Peter Graham (judge)

The Hon Peter Ross Graham is a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia.

Pre-judicial career

Graham was educated at the University of Sydney and Harvard University. He commenced practice as a barrister in New South Wales in 1966, before becoming Queen's Counsel in 1982, practising mainly in commercial law. He served for a period as Acting Judge of the New South Wales Supreme Court in 1997.

Judicial career

Graham was appointed by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock as a Justice of the Federal Court of Australia on 7 April 2005, taking up his position on 24 May 2005.

Graham sits in the Sydney registry of the court. Some of his notable judgments include:

: *"Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs v SZFDE" [ [2006] [http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/FCAFC/2006/142.html?query=szfde&nocontext FCAFC 142] ] : Graham joined with Justice James Allsopp in the majority of the Full Bench of the court in holding that the fraud of a migration agent did not lead the Refugee Review Tribunal into jurisdictional error. Graham and Allsopp's judgments were overturned by a unanimous judgment of the High Court of Australia ["SZFDE v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship" [2007] [http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/HCA/2007/35.html?query=szfde&nocontext HCA 35] ] .: *"Telstra Corporation Limited v Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (No. 2)" [ [2007] [http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/sinodisp/au/cases/cth/federal_ct/2007/1445.html?query=graham%20j%20and%20telstra&nocontext FCA 1445] ] : Graham J rejected a claim for legal professional privilege over internal legal advice prepared by in-house lawyers for Telstra. This created concerns in the legal community as to the extent that in-house legal advice is protected from disclosure to a court [Allens Arthur Robinson Publication, [http://www.aar.com.au/pubs/ldr/fodr28sep07.htm "In-house lawyers and claims for privilege"] , September 2007] . Graham is the presiding judge in litigation between Telstra and the Commonwealth of Australia over the awarding of a billion-dollar broadband contract to a competitor.

References

External links

* [http://www.fedcourt.gov.au/aboutct/graham.html Federal Court page]
* [http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/MinisterRuddockHome.nsf/Page/Media_Releases_2005_Second_Quarter_7_April_2005_-_Appointment_of_Judges_to_the_Federal_Court_of_Australia_-_0562005 Attorney-General's media release] : "Appointment of Judges to the Federal Court of Australia", 7 April 2005.