Jancis Cunliffe

Reader

LLM (with commendation), LLB (Hons 2A), BEc (ANU)

BIOGRAPHY

Jancis accepts briefs in all areas of public and commercial law, and in all jurisdictions. 

Before joining the Bar in 2024, Jancis was a Senior Lawyer at the Australian Government Solicitor in Sydney and Canberra, where she started in 2013. Jancis worked in both advising roles in the Office of General Counsel and litigation roles in Dispute Resolution. In the Office of General Counsel, Jancis advised Commonwealth agencies on a range of complex public law issues, including constitutional and administrative law and statutory interpretation. In litigation roles, Jancis acted for Commonwealth agencies in proceedings in federal and State courts and tribunals, focusing on constitutional and administrative law, public interest immunity and information protection, and other public law matters.

Jancis’s experience at the Australian Government Solicitor also included:

• acting for the Commonwealth in its successful defence of a multi-billion dollar investor-state arbitration claim challenging Australia’s tobacco plain packaging legislation in Philip Morris Asia v Commonwealth of Australia, and

• acting as part of the Solicitor Assisting team for the Royal Commissions into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability; Child Protection and Youth Detention in the Northern Territory; and Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

Before joining the Australian Government Solicitor, Jancis was an Associate to the Honourable Justice Berna Collier of the Federal Court of Australia, and a graduate at DLA Piper. Jancis has a Master of Laws (with commendation) with a specialisation in Public Law, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons 2A) and a Bachelor of Economics from the Australian National University.

AREAS OF PRACTICE

• Appeals

• Administrative & Regulatory

• Class Actions

• Commercial

• Competition

• Constitutional

• Information and Privileges

• Planning and Environmental

• Royal Commissions and Inquiries