Ryan was admitted as a lawyer in 2013 and called to the Bar in 2023, before which he was:
– Counsel Assisting the former Commonwealth Solicitor-General, Justin Gleeson SC;
– an Associate practising in commercial litigation/arbitration in Paris (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer) and London (Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP);
– legal adviser to successive Commonwealth Attorneys-General during the COVID-19 pandemic; and
– most recently a Senior Lawyer (Executive Level 2 – Special Counsel equivalent) with the Australian Government Solicitor’s Administrative Law Team where his clients included the Department of Home Affairs and Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
Selected matters (as a solicitor) include representing:
– 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;
– 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; 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 was also an Associate to the Hon Dyson Heydon AC as Justice of the High Court of Australia, and tutored undergraduate constitutional law (UK) at Trinity College, University of Oxford. He is a University Medalist in Law (Macquarie University) and has a Bachelor of Civil Law (Distinction) and Master of Philosophy in Law (both from St John’s College, University of Oxford).
Ryan accepts briefs in all areas of law.