About Tom

Tom has specialised in criminal law for more than 17 years. In cases large enough to make the evening news, and in courts throughout the State.

Admission and employment history

  • Admitted in NSW: 2007

  • Admitted in the High Court of Australia: 2007

  • Employment before the Bar:

    • Nyman Gibson Stewart (criminal defence - now known as Nyman Gibson Miralis, or NGM)

    • NSW DPP (as a committal advocate)

    • Commonwealth DPP (as a Senior Federal Prosecutor).

    • NSW Legal Aid (as a Trial Advocate).

Current appointments

Tom is currently on the Bar Association Criminal Law Committee, and the Law Society Criminal Law Committee (as the Bar Association representative).

Previous appointments:

  • Legal Profession Admission Board, Legal Qualifications Committee

  • NSW Council of Law Reporting

  • Law Society Councillor

  • President of NSW Young Lawyers, 2013-14

Presentations (selection only)

  • Legal Aid NSW Criminal Law Conference 2023: Ethics hypotheticals for criminal lawyers

  • Legal Aid NSW Criminal Law Conference 2022: Ethics for criminal lawyers

  • Legal Aid NSW Criminal Law Conference 2021: Panel Presentation on mental health

  • Blue Mountains Regional Law Society Annual Conference 2021: The New Mental Health Legislation

  • Legal Aid NSW CPD seminar and paper presentation December 2020: The New Mental Health Legislation

  • Legal Aid NSW CPD seminar September 2020: Negotiating in EAGP matters

  • Law Society of NSW CPD seminar February 2020: Negotiating in EAGP matters

  • Environment and Planning Law Association (NSW):

    • Twilight Seminar on the topic of prosecutor’s duties

    • Annual Conference October 2019, with Sally Dowling SC and others on criminal prosecutions

  • Legal Eagles Criminal Law Conference 2015, Hoi An, Vietnam (on the topic of recent national developments in prosecutor’s duties);

  • National Access to Justice and Pro Bono Conference 2015 (on the topic of “Privacy and freedom in the age of data retention”)

Papers and articles presented (selection only):

  • Ethics for Criminal Lawyers presentation, 2021, 2022

  • Monthly case notes on criminal law for the Law Society Journal since 2014

  • Periodic substantive articles for the Law Society Journal on request by LSJ editor, including:

    • From panic to policy: the state of criminal law reform, June 2024

    • Rushed reforms, uncertainty and more prisoners on remand: Recent changes to the Bail Act, August 2022

    • Concealing a complex problem, March 2018, Issue 53, page 80.

    • New sentencing options: giving with one hand and taking with the other, July 2018, Issue 46, page 75.

    • Testimony before commissions: a compelling case in criminal law, July 2017, Issue 4, page 70

    • High Court Takes Sentencing Back To Basics In The Queen v Pham, February 2016, Volume 3, page 71

    • Mandatory sentencing: It ought to be passed in at the law and order auction, July 2014, Volume 1, page 70

    • Changing the Way we Sentence – cover article for the Law Society Journal February 2012. Cited by the NSW Law Reform Commission in Report 134.