Ryan was admitted as a lawyer in 2013, called to the Bar in 2023, and practises mainly in commercial and public law. He is a former High Court Associate, has a BCL (Distinction) and M Phil from Oxford University (St John’s College), and is a University Medalist in Law.

Ryan’s legal experience includes:

– serving as Counsel Assisting the Commonwealth Solicitor-General, Justin Gleeson SC;

– practising as a Senior Lawyer (EL 2, Special Counsel equivalent) with the Australian Government Solicitor’s Administrative Law team;

– practising as an Associate in Paris with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, and in London with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP; and

– serving as legal adviser to successive Commonwealth Attorneys-General during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Selected matters (as a solicitor) include representing:

– a United Arab Emirates oil and gas consortium in its successful multi-billion-dollar commercial arbitration against the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq in respect of compulsorily acquired oil and gas fields;

– the Republic of Cyprus in its successful defence of investment treaty claims arising out of the 2009/10 Eurozone financial crisis and valued in excess of EUR 1 billion;

– the State of Belize in its historic land and maritime boundary dispute with Guatemala in the International Court of Justice; and

– together with REDRESS and local counsel, 7,000 of the victims of widespread human rights violations, including crimes against humanity, war crimes, and torture, committed by the Republic of Chad during the régime of Hissène Habré from 1982 to 1990. The proceedings were brought in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.

Ryan also tutored constitutional law at Trinity College, Oxford University, and started his career as an Associate to the Hon Dyson Heydon KC as Justice of the High Court of Australia.

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