• Criminal law
• Inquests and inquiries
• Workplace health and safety
• Professional negligence
• Environmental law (Class 5 Proceedings)
• Family provision matters

Rob came to the Bar in 2010 and has since established a practice with particular specialisation in crime, inquests, and workplace safety matters. Rob also has experience in professional negligence and family provision matters.

Rob is regularly briefed to prosecute matters for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions in the Local Court and District Court, including prosecutions for contraventions of the Bankruptcy Act 1966, the Corporations Act 2001, the Criminal Code Act 1995 and the Customs Act 1901. He has also prosecuted matters on behalf of New South Wales regulatory agencies, including the Office of Liquor Gaming and Racing, Forests NSW, the NSW Office of Water, the Office of State Revenue and the NSW Land and Housing Corporation.

Rob appears in the Supreme Court of New South Wales mostly in relation to applications concerning matters arising under the Coroners Act, the Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act and the Crimes (Serious Sex Offenders Act) 2006.

In addition to his work for the Crown and regulatory bodies, Rob also accepts briefs to defend prosecutions for offences against work health and safety legislation before the Industrial Court of NSW and the District Court. He also appears at inquests and inquiries, both as counsel assisting and interested parties. Examples of inquests in which Rob has appeared are:

• Counsel assisting the Deputy State Coroner at the inquest into the death of Phillip Gray, who died while involved in a technical diving exercise.
• Counsel assisting the Inquest into the deaths of CH and RM, a murder suicide in a remote location. It was treated as a critical incident because the deaths occurred almost immediately following the arrival of police near the property.
• Junior counsel assisting the State Coroner at the inquest into the death of Elijah Holcombe, a police shooting death at Armidale in 2009. See Rich v Attorney General of NSW & Ors [2013] NSWCA 419 (proceedings related to the inquest. The Court of Appeal upheld the position taken by Counsel assisting at the inquest).
• Counsel assisting the State Coroner at the inquest into the death of Thinh Ba Le, who died following the use of a Taser in the course of a police operation in October 2010.
• Junior counsel assisting the State Coroner at the inquest into the suspected death of Belinda Peisley who went missing from Katoomba in September 1998.

For further information about Rob, please also see his CV.

• 2007 – 2010: Senior Solicitor – Crown Solicitor’s Office, New South Wales

• 2002 – 2007: Criminal Prosecutions Solicitor – Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions of New South Wales

• 2001 – 2002: Commercial Litigation Solicitor – Abbott Tout, Sydney

• 1999 – 2001: Litigation Solicitor / Advocate – Falvey Byrnes Associates, Port Macquarie

Cases in which Rob has appeared include: 

• Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Ede [2014] NSWCA 282 (counsel for the applicant in judicial review proceedings concerning the jurisdiction of the District Court in appeals against sentences imposed by the Local Court in proceedings for federal offences dealt with summarily).

• Thomson v R [2014] NSWCCA 88 (counsel for the respondent on an appeal against sentence involving issues of procedural fairness in the sentencing exercise).

• Attorney General of NSW v Built NSW Pty Ltd [2013] NSWCCA 299 (Junior counsel to Brett Walker SC for the successful respondent. Also appeared as Junior Counsel to Robert Bromwich SC in the original District Court Proceedings).

•  R v Glynatsis [2013] NSWCCA 131 (Junior counsel for the Crown, led by Robert Bromwich SC, in a successful appeal against the manifest inadequacy of a sentence imposed for insider trading.

• Rich v Attorney General of NSW & Ors [2013] NSWCA 419 (proceedings related to the inquest into the death of Elijah Holcombe, in which Rob appeared as junior counsel assisting, led by Jeremy Gormly SC. The Court of Appeal upheld the position taken by Counsel assisting at the inquest).

• NSW Land & Housing Corporation v Cain [2013] NSWDC 68 (counsel for the plaintiff in an appeal from a decision of the CTTT in which the Tribunal declined to make an order to terminate a tenancy agreement between the plaintiff and the defendant).

• Mitchell v Cullingral Pty Ltd [2012] NSWCA 389 (junior counsel for the respondent in an appeal concerning the conduct of the respondent's solicitors in a mortgage transaction).

• KS v Veitch [2012] NSWCCA 266 (junior counsel for the Attorney General intervening on a constitutional matter concerning the sexual assault communications privilege).
  

• Redman v Willcocks (2010) 79 NSWLR 226 (counsel for the applicant on an appeal concerning the jurisdiction of magistrates to order costs against police officers in proceedings for apprehended domestic violence orders).
  

• R v Pogson, Lapham and Martin (junior counsel for the prosecution in proceedings for offences concerning false statements in a prospectus).

• Inquest into the death of Thinh Ba Le (counsel assisting the State Coroner at an inquest concerning a death following the use of a Taser in the course of a police operation in 2010).

• Inquest into the death of Elijah Holcombe (junior counsel assisting the State Coroner at an inquest concerning a police shooting death in Armidale in 2009).

• Inquest into the suspected death of Belinda Peisley (junior counsel assisting the Deputy State Coroner at an inquest concerning the disappearance and suspected death of a young woman from Katoomba in 1998).

• Inspector Templeton (WorkCover Authority of NSW) v Essential Energy (junior defence counsel in a prosecution for offences against the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 arising from the electrocution death of an electrical linesman at a remote substation in 2006).

• Inspector Walsh (WorkCover Authority of NSW) v Built NSW Pty Ltd (junior defence counsel on a successful application to quash the applications for orders and summonses in a prosecution for offences against Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 brought in the District Court).