ASTUTE, COMMERCIAL AND DECISIVE

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. 

Ian is a member of the Advisory Board to Melbourne University's Centre for Comparative Constitutional  Studies and various other boards and executive committees. He conducts a legal service at the Carlton Public Housing Estate. 
 
He holds degrees in Arts and Law 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. He was the lead litigant in the implied rights case, Cunliffe v.The Commonwealth (1994) 182 CLR 272.