Swinburne Law School
At Swinburne Law School, we focus on law and technology and practical skills. We’re committed to producing future-ready lawyers and criminal justice and criminology professionals who have elite problem-solving and persuasive skills.
Did you know?
Launched in February 2015, Swinburne Law School is the newest, most dynamic and forward-thinking law school in Australia and is rated fourth in the country and in the top 150 law schools worldwide (Shanghai Ranking’s Global Ranking of Academic Subjects 2020).
Our students are exposed to world-class research with a focus on the society-shaping areas of law and technology, intellectual property and criminal justice.
Our degrees. Our difference.
We’re the only law school in Victoria where graduates can apply to practise the day they graduate. Our partnership with the Leo Cussens Institute means that students can complete their Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice, and gain extensive practical experience, all while studying their Bachelor of Laws. Plus, we offer our students three professional placements. It’s all part of our commitment to ensuring our students are well equipped to handle whatever tomorrow throws at them.
Our Criminal Justice and Criminology degree is the only course in Victoria where you learn about both the causes of crime (criminology) and how society responds to crime (criminal justice).
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Our law courses and degrees
Be prepared for the rigorous and intellectually challenging legal profession by studying law at Swinburne. Our teachers are experts in commercial law, intellectual property, internet law and privacy law.
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Swinburne Law School Research
Swinburne Law School aims to transform the legal industry and shape lives and communities through research based on innovation, invention and creativity.
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- Law
Swinburne Law students take on the world in Oxford
Swinburne Law students placed third for their written submissions in the Oxford International Intellectual Property Law Mooting Competition.Tuesday 16 April 2019 -
- Law
‘Boundless opportunities’ put Swinburne law graduate on top
Swinburne Law School graduate has received a prestigious Supreme Court Prize 2020 for his oustanding academic achievements while studying at Swinburne.Thursday 14 May 2020 -
- Law
Swinburne law students create innovative legal tech solutions on global scale
Two students represented Swinburne in a global competition to help solve real-life legal industry problems using technology.Thursday 11 June 2020
Our people
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Professor Mirko Bagaric
Dean, Swinburne Law School -
Amanda Scardamaglia
Department Chair, Swinburne Law School
Name | Position | Contact | Location |
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Kylie Huynh | Executive Assistant to the Dean, Swinburne Law School | +61 3 9214 3451 kyliehuynh@swinburne.edu.au |
AGSE316 |
Name | Position | Contact |
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Julian Burnside AO QC | Adjunct Professor, Law | jburnside@swinburne.edu.au |
Professor Peter Gray | Adjunct Professor, Law | prgray@swinburne.edu.au |
Professor Dan Hunter | Adjunct Professor, Law | +61 3 9214 4432 dhunter@swinburne.edu.au |
Dr Paul Latimer | Adjunct Professor, Law | +61 3 9214 3806 platimer@swinburne.edu.au |
William Lye OAM SC | Adjunct Professor, Law | wlye@swinburne.edu.au |
Professor Frank Vincent AO QC | Adjunct Professor, Law | fvincent@swinburne.edu.au |
Our strategy for research and teaching is informed by industry. The Law School has an Advisory Board and each degree or course has a Course Advisory Committee comprising of industry experts to inform curriculum development.
External Law Advisory Committee
Chair
Mitzi Gilligan
Mitzi Gilligan holds a BSc/LLB (Hons) from Monash University, an LLM from the University of Cambridge and an LLM (Intellectual Property) from Monash University. She has been practising as a commercial and regulatory lawyer since 1990, including in the United Kingdom from 1993 to 1997.
She was a partner of Minter Ellison from 2000 until she left in February 2014 to become one of the founding principles of Hive Legal. She served on the Melbourne High School Council from 2009 to 2013 and has been on the board of Justice Connect (formerly PILCH) since 2006 and as chair since December 2010.
External members
Julian Burnside AO QC
The Honourable Julian Burnside OA QC practises principally in commercial litigation, trade practices and administrative law. While maintaining a strong commercial practice, Julian has also developed a distinguished public law practice. His landmark cases include successfully appearing for the plaintiff in Trevorrow v. South Australia which was the first case in which a court recognised membership of the Stolen Generation as a basis for legal compensation.
In recent years Julian has become one of Australia's leading advocates in relation to Australia's treatment of asylum seekers and the protection of human rights. He is also an accomplished author. An early and ongoing user of technology in law, Julian is a founding member of the Victorian Society for Computers and Law.
Rodney DeBoos
Rodney DeBoos is a consultant to Davies Collison Cave Law and Davies Collison Cave Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, having previously been a partner of the firm for over 20 years. He practises mainly in the area of commercialisation of intellectual property and for a number of years lectured on that topic in the Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property program at the University of Melbourne.
Terry Healy
Since 2005 as Special Counsel to CSIRO, Terry Healy has managed CSIRO’s highly successful patent litigation and licensing initiative based on an invention relating to wifi made by CSIRO scientists in 1992–3. The litigation, centred mainly in the Eastern District of Texas in the United States, has led to licences and settlement agreements worth more than $450 million.
Before that, Terry was CSIRO’s General Counsel for about two decades, in which role he concentrated mainly on corporate governance and litigation. He is admitted to legal practice in Victoria, New South Wales, the ACT and before the High Court of Australia; he is also a Registered Patent Attorney in Australia.
In his 40-plus-year career with CSIRO, Terry has been involved in a wide variety of legal and policy areas, including through extended secondments to the Parliamentary Office of a Federal Minister for Science, the Independent Inquiry into CSIRO (1978), Shell (Australia), CRA (now Rio Tinto), Freehills and Griffith Hack.
Frank Vincent AO QC
The Honourable Frank Vincent AO QC is a distinguished retired judge of the Victorian Supreme Court and former Chancellor of Victoria University. In his legal career his focus was on criminal law, appearing in approximately 200 murder trials, a record number.
Vincent also worked with several Aboriginal legal aid services, particularly during the years 1975 to 1985 when he spent a substantial part of each year in the Northern Territory working with the Aboriginal community. Vincent was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1985 and had been a Judge of the Court of Appeal for nine years at the time of his retirement in 2009. He was Deputy Chair and then Chair of the Victorian Adult Parole Board, a position he occupied for 17 years.
Vincent has served as a member of the Victorian Law Reform Commission, consultant to the Australian Law Reform Commission and Chairman of the Victorian Criminal Bar Association, and since his retirement has been appointed by successive Attorneys General to conduct a number of inquiries into matters of public importance.
Irene Zeitler
Irene Zeitler holds an LLB (Hons)/BA (Hons) from the University of Melbourne, an LLM from Monash University, and a postgraduate master degree in German Law from Ludwig Maximilians Universität in Germany. She was a partner at Herbert Smith Freehills from 1987 to 2012 where she specialised in intellectual property and technology. Irene is a graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors and was a member of the Intellectual Property Sub-Committee of the Law Council of Australia from 1990 to 2012.
Mick Sheehy
Mick Sheehy has been a PriceWaterhouseCoopers partner since October 2018, responsible for building and running PwC’s Australian NewLaw practice which is focused on providing strategic consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions to legal departments.
Mick is a recognised international leader in the field of legal innovation and transformation, having won numerous international legal innovation awards and with his work the subject of a case study for Harvard Law School. Mick founded and chaired the Corporate Legal Operations Consortium Australia, an industry body established to share best-practice legal operations and innovation knowledge.
Latest news
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- Law
Swinburne law academic wins Victorian Premier’s History Award
Associate Professor Amanda Scardamaglia has won this year’s award for writing the first book that documents the visual history of print advertising in Australia.
Thursday 29 October 2020 -
- Law
With democracy paused, Big Brother runs Victoria
The singular focus of pandemic laws must be to stop activities that result in human congestion; not those that restrict movement, writes Dean of Swinburne Law School Professor Mirko Bagaric.
Monday 14 September 2020 -
- Law
Andrews has the laws, so let’s crack down on pandemic rule-breakers
The Victorian government needs people to understand the serious legal consequences of ignoring the pandemic rules, writes Dean of Swinburne Law School Professor Mirko Bagaric.
Wednesday 05 August 2020 -
- Law
US burns but we just turn away
Dean of Law, Professor Mirko Bagaric highlights the disproportionate rate of incarceration for Indigenous Australians in light of riots rocking the US.Tuesday 02 June 2020 -
- Politics
‘The time has come to say something of the forgotten class’: how Menzies transformed Australian political debate
As Australia’s longest serving prime minister, the career of Robert Menzies remains a model of political success in this country.Thursday 18 June 2020
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Need to contact the Swinburne Law School?
For general enquiries, you can contact the Swinburne Law School by emailing lawschool@swinburne.edu.au.