Geoffrey Gibson

Geoffrey Gibson graduated from the University of in 1970 with a B.A., and LL.B. and the Hearn Exhibition in Jurisprudence, after winning two exhibitions when matriculating as Dux of Haileybury College in 1963.

He was articled to Blake & Riggall in Melbourne in 1969. During his graduation year he was Associate to the Honourable Mr Justice Smith of the Supreme Court of . In 1971 and 1972 he read at the Victorian Bar with D.M. Dawson, now the Honourable Sir Daryl Dawson, formerly Justice of the , and W.F. Ormiston, later the Honourable Justice Ormiston of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria.

He practised as a barrister at the Victorian Bar from 1971 to 1986 and, while at the Bar, acted for or against all the leading media in Victoria and he appeared in the leading commercial and takeover cases. He was briefed for and against the Commissioner of Taxation. From 1971 to 1976 he also lectured in Law at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology taking the position of Sir Daryl Dawson.

In 1985 he was retained by the Victorian Government to draw and settle a bill for an act to regulate the legal profession.

Geoffrey Gibson joined Blake Dawson Waldron as a partner in 1986, practising in the government sector, dispute resolution, and media law. He returned to the Victorian Bar in 2002.

Geoffrey was the Presiding Member in charge of the Taxation Division of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal from its inception in 1985 until 2003. His decisions have been considered on appeal in the Supreme Court of Victoria, the Court of Appeal, and the High Court of Australia.

In 1992 he was appointed by the Victorian Government as Acting Chairman of the Victorian Gaming Commission to hear an appeal by the Victoria Police from a decision to license a U.S. manufacturer. The hearings were the subject of two challenges to the Supreme Court of Victoria.

In 2003 he was appointed to constitute the Tribunal for disciplinary offences under the Metropolitan Fire Brigade Act 1958. The hearings have been challenged in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission, the Supreme Court of Victoria, and in the Federal Court of Australia. In 2005 he was appointed a Chairperson of the Disciplinary Appeals Boards under the Teaching Service Act 1981. He currently holds statutory appointments.

Geoffrey has specialised in alternative dispute resolution, having completed both the Basic and the Advanced Mediation Courses at Bond University and a course in International Commercial Arbitration at Harvard Law School. He has been appointed mediator in very many cases and has conducted arbitrations both here and in the U.S.

Four of his books have been commercially published: A Journalist’s Companion to Australian Law (Melbourne University Press, 1998); The Arbitrator’s Companion (Federation Press, 2001); Law for Directors (Federation Press, 2003). His fourth book, The Making of a Lawyer (What They Didn’t Teach You at Law School) has now been published (in 2008). He contributes the chapter on Defamation for LexisNexisv. Other works have been privately published. His fifth book, The Common Law, a History, is in production (Australian Scholarly Publishing), and Parallel Trials (Socrates and Jesus) and The Humility of Knowledge await publication.

He has had more than 50 taxation decisions published in various law reports. His decisions have reached the High Court on five occasions.

He has published many papers on dispute resolution: The Cancer in Litigation (1997) 103 Victorian Bar News, 26; 104 Victorian Bar News 24; 105 Victorian Bar News 23; Once were Lawyers (1999) 73 Australian Law Journal 52; Fusion or Fission? (2000) 20 Australian Bar Review 70; Unfair Trials (2001) 75 Law Institute Journal 72; Horses for Courses: Warlords as Peacemakers: Are Trial Lawyers Bad for ADR? (2002) 68 Arbitration 1 (London); Judicial Overservicing: Bringing Home the Bacon (2002) Victorian Bar News 46; Bush Lawyers (2004) 128 Victorian Bar News, Autumn 26; Tips for the Young Advocate (Paper presented at the Victorian Bar Readers’ Course, 2004 and subsequently); Positive or Negative? The Attitude of Lawyers (2004) ADR Bulletin, Vol 6 No.10, 198; Is Mediation getting on the nose? Are the judges killing mediation? (2005) ADR Bulletin, Vol.7, No.6, 106; Surviving the Law, Victorian Bar News,2006; Talking with Liars and Bullies, 140 Victorian Bar News, Autumn 2007, 41:Does the Bar Matter? Victorian Bar News, 2008.

Geoffrey is a member of the Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, the International Association of Lawyers and the International Bar Association. He is a mediator accredited with the Law Institute of Victoria and the Victorian Bar (as a specialist mediator).