Liam McAuliffe

Professional Background

Liam has over eight years’ experience as a solicitor. Prior to coming to the Bar, Liam was a Principal Solicitor in the Litigation and Dispute Resolution Branch at the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office (VGSO).

At the VGSO, Liam specialised in advising and representing Corrections Victoria and the Department of Justice and Community Safety in relation to all aspects of the Serious Offenders Act 2018 and its predecessor the Serious Sex Offenders (Detention and Supervision) Act 2009. This included prosecuting breaches of supervision orders. He also ran matters under the Crimes Mental Impairment (Unfitness to be Tried) Act 1997 on behalf of the Attorney-General.

Liam’s public law experience extends to coronial inquests, judicial reviews, public interest immunity matters, as well as confidentiality and suppression orders under the Open Courts Act 2013 and other statutory regimes.

Liam also has a significant interest and experience in terrorism related matters. In Victoria, he has acted for Corrections Victoria in matters relating to Division 105A of the Criminal Code and, in NSW, for the Attorney-General in matters under the Terrorism (High Risk Offenders) Act 2017 (NSW).

Before working at the VGSO, Liam worked as a senior solicitor at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions NSW for several years, and before that as a community lawyer at Marrickville Legal Centre.

Liam is reading with Karen Argiropoulos and his senior mentor is Paul Holdenson QC.

He is also part-way through an LLM at Monash University.

Prior Experience

Liam comes to the Bar with significant experience as a solicitor-advocate.

As a senior solicitor at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW), he ran a committals practice with matters that involved murder, manslaughter, sexual assaults, dangerous driving occasioning death, and the commercial supply of drugs. Liam prosecuted several cases as solicitor-advocate at summary hearing in the Local Court including indecent assaults involving children and dangerous driving matters involving grievous bodily harm. He also appeared as solicitor-advocate on numerous appeals against sentence and conviction in the District Court, bail applications in all courts (Local, District and Supreme Courts) and in plea/sentence hearings in the Local and District Courts.

Some cited examples are: R v Fallow (a pseudonym) [2017] NSWSC 1796; DPP v Hammond [2017] NSWLC 9; R v Robert John Hall [2017] NSWDC 240; R v TAANI, Otukinekina [2016] NSWDC 394; R v Leota [2016] NSWDC 384; R v Hernandez, Jesus [2016] NSWDC 398.