One of Australia’s leading experts on evidence law, advocacy and privacy will take up the position of Professor of Law at Charles Darwin University early in 2010.
Professor Les McCrimmon will join CDU’s School of Law and Business on 1 February.
The Dean of the Faculty of Law, Business and Arts, Professor Gary Davis, said Professor McCrimmon’s appointment was further evidence of CDU’s commitment to providing leading edge education.
“His strong leadership, coupled with his extensive experience and networks in the legal profession and higher education will bring a new perspective to the School,” Professor Davis said.
“We have attracted someone with a distinguished record of teaching excellence and innovation, a first-rate scholar of international standing, someone with a background in legal practice with excellent networks into the legal and judicial communities, and a committed reformer and contributor to social justice both within Australia and beyond.
“This is an outstanding appointment for the university and it will be a privilege to have him as a colleague at CDU.”
Currently completing his term as full-time Commissioner with the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC), Professor McCrimmon is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Before his appointment to the ALRC, he was Associate Professor of Law at Sydney University and Bond University. He has also practised law as a trial and appellate lawyer in Canada before arriving permanently in Australia in 1990.
He holds a BA and LLB from the University of Alberta, Canada, and an LLM by research from the University of Queensland. He is also admitted as a legal practitioner in the Northern Territory and New South Wales.
At the ALRC, Prof McCrimmon led the references on the Uniform Evidence Acts; Privacy; and Royal Commissions—conducting consultations in the Northern Territory on those inquiries.
He is well known to the judiciary and legal profession in the Northern Territory for his work on evidence. The Privacy inquiry culminated in the landmark report For Your Information: Australian Privacy Law and Practice, a three-volume, 2700 page report containing nearly 300 recommendations for reform.
In addition to research he has led at the ALRC, Professor McCrimmon is the co-author of Real Property Law in Queensland and Fundamentals of Trial Techniques: Australian Edition.
Since 1994, he has been a member of the teaching faculty of the Australian Advocacy Institute, Australia’s leading provider of advocacy training to the legal profession. He was a founding member of the Global Alliance for Justice Education, which is a world leader in the promotion of social justice through legal education.
Earlier this year, he was a consultant to the Government of Botswana on the establishment of an independent law reform agency in that country.