Ian Cunliffe
Ian Cunliffe has had a long career as a solicitor in private practice and a senior federal public servant. Recently he has become a prolific author on political and social issues.
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.
At the beginning of his career, Ian was the Associate to Sir Cyril Walsh at the High Court of Australia and published articles at Allen, Allen & Hemsley, at what was then Australia’s largest law firm.
Other distinguished career highlights
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 more than a decade, he has conducted a very busy, free legal service at the Carlton Public Housing Estate in Melbourne. He continues to do so, and to practise law in his own name.
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.
Ian Cunliffe has had a long career as a solicitor in private practice and a senior federal public servant. Recently he has become a prolific author on political and social issues.
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.
At the beginning of his career, Ian was the Associate to Sir Cyril Walsh at the High Court of Australia and published articles at Allen, Allen & Hemsley, at what was then Australia’s largest law firm.
Other distinguished career highlights
- Deputy to the Secretary of the first Royal Commission into Intelligence and Security
- a Senior legal officer in administrative law in the federal Attorney-General’s Department
- Deputy to the Secretary of the Protective Security Review
- Head of the Administrative Law section and the Legal Section of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet
- CEO/Secretary and Director of Research of the Australian Law Reform Commission
- Chief lawyer in the head office of the National Crime Authority
- Chief Executive of the Australian Constitutional Commission.
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 more than a decade, he has conducted a very busy, free legal service at the Carlton Public Housing Estate in Melbourne. He continues to do so, and to practise law in his own name.
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.