Christopher Murray Maxwell is an Australian jurist. He succeeded Justice John Winneke as President of the Victorian Court of Appeal on 16 July 2005. He retired as President of the Court of Appeal on 15 July 2022, after serving in the role for 17 years.

Career

Maxwell was educated at

Melbourne Grammar School Melbourne Grammar School is an Australian private school, private Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican Day school, day and boarding school. It comprises a co-educational preparatory school from Prep to Year 6 and a middle school and senior s ...

and the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

where he was resident at

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

. He played rugby and

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

at Trinity, where he was the senior student in 1973. After graduating with honours in 1974, he was selected as Victorian

Rhodes Scholar The Rhodes Scholarship is an international Postgraduate education, postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Esta ...

for 1975, completing a Bachelor of Philosophy at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

. In 1978, he became a barrister at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

practising briefly at the English Bar. In 1979, he returned to Melbourne working as a solicitor at law firm Phillips Fox. In 1981, he became principal private secretary to ALP Senator Gareth Evans who was appointed as federal

Attorney-General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general (: attorneys general) or attorney-general (AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have executive responsibility for law enf ...

in 1983. In 1983, he left to become a barrister in Victoria and was variously reader for

Kenneth Hayne Kenneth Madison Hayne (born 5 June 1945) is a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, the highest court in the Australian court hierarchy. Early life and education Hayne was born in Gympie, Queensland and attended Scotch College, Melbou ...

QC and reader for Ross Robson QC. He signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 1984 and became a QC in 1998. Maxwell was a Victorian Legal Aid Commissioner for seven years from 1986 and also a member of the board of Liberty Victoria for six years, two of them as president from 2000. He appeared with

Julian Burnside Julian William Kennedy Burnside (born 9 June 1949) is an Australian barrister, human rights and refugee advocate, and author. He practises principally in commercial litigation, trade practices and administrative law. He is best known for his st ...

QC in the ''

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

'' refugee case, and was then famously but unsuccessfully countersued (as a board member of Liberty Victoria) by the Commonwealth of Australia for costs. In 1982 he published ''An Introduction to the Securities Industry Codes'' (Sydney: Butterworths, 1982) with Robert Baxt and Selwyn Bajada, released in a second edition in 1988 as ''Stock Markets and the Securities industry: Law and Practice'' (Sydney: Butterworths, 1988). In 2002, he was later commissioned by the Victorian government to review the ''Occupational Health and Safety Act 1985''. In 2019, Maxwell heard the high profile County Court appeal of Cardinal

George Pell George Pell (8 June 1941 – 10 January 2023) was an Australian cardinal of the Catholic Church. From 2002, he faced recurring accusations of sexual abuse, although his subsequent sexual abuse conviction was quashed on appeal to the High Cour ...

against his conviction for the commission of sexual offences. Maxwell concurred with the Court of Appeal 2-1 majority rejecting the appeal, which was subsequently overruled by the High Court. During an appeal into a drug importation conviction by

Tony Mokbel Antonios Sajih Mokbel (Arabic: طوني مقبل; born 11 August 1965) is an Australian criminal who has been convicted of a number of offences, most prominently commercial drug trafficking. He has spent most of his life in Melbourne, Australia. ...

due to the actions of

Nicola Gobbo Nicola Maree Gobbo, sometimes known as Nikki Gobbo, (born 16 November 1972) is an Australian former criminal defence barrister and police informant. Drug charge at law school In 1993, while she was a law student, police raided a house owned b ...

in providing information to

Victoria Police Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency of the Australian States and territories of Australia, state of Victoria (Australia), Victoria. It was formed in 1853 and currently operates under the ''Victoria Police Act 2013''. , Victor ...

, Maxwell called the actions of Gobbo and others involved in her informing "disgraceful" and a "matter of profound importance". Maxwell is an adjunct professor at

Victoria University Victoria University may refer to: * Victoria University (Australia), a public research university in Melbourne, Australia * Victoria University, Toronto, a constituent college of the federal University of Toronto in Canada * Victoria University of ...

. He is married with three children. His wife is a daughter of Sir

Ninian Stephen Sir Ninian Martin Stephen (15 June 1923 – 29 October 2017) was an English-born Australian judge who served as the 20th governor-general of Australia, in office from 1982 to 1989. He was previously a justice of the High Court of Australia from ...

who was a Governor-General of Australia and High Court Justice.

References

External links

Profile on Victorian Bar website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maxwell, Chris Judges of the Supreme Court of Victoria Australian King's Counsel Living people Year of birth missing (living people) People educated at Melbourne Grammar School People educated at Trinity College (University of Melbourne) Companions of the Order of Australia Melbourne Law School alumni Australian Rhodes Scholars Alumni of New College, Oxford