Geoffrey Hancy - Barrister

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
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