Felicity Graham

Felicity Graham has over a decade of experience as a lawyer with a focus on criminal, administrative and human rights law. She has a diverse national practice in addition to having practised overseas in Nauru. She has a particular interest in legal mechanisms for protecting fundamental human rights and for achieving police and government accountability.

Her legal career began as Tipstaff to his Honour Justice Graham Barr at the NSW Supreme Court in 2008. From 2009, Felicity worked as a solicitor at the Aboriginal Legal Service in Dubbo and Broken Hill specialising in criminal defence and deaths in custody coronial matters. Before being called to the Bar in 2015, she was the Principal Legal Officer and Trial Advocate at the Aboriginal Legal Service in the Western Region of NSW.

Felicity is a member of the NSW Sentencing Council, an independent advisory body to the Attorney General on sentencing matters.

Felicity regularly presents at conferences and is a host of the popular legal podcast “The Wigs”.

NSW Sentencing Council
NSW Bar Association Professional Conduct Committee

Many of Felicity’s papers and publications are available at www.criminalcpd.net.au.

• ‘Threats to the Rule of Law’: First presented at the Reasonable Cause Conference, 2021.
• ‘When you don’t know what you don’t know: 10 things you should know’: Joint Paper with Madeleine Avenell and Tim McKenzie; First presented at the Reasonable Cause Conference, 2020.
• ‘Prior sexual history and fabricated complaints: Understanding and applying s 293 Criminal Procedure Act 1986’: First presented at the Nauru 19 Fundraiser CPD, 2019.
• ‘The Nauru 19 and the importance of pro bono’: First presented at the Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory Conference, Indonesia, 2019.
• ‘Forensic Procedure Orders: Lewis v Sergeant Riley’: Joint Presentation with Jeremy Styles, Bench TV, 2019.
• ‘Open and closed justice: Suppression and non-publication orders in criminal proceedings in New South Wales’: Joint Paper with Sian McGee, 2018.
• ‘Prosecution Disclosure (And Non-Disclosure) in Criminal Matters’: Joint Paper with Stephen Lawrence; Presented at the ALS Western Region Conference, Rydal, 2018.
• ‘Should swearing in public be a crime?’: Presented at the University of Technology, 2018.
• ‘”You Fucking Beauty”: “Fuck Fred Nile” and Other Inoffensive Comments’: Joint Paper with Christian Hearn and Stephen Lawrence, 2016.
• ‘Asking Aboriginal People Questions: A paper about calling evidence from Aboriginal clients and witnesses and the application of the Evidence Act 1995 (NSW)’: Joint Paper with Sophia Beckett; Presented at Conference of the Environment and Planning Law Association, 2015.
• ‘Fingerprint Identification Evidence: Markers of Unreliability’: Presented at the 2015 ALS Western Region Conference, Dubbo, the 2015 Criminal Lawyers Association of the Northern Territory Conference, Indonesia and the 2017 NSW Police Fingerprint Experts Training Day.
• ‘Under Age and Under Investigation: Forensic Procedures on Children’: Presented at the Children’s Legal Service Conference, Sydney, 2014.
• ‘Strategic Litigation at the ALS: A Review and a Roadmap for Future Challenges in the Criminal Law’, Presented at the ALS Annual Conference, Sydney, 2014.
• ‘Appearing for a suspect under Part 5 Crimes (Forensic Procedures) Act 2000’: Presented at the ALS Western Region Conference, Rydal, 2014.
• ‘Taser! Taser! Taser! A case study on law and procedure pertaining to police Tasers’: Presented at the Reasonable Cause Conference, Sydney, 2014.
• ‘Sentencing Aboriginality in an Age of Mass Imprisonment’: Presented at the ALS Annual Conference, Coffs Harbour, 2013; at Ashurst Law Firm, Sydney; and at the National Indigenous Legal Conference, Alice Springs.
• ‘Police v Phillip Bugmy: A case study’: Presented at the ALS Annual Conference, Sydney, 2012.
• ‘Conflict of interest and duties in a criminal law context’: Presented at the ALS Western Zone Conference, Rydal, 2012.
• ‘Imprisonment and Motherhood: A Contradiction and its Consequences’: Article published in the Sydney University Law Society Women’s Journal Yemaya, 2007.

Vicky Johnston (Clerk)
Black Chambers
(02) 8590 5182
0408 418 177

Eleanor Tjhin (Junior Clerk)
Adam Hussain (Junior Clerk)

Black Chambers
Wallamulla, Gadigal Country
Suite 204, Level 2
185 Elizabeth Street
Sydney NSW 2000
Australia

Cases

• R v Teel (a pseudonym) [2021] ACTSC 183
• Jackmain (a pseudonym) v The Queen & Anor [2020] HCATrans 149 (led by T Game SC); and Jackmain (a pseudonym) v R [2020] NSWCCA 150; 102 NSWLR 847; 381 ALR 140; 284 A Crim R 483; 354 FLR 40 (led by K Richardson SC)
• Padraic Gibson (on behalf of the Dungay family) v Commissioner of Police (NSW Police Force) [2020] NSWCA 160; 102 NSWLR 900; 283 A Crim R 197 (led by D Toomey SC)
• Commissioner of Police (NSW) v Gibson [2020] NSWSC 953
• Commissioner of Police v Gray [2020] NSWSC 867
• Raul Bassi v Commissioner of Police (NSW) [2020] NSWCA 109; (2020) 283 A Crim R 186
• BP v State of New South Wales [2019] NSWCA 223 (led by S Prince SC)
• R v RB; Attorney-General (NSW) as Intervenor [2019] NSWDC 368 and related trial proceedings
• Cecil v Director of Public Prosecutions (Nauru); Kepae v Director of Public Prosecutions (Nauru); Jeremiah v Director of Public Prosecutions (Nauru) [2017] HCA 46 (led by B Walker SC)
• Lewis v Sergeant Riley [2017] NSWCA 272; 96 NSWLR 274 (led by S Prince)
• Royal Commission and Board of Inquiry into the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory (2016 to 2017), counsel for Central Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service
• W4 v Detective Senior Constable Ayscough [2016] NSWSC 1106; 261 A Crim R 237
• JP v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) [2015] NSWSC 1669; 256 A Crim R 447 (led by B Rigg SC)
• McKellar v DPP [2014] NSWSC 459; 240 A Crim R 285 (solicitor)
• RH v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) [2014] NSWCA 305; 244 A Crim R 221 (solicitor)
• Osborne v R [2014] NSWCCA 17; 238 A Crim R 417; 283 FLR 97 (solicitor)
• Inquest into the Death of Stanley Lord, Sydney, 2014 (solicitor advocate)
• Gaudie v Local Court of New South Wales and Anor [2013] NSWSC 1425; 235 A Crim R 98 (solicitor)
• Bugmy v The Queen [2013] HCA 37; 249 CLR 571; 87 ALJR 1022; 302 ALR 192; 229 A Crim R 337 (solicitor)
• Hammond v DPP [2013] NSWSC 888 (solicitor)
• Inquest into the Death of Tony Prince, Dubbo, 2013 (solicitor advocate)
• Lawson v Dunlevy [2012] NSWSC 48 (solicitor)