Profile
Geoffrey Hancy is a barrister in Western Australia.
He has worked for clients and lawyers as their counsel in court in over three hundred completed trials and appeals. He has worked for clients in alternative dispute resolution. He has been a mediator and an arbitrator.
Over the past 17 years the majority of his clients and instructing lawyers were successful in their cases that went to trial. In more than 75% of the appeals he was counsel for the successful party.
He has represented clients and their lawyers in a large number of cases before the High Court of Australia. His clients have won a number of important cases in the High Court of Australia.
From his experience as courtroom lawyer in hundreds of trials and appeals he has formulated guidelines on how to run a case, with the aim of enhancing prospects of a successful settlement or trial. His paper on how to prepare a witness statement has had close to 20,000 unique views since 2014 when it was first made available to access online. The paper on how to brief a barrister has had more than 7,000 unique views.
Geoffrey is well known as a liability and insurance law lawyer. His experience extends to a broad range of civil and commercial law cases.
He has also acted as an adviser. He has drafted practice standards in legal services tender guidelines for litigation lawyers seeking to act for an insurer. Adoption and implementation of those standards should have enhanced the quality of litigation work produced by the lawyers and led to improved prospects of successful outcomes for clients and their lawyers.
He was chosen as legal adviser to the Economics and Industry Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly of the Western Australian Parliament for its Inquiry into the 2011 Kimberley Ultramarathon fire.
In 2006 he was awarded the Australian Insurance Law Association’s annual, and national, Insurance Law Prize for substantial contribution to insurance law and insurance law education.
Qualifications & Employment
Barrister and Solicitor
| Supreme Court of South Australia | admitted October 1995 |
| Supreme Court of Victoria | admitted 1 June 1983 |
| High Court of Australia | admitted 19 January 1981 |
| Supreme Court of Western Australia | admitted 23 December 1980 |
University
| University of Melbourne (Commonwealth scholarship) | |
| Master of Laws | LLM 1985 |
| University of Western Australia | |
| Bachelor of Economics | B Ec 1983 |
| Bachelor of Laws with Honours | LLB (Hons) 1980 |
| Bachelor of Jurisprudence with Honours | B Juris (Hons) 1978 |
Tertiary Teaching (part time or guest)
| Murdoch University | |
| Lecturer, Insurance Law | 1999, 2001, 2004, 2006 |
| University of Western Australia | |
| Lecturer, Insurance Law – undergraduate and post-graduate | 1991 – 1997 |
| Tutor, Law of Practice and Procedure | 1987 – 1988 |
| Tutor, Law of Torts | 1986 – 1987 |
| Tutor & Lecturer, Law of Evidence | 1982 – 1984 |
Insurance
| Insurance Law Prize – awarded by the Australian Insurance Law Association – for substantial contribution to insurance law and insurance law education | 2006 |
| Committee Member, Australian Insurance Law Association (WA Branch) | 1999 – 2009 |
| Convenor/Member, Law Society of Western Australia Insurance Law Advisory Group | 1986 – 1996 |
| Member, Insurance Institute of Western Australia | 1987 – 1993 |
| Editor, Western Australia, Insurance Law Bulletin | 1985 – 1994 |
Advocacy
| Senior Member of Faculty, Australian Advocacy Institute | 1999 – 2001 |
| Member, Law Society of Western Australia Advocacy Committee | 1998 – 2001 |
| Advocacy Skills teacher, Law Society of Western Australia | 1992 – 2007 |
| Member, Law Society of Western Australia Evidence and Advocacy Advisory Group | 1989 – 1993 |
| Member, Supreme Court of Western Australia Advocacy Committee | 2002 – 2003 |
Computers, Electronic Commerce and Privacy
| Member, WA Society for Computers and Law | 1994 – 2005 |
| Member, and Convenor, Law Society of Western Australia Computerisation Committee | 1991 – 2008 |
| Member, Law Council of Australia Privacy Law Committee | 1986 – 1999 |
| Developer of Cloudbrief browser based online brief (litigation support) software | 2001 – 2022 |
Corporate
| Director of Cloudbrief Pty Ltd | 2001 – 2023 |
| Director of WA Bar Chambers Ltd | 1994 – 1998 |
| Barrister and Member of WA Bar Association | 1993 – 2023 |
| Member of the Council of WA Bar Association | 2013, 2015 – 2018 |
| Partner of Phillips Fox, which became DLA Piper Australia and Lavan Legal (now Lavan) | 1985 – 1993 |
| Barrister and solicitor and Associate of Lavan Solomon (later known as Phillips Fox) | 1984 – 1985 |
| Barrister and solicitor with Lavan & Walsh | 1980 – 1983 |
University bodies
| Member, University of Western Australia Board of Discipline | 1980 |
| Member, University of Western Australia Professorial Board | 1980 |
Community
| Chairman, Disciplinary Committee of Cycling WA (Western Australian Cycling Federation) | 2004 – 2012 |
| Councillor, Council of Management of the Federation of Western Australian Police and Community Youth Centres (Inc). | 2004 – 2006 |
| Member, Policy and Promotion Committee, Federation of Western Australian Police and Community Youth Centres (Inc). | 2007 – 2011 |
| Chairman, Henk Vogels Cycling Foundation Inc | 2005 – 2007, 2012 – 2019 |
| Committee member, Henk Vogels Cycling Foundation Inc | 2005 – 2019 |