Ian Cunliffe

Ian Cunliffe has had a long career as a solicitor in private practice and a senior federal public servant. 
He has been a partner of some of Australia’s largest legal partnerships, including the firms now called 
Norton Rose and Ashursts; and also practised under his own name. 

Earlier in his career, Ian was successively head of the Legal Section of the Department of Prime 
Minister and Cabinet, ceo/Secretary and Director of Research of the Australian Law Reform 
Commission and Chief Executive of the Australian Constitutional Commission.  At the beginning 
of his career, Ian was the Associate to Sir Cyril Walsh at the High Court of Australia and did articles 
at what was then Australia’s largest law firm, Allen, Allen & Hemsley. 

Ian is a member of the Advisory Board to Melbourne University's Centre for Comparative 
Constitutional Studies and various other boards and executive committees.  For a decade, he has
conducted a free legal service at the Carlton Public Housing Estate in Melbourne. 
 
Ian holds degrees in Arts and Law (Honours) from the Australian National University. His 
constitutional interests focus on the role of the Constitution as a brake on government and as a 
guarantor of freedom from interference by government.  Ian was the lead litigant in the very important 
implied rights case, Cunliffe v. The Commonwealth (1994) 182 CLR 272.
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