Territory. I had some exposure to the Territory when at Aldermans (who had a shop-front in Alice Springs). I joined William Forster Chambers and then Magayamirr Chambers, before the latter came to an end on the appointment of Raelene Webb KC to the Native Title Tribunal. I then returned to WFC. I continue to visit Darwin for works as the need arises (which is regularly).

Also, about this time, I resumed my interest in intellectual property work (which commenced when working for Aldermans), litigious in part but non-litigious patent matters principally. Adelaide is not big enough to sustain a full-time practice in either, and so I continue to dabble, usually in wine, drugs and their incidences. Besides the Coonawarra Boundary Dispute, I appeared in AMC v Hamilton Pharmaceuticals (which concerned, among other things, multi-national trademarks), Mitolo Wines v V. Mitolo & Son and the copyright ownership dispute as to who designed of the Aboriginal Flag.

I was appointed Senior Counsel by the then Chief Justice of Supreme Court of South Australia, the Hon. John Doyle AC KC, and took Silk in 2008. By reason of my commitment to an Australian Republic, I have declined the invitation to swap my post nominals (S.C.) for a K.C.

I signed the Silks' Commitment upon its inception and I continue to adhere to its terms (as a bare minimum) to promote and use female juniors.

In 2015, I joined Brian Martin Chambers when my previous Chambers lost its physical home. For three years I was an honorary 'Barnett', sharing Chambers with Michael (now an SM) and Anne Barnett (now Judge Barnett) and occasionally, Andrew Barnett, principally of VicBar.

In 2018, Brian Martin Chambers were asked to join with Jeffcott Chambers, then in the process of relocating from Gouger Street to our present (hopefully, forever) home on Flinders Street. Jeffcott is a common law set of diverse advocates practising in all areas; a good home for a generalist like myself. Our magnificent Chambers building is widely admired.

I was actively involved in the South Australian Bar Association. I have been a member of SABA since 1995. I had held some form of elected office in it from 1998 to 2008 (including as its Honorary Secretary from 1998 to 2004) and then again from 2010 to 2022. I was President of the Association from 2016 to 2018 and then Immediate Past President from 2018 to 2022 (extended over Covid). I was the Chair of the Membership Committee (which dealt with admissions to the Bar and the delivery of the Bar Readers' Course) for nearly 10 years from 2008. I sat on its Council from 1998 to 2022 (save for the passage of about two years in or about 2009-10).

I was the inaugural Chair of the SABA Bar Readers’ Executive, which took over as the body responsible for the delivery of its Bar Readers' Course to train advocates coming to the Bar in South Australia. I was a member of the Committee that administered the Course from its inception in 2002. I ceased to be a member of the BRE in 2020.

I have been a member of the ABA since coming to the Bar and active within it administration and management since 2005. I was elected the Chair of the Australian Bar Association’s Advocacy Training Council in 2016 and, in that capacity, I am ex officio, a member of the Australian Bar Council and its Executive. The ATC provides voluntary advocacy coaching for the whole of the Australian Bar in specialist Courses. I propose to step down from this role at the end of 2025.

I am a director of the Australian Advocacy Institute. It is a not-for-profit company whose objects include the teaching of written and oral advocacy to legal practitioners in common law jurisdictions, but particularly in Australia.

I am a regular coach of advocacy (the preferred nomenclature for what is elsewhere called 'teacher') for the SABA, ABA, IATC and AAI. This includes coaching in Australia and overseas, including at Kebel College, Oxford, in New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, amongst other places. I hope to coach advocates in South Africa, soon.

I remain a generalist, by choice. I conduct trials and appeals, in all Courts, throughout Australia and elsewhere. I have Chambers in Adelaide, Darwin and Christchurch, NZ (Bridgeside Chambers).