Dr Robert Harper SC

Robert Harper was admitted to the Role of Barristers on 20 December 1985 and commenced practice in February 1986. He was appointed Senior Counsel for the State of New South Wales on 29 September 2004. He is an Accredited Mediator (NMAS) and has nearly 20 years experience in alternative dispute resolution, including arbitration.

He appears mainly in the Supreme Court of NSW, the Federal Court of Australia, and on occasion the High Court of Australia. He conducts a broad practice but has focussed on Building and Construction litigation, including arbitration and mediation, design and construction contracts, negligence of builders and construction professionals, and liability of developers, Property Law disputes, including commercial property rights and leases. He is a member of the Society of Construction Law Australia.

He also has extensive experience in Family Law, Banking, Trade Practices and Competition Law, Restraints of Trade, International Transport, Insurance, including Marine Insurance, individual and corporate Insolvency, Equity, Administrative Law, Probate.

He has appeared as an expert witness on NSW law in the Supreme Court of Singapore, and serves on the Equity Division Liaison Committee of the Supreme Court of NSW.

From 1986 to 1993 he was reporter for the New South Wales Law Reports. In 2000 he was appointed Adjunct-Lecturer in UniNSW Law School, teaching "Trial Process". He has lectured for NSW Bar Readers Course and contributed to various publications on easements, and procedural topics for litigation, as well as numerous seminar and conference papers on diverse subjects such as evidence, leases, practice and procedure, evidence, trading cartels, and trade practices for practitioners.

Robert was appointed a judge of the Federal Circuit Court commencing in the Sydney Registry on 18 January 2018