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Eminent barrister inspires UNE law students

September 15, 2004

John Coombes 004.jpgJohn Coombs QC, one of Australia’s most eminent barristers, recently appointed Adjunct Professor at the University of New England, has begun inspiring UNE law students with his experience and insight.
Professor Coombs, who sat on the steering committee that established UNE’s School of Law in 1993, said he had been impressed by the quality of UNE law graduates, and was enjoying the contact with students that his new appointment involved.
The son of the great Australian economic and social reformer Dr H.C. (“Nugget”) Coombs, John Coombs has had a career-long association with the New England region. In 1960, as an articled clerk, he worked with a Tamworth solicitor. After being admitted to the Bar in 1961 he developed a large New England practice, visiting towns in the region on the Supreme Court circuit every year between 1964 and 2000. Even now that he has reduced his workload to a limited number of mediation cases, some of his clients are still based in New England. He said his appointment as Adjunct Professor at UNE accorded well with his founding interest in UNE’s School of Law and his professional involvement in (and affection for) the New England region. It also accorded with his conviction that the existence of law schools at regional universities encouraged graduates to seek employment outside the big cities.

Professor Coombs’s career, including three cases before the Privy Council in England, would be an inspiration to any undergraduate in law. During his first visit to UNE in his new capacity earlier this month, he told students about some of his most interesting experiences in representing clients he eventually proved to be innocent after most people (including, in one case, the defendant himself) had believed they were guilty. (“The barrister should try not to consider issues of innocence or guilt,” he explained. “You never really know till the end of the trial.”) None of the 27 people charged with murder that he has represented in the course of his career ended up being convicted of murder. In his seminars and lectures at UNE he would be attempting to make such cases “come alive” for the students, he said.
He advises students that “the most important thing is attention to detail”. By temperament, he said, he had “an instinct for the broad brush and a bit of showmanship”. It was an admired colleague, Kevin Holland (later to become
Mr Justice Holland) who advised him to supplement his “flair” with “attention to detail”. “All the flair in the world won’t overcome not having the detail right,” Professor Coombs said.
Among many important appointments throughout his career, John Coombs has been President of the NSW Bar Association (1992-93), President of the Australian Bar Association (1992-93), an Arbitrator of the Supreme Court of NSW (1994-2002), a Judicial Member of the Legal Services Tribunal (1995-98), a Foundation Board Member of the Howard Florey Institute of Experimental Physiology and Medicine (1997-2002), and a Judicial Member of the Administrative Decisions Tribunal (1998-2002). He is currently a Governance Board Member of the Ageing Research Centre, Prince of Wales Hospital, Sydney.
Media contact: Grahame Kennedy, School of Law, UNE (02) 6773 3054 or Jim
Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049. For a photograph, contact Jim
Scanlan on (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Lydia Roberts at September 15, 2004 03:17 PM