Robert Size

Robert accepts briefs in any area of law.

He has a particular interest in matters involving broken promises, disappointed expectations, lies, mistakes, misunderstandings, and misuses of power.

Before he was called to the Bar, Robert worked as a research assistant at Eight Selborne Chambers, a tipstaff at the Supreme Court of New South Wales and a law graduate at Hall & Wilcox.

He is currently completing a PhD at UTS. His research examines whether publishing fake news online to profit via advertising may be treated as a form of fraud. His work has been published in academic journals in Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States. He has taught constitutional law, criminal law and the law of evidence.

Robert is a Senior Reporter for Thomson Reuters. He reports cases for the Federal Court Reports, Federal Law Reports, Administrative Appeals Reports and Australian Resources Law Reports.

He is committed to providing accurate advice and effective advocacy.

Deborah Robinson

After 12 years at the Bar, combining advocacy and mediation work, Deborah commenced full time practice as a mediator in 2016. Deborah has been conducting mediations since 2000, initially as a court appointed mediator/Registrar of the Supreme Court and from 2004 in private practice.

Deborah is an accredited mediator under the Australian National Mediator Standards and is appointed to both the Supreme and District Court mediation panels. She was a member of the ADR Committee of the Bar Association from 2012-2018, making regular contributions to mediators’ conferences and continuing professional development seminars conducted by that Committee as well as policy developments under consideration by the Committee.

Deborah completed a Certificate of Advanced Mediation from the Australian Commercial Disputes Centre in 2000. She held various positions as a Registrar of the Supreme Court from 1999 to 2004, including acting as Registrar in Equity, the Professional Negligence List Registrar and the Possession List Registrar. During her time at the Court Deborah conducted court annexed mediations in Equity and Common Law, primarily in relation to disputes involving family provision, medical negligence and possession.

In private practice from 2004 Deborah has successfully mediated across a wide range of disputes including litigation in the areas of insurance, wills and estates, commercial law, real property, equity and trusts, medical negligence, defamation, restraint of trade and personal injury and has conducted facilitated family conferences in Guardianship matters.

Deborah is committed to interest based negotiation and to achieving commercial outcomes.

As counsel she had appeared in a range of matters including family provision, probate, trusts, guardianship, real property, restraint of trade, professional negligence and defamation.

Eli Ball

Eli accepts briefs in all areas of civil and commercial law.

Eli regularly advises and appears (both led and unled) in matters before the Supreme Court of NSW and the Federal Court of Australia, as well as lower courts and tribunals. His practice includes general and commercial equity, corporations, class actions, building and construction, insolvency, insurance, professional liability, property, and probate.

Prior to coming to the bar, Eli was a solicitor in the disputes team at Ashurst in Sydney. He was also previously Tipstaff to the Honourable Justice David Ipp AO at the New South Wales Court of Appeal.

Eli has a Doctorate in Law from the University of Oxford, where he focussed on the laws of restitution, unjust enrichment, equity, trusts, and tracing. His doctoral thesis, Enrichment at the Claimant’s Expense: Attribution Rules in Unjust Enrichment was published as a book in 2016. While at Oxford, Eli also completed the Bachelor of Civil Law and Master of Philosophy in Law, and was a college lecturer in contract, equity and trusts, and tort.

Away from the law, Eli is an accomplished marathon butterfly swimmer. He is the record-holder for butterflying the Rottnest Channel (19.7km) in Western Australia.

David Price

David has practiced as a barrister since 2006. Before that, he had been a solicitor for over 10 years at a large commercial firm and tipstaff to the Hon Justice Cohen of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

His areas of practice include commercial law, company law, insolvency, mortgages & securities, equity & trusts, land law and wills & estates. He appears in trials and appellate matters in both state and federal jurisdictions and has appeared in various commissions of inquiry.

David also has substantial experience in mediations as counsel and as the mediator. The areas of his mediation practice include contractual, business and commercial disputes, partnerships, franchises, leasing, lending and mortgage enforcement, real property, equity and trusts, and estate disputes.

David has written a textbook on limitation of actions and a casebook on constitutional law, now in its sixth edition published in 2016. He has contributed articles to various journals. Most recently he has published a series of articles in the Law Society Journal on estate litigation.

Outside his practice, David is an active surf lifesaver. He has also competed in several Ironman triathlons, and various marathons and half-marathons. That has led to his advising sports clubs and associations.

Justin Hogan-Doran SC

Justin Hogan-Doran SC was appointed Senior Counsel in 2020 after 16 years at the NSW and Australian Bar.

Justin is regularly briefed by Australian and International firms and institutions especially in cross-border litigation and arbitration, including Investor-State claims, Shipping and Transport, Infrastructure and international enforcement action. He also acts in complex class action disputes for Australian and international litigation funders. He is also instructed by the Australian Government Solicitor for the Commonwealth of Australia in complex commercial litigation involving the Commonwealth.

In the past 2 years, Justin has acted and is acting:

As counsel for international investors seeking to enforce over US$6 Billion in ICSID Awards against the Kingdom of Spain (including cases currently before the Federal Court, the Full Federal Court and the High Court of Australia – see Kingdom of Spain v Infrastructure Services Luxembourg S.à.r.l. [2021] FCAFC 3 and [2021] FCAFC 112) and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan;
As counsel for international hedge fund investors seeking to enforce an UNCITRAL Award against the Republic of India (currently before the Federal Court);
As counsel for litigation-funded group members in the Supreme Court of NSW and NSW Court of Appeal against Scenic Tours (Moore v Scenic Tours Pty Ltd (No.4) [2022] NSWSC 270, now on appeal to NSW Court of Appeal)
As counsel for the Commonwealth of Australia, in the first ever Barnes v Addy claim against the Commonwealth, brought by a litigation funded entity (currently before the Commercial List of the Supreme Court of NSW);
As advisor to a P&I Club in connection with the total loss of the ship, cargo and crew of the MV Gulf Livestock I in the East China Sea, involving claims under Australian, New Zealand and Philippines law;
As advisor to a marine salvage company in connection with the recent rescue and salvage of the MV Portland Bay off the East coast of Australia;
As counsel for the owners in an international arbitration in Sydney concerning faulty design of a commercial fishing vessel (under the ACICA Rules)

He has been recognised in Doyle’s Guide as a leading or recommended counsel in three specialist practice areas – Transport (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022), Construction (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) and Arbitration (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022). He has been recognised since 2009 in Best Lawyers^® in Australia in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Shipping & Maritime, and was named ‘Lawyer of the Year’ in Shipping and Maritime 2019’.

Justin also regularly appears in arbitrations in Australia and sits as an arbitrator. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) and of the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (FACICA).

Justin acts as a mediator on request in specialist and commercial disputes.

Justin was a Councillor and the Treasurer of the NSW Bar Association in 2015.

Prior to the Bar, Justin worked as a Banking & Finance Solicitor at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King + Wood Mallesons). He was also a Management Consultant in the Financial Practice area of the Boston Consulting Group in Sydney. His extensive experience in business and finance makes him one of the most commercially minded counsel at the Australian Bar.

Justin is a long-time lecturer at the University of Sydney Law School in Litigation, Equity, Private International Law and Transnational Commercial Litigation (at Humboldt University, Berlin). He was the 1998-2000 Menzies Scholar to Oxford University (BCL/MPhil), where he won the John Morris Prize for Private International Law. He holds a First Class Honours degree in Law from the University of Sydney. In 1996, he was an associate to His Excellency Sir Ninian Stephen at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia at The Hague.

Justin is a former officer in the Australian Army. He commenced his military career as a Commando with the 1^st Commando Regiment, and was later a Captain in the Australian Army Legal Corps, with postings to the Military Law Centre and HQ Special Operations.

Brin Anniwell

Brin was called to the Bar in 2014 and has a broad practice across commercial, public and criminal law. She is part of the 7^th Floor’s White Collar Crime Team.

Brin is regularly briefed by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and has conducted prosecution and sentencing hearings in various courts for drug importation offences, carriage service offences, environmental offences and terrorism offences. She has run a number of jury trials in the New South Wales District Court as lead counsel and has been led by counsel in Supreme Court and District Court trials.

Brin’s defence work includes acting for individuals charged with white collar offences, environment offences and offences against various state and Commonwealth legislation.

Brin appears regularly for governmental agencies in administrative proceedings and appeals.

Prior to coming to the Bar, Brin was a Senior Lawyer at the Australian Government Solicitor where she practiced predominantly in administrative law, customs and trade law, proceeds of crime and Commonwealth law enforcement. She has also practiced in banking litigation in the UK where she was a lawyer at Hogan Lovells International LLP.

Brin has a Master of Laws from the University of New South Wales and was listed on the Dean’s List for Academic Excellence in 2008 and 2011. Brin also has a Bachelor of Laws (First Class Hons) and Bachelor of Finance from the University of Newcastle.

Paul Blackburn-Hart SC

Paul has had wide experience over many areas of practice, with particular emphasis in equity and commercial matters, including appellate.
Paul is an experienced mediator, accredited with the NSW Bar Association and the Supreme Court of NSW. He appears in both NSW and interstate cases.
He has also appeared as an expert witness.