Law Advisory Board

The Honourable Barry O’Keefe AM, QC (Chair, Law Advisory Board)
The Hon. Barry O’Keefe graduated with Honours in Law from the University of Sydney. He was admitted to the NSW Bar in 1957 and appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1974. He was appointed Chief Judge of the Commercial Division of the Supreme Court of NSW in 1993. Mr O’Keefe was President of the National Trust from 1991 until 2006 and Chairman of Interpol’s International Group of Experts on Corruption from 2000. He was the ICAC Commissioner from 1994 until 1999 , President of the NSW Bar Association in 1990 and 1991 and Mosman's longest serving Mayor. Mr O’Keefe retired from the Supreme Court in March 2004 and joined Clayton Utz as a Consultant, where he specialises in commercial, construction and probity matters. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1989 , a Freeman of the City of London in 1991 and awarded a Centenary Medal in 2001."

Mr Robert Balzola
Robert Balzola is a solicitor who has been Chief of Staff to the Federal Member for Lowe since 1999.  Among the degrees he holds are a BEc, an LLB, an LLM, and a Masters of Theology.

Ms Lucy McCallum SC
Lucy McCallum completed her BA and LLB at the University of New South Wales and was admitted as a solicitor in 1986. She was employed at Mallesons Stephen Jaques, the Commonwealth Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Queensland Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.  Appointed to the NSW Bar in 1991, Ms McCallum was appointed a Senior Counsel in September 2005.

Mr Peter Gammell CA
Peter Gammell is a Scottish Chartered Accountant.  He joined Kerry Stokes in 1981 and is currently the Group Managing Director of Mr. Stokes’ private company, Australian Capital Equity Pty. Ltd [“ACE”].   He is also a director of Seven Network Limited and National Hire Ltd, and a former director of Scottish Pacific Business Finance Holdings Ltd - a subsidiary of the Bank of Scotland. His former public company directorships include B Digital Ltd and R M Williams Holdings Ltd.  Between 1984 and 1989, he was a director of Castle Cairn (Financial Services) Ltd and a director of Cairn Energy Management Limited and Cairn Energy PLC.

Claire Galt
Claire Galt is a solicitor in the Corporate Advisory/M&A group of Clayton Utz.  During her combined Bachelor of Laws/Bachelor of Arts at Sydney University (completed in 2003) she was an active member of the Sydney University Law Society (SULS), acting as Social Director of SULS in 2001 and President of SULS in 2003.  Claire also represented SULS at a number of Australian Law Students’ Association conferences.  Claire has also been involved in various clerkship recruitment committees.

Mr Richard St John
Richard St John is Convenor of the Corporations and Markets Advisory Committee which provides advice to the Commonwealth Government.   He is special counsel to Johnson Winter & Slattery in Melbourne.  As Secretary to the HIH Royal Commission in 2001-2003 Richard worked closely with the Royal Commissioner, Justice Neville Owen, in the planning and direction of the inquiry and the preparation of the report - particularly those sections dealing with future directions. He was General Counsel of BHP from 1988–1999 and Corporate General Counsel and Company Secretary from 2000-2001.

Mr Greg Smith SC
Greg Smith has been the Member for Epping in the NSW Parliament since March 2007. He is the Shadow Attorney General, Shadow Minister for Justice, Shadow Minister for Juvenile Justice. He was formerly the Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) since 2002.  He appeared regularly in the High Court of Australia.  His career in the criminal justice system started with the Commonwealth Crown in Sydney, which was followed by a secondment to the Stewart Royal Commission into Drug Trafficking.  Later the Commonwealth DPP sent him to Ireland with the extradition request for mafia leader Robert Trimbole.  Mr Smith worked for 2 years at the National Crime Authority before his appointment as a NSW Crown Prosecutor in 1987.  Since then, he has prosecuted many major trials, and also completed a stint at ICAC as Counsel Assisting.  He is the current President of the Saint Thomas More Society for Catholic Lawyers.

Mr Charles A E Scarf
Charles Scarf graduated from Sydney University in 1963 with a BEc, and graduated from Stanford University in 1966 with an MBA.  From 1970-1996 he was Managing Director/Chairman of retail, wholesale and property businesses owned by his family. From 1996 to the present he has developed investments in property and finance.  Mr Scarf founded the Saint Jude Foundation in 1983, as well as Foodbank – an Australia-wide not-for-profit organisation which coordinates the collection and distribution of food annually to the underprivileged through existing charitable organisations.

Mr Bruno Camarri
Bruno Camarri has practised as a corporate lawyer since 1969, primarily representing clients in energy and natural resources, construction and technology industries.  He was a partner at Freehills from 1973 to 2003.  Bruno is now a senior member of Freehills’ national Energy and Resources team.  Between 1994 and 1996, he was Senior Counsel for the Western Australian Commission on Government.  He is the Deputy Chairman of United Group Ltd and a director of LinQ Capital Ltd, the responsible entity for the LinQ Resources Fund.  He is a joint patron of United Way (Western Australia) Inc and the President of the Board of Governors of Meerilinga Young Children’s Foundation Inc.  He has received a number of awards and nominations including the Butterworth’s Lawyers Community Services Award (1996) and the St Georges Rotary Community Services Award (1999).  He was named as a Paul Harris Fellow (1999) by the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International and was a nominee for the WA Citizen of the year award in Community Services (2006).

The Honourable John Dunford, QC
The Honourable John Dunford QC graduated in Law at the University of Sydney in 1959 and practised as a barrister in NSW and the ACT from 1960 to 1986.  He was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 1980, and was a Judge of the District Court of NSW from 1986 to 1992, and of the Supreme Court from 1993 until his retirement in early 2005.  He was President of the St Thomas More Society for Catholic Lawyers from 1990 to 1992.  He is currently Deputy Chairperson of the New South Wales Sentencing Council and is currently (2007) an Acting Commissioner of the Corruption and Crime Commission of Western Australia.
He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Notre Dame Australia.

Mr Keith Steele
Keith Steele has practised extensively since 1977 in the area of commercial dispute resolution and litigation (including arbitration), with special expertise in commercial, projects, and resources contracts, cross-border disputes, product liability, public law and international trade remedy law.  His practice in major commercial litigation over the past 28 years has involved a range of jurisdictions including the Supreme Court of NSW, the Federal Court and the High Court.  He is the National Head of Litigation at Freehills.

Mr Adrian Diethelm
Adrian Diethelm is a barrister practicing in Sydney in taxation law, equity and commercial law.  He graduated BA (1st class Hons in Philosophy) and LLB (1st class Hons) from the University of Sydney and was Associate to Sir Nigel Bowen, Chief Justice of the Federal Court.  He read for the BCL at Oxford and lectured in law at Sydney University.  He was subsequently a senior associate at Allen Allen & Hemsley and lecturer in law at the University of Queensland.  He has been at the New South Wales Bar since 1997 and completed the MTax at Sydney.  He is a Fellow of the Taxation Institute of Australia and councillor of the St Thomas More Society. 

Mr Richard Shankland
Richard Shankland is a Senior Associate in the Litigation Department of Clayton Utz in Sydney.   His experience lies in commercial litigation and disputes, insurance coverage disputes and commercial advice work, and extends to corporate insurance, insurance and legal risk management, directors’ and officers’ insurance, and professional indemnity.