‘Goodnight and Good Luck!’ – A Tribute to Retiring Counsel

The above title was the salutation by Edward R Murrow at the conclusion of each episode of his 1950’s CBS current affairs “See it Now”.  It is apt in respect of the farewell and good wishes we bid to the raft of barristers – silk and non-silk – who have retired from practice in the last two years. Such retirees are persons who have practised as counsel – in most instances for many decades – but not been elevated to judicial office. The Bar Association of Queensland wishes all of them well. They are too many in number to mention, but as a celebration of the time all spent at the Bar, in respect of several of them only, the editor has solicited Association members to write valedictories. So much is intended to be representative, not selective, with our best wishes extended to all retirees.

Former District Court Judge Michael Rackemann has written on Robert Bain KC. The Honourable Justice John Logan RFD has written on Mal Varitimos KC. James Bell KC has written on Christopher Newton of counsel.

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Robert (Bob) Bain KC

by Michael Rackemann

In his 46 years as a barrister, Robert Bain KC has been an ornament to and a loyal and diligent servant of, the Bar. His retirement in 2023 represented a substantial loss. I am blessed to have been mentored by Robert and to count him as a friend. I am humbled to have been asked to write this reflection on his career and contribution.

The son of a prosecutor, Robert was admitted to the Bar on 16 December 1976 and commenced practice in May 1977. The commencement of Robert’s practice fittingly coincided with the commencement of the Federal Court, which was established in 1976 and commenced sitting in February 1977. Robert was to establish a substantial practice in the jurisdiction of that court, amongst others. 1977 was also notable for ABBA’s tour of Australia, but I am sure that was of no interest to Robert, whose stereo is, in my experience, always tuned to ABC classic music.

Highly Intelligent, knowledgeable and hardworking as well as formal and fearless in court, Robert quickly earned a strong reputation for his outstanding advocacy and advice work. He worked closely with Fitzgerald QC (as he then was) during the famous royal commission. He went on to take silk in December 1992. He thereafter practiced as a popular and busy commercial silk for more than three decades until his retirement. He was, without question, one of the leading silks in this State. He was also sought after interstate and his practice extended to other capital cities, including Sydney and Melbourne. Always enthusiastic about his work, Robert derived much satisfaction from life at the Bar.

Although appearing in the criminal jurisdiction early in his career, major commercial litigation (including banking and insurance litigation and advice work) became Robert’s preferred area of practice. His expertise in that area is well known. He was also however, well capable of turning his talents to other areas (including, to take one example close to my heart, Planning and Environment Court cases), as he did from time to time. The ease with which he did so was aided by his imposing intellect and comprehensive knowledge of the law, as well as his skill as a trial lawyer. That intellect, together with his extensive vocabulary, love of the English language and fast paced delivery, could present a challenge to keep up with, but was also to marvel at.

Robert’s knowledge of caselaw is encyclopaedic. Robert’s ability to accurately and without reference to research, state the law and cite the relevant authority across an enormously broad range of topics is amazing. He could do so not only on a point in his area of expertise, but on a point in seemingly almost any other area of the law as well.  Ferrett KC, a chamber mate of Robert’s at Chambers33, said of him “I admit that he made me lazy when it came to legal research; who needed Lexis-Nexis when you could just ask Bain”. His command of the law makes it unsurprising that he served, for a period in the summer of 2013/14, as acting Solicitor-General for Queensland.

Robert’s impressive knowledge of history, including the history of existing and former judges as well as matters of general interest, make for educational and entertaining conversation. For example, Ferrett KC says of his conversations with Robert:

Robert is so learned; so widely read. He has a lifetime of tales about law in Brisbane to relate. I know a lot more about the battles of the World Wars. I heard tales about playing bridge with Peter Connolly and Brian Halligan. And I can tell you a story about how the senior copper in a regional town in the late 70’s would make the Friday night drunks in the lock up wash the police cars on Saturday morning.

Robert was sensible, but fearless in the proper advancement of his client’s interests. Alternative dispute resolution, including both mediation and arbitration, was very familiar to Robert. He was adept at using ADR. He was willing to be appropriately pragmatic and to make proper concessions when circumstances called for it. I sometimes however, complimented him as being a little “old school” in the sense of being very familiar with the inside of a courtroom, unafraid of it, skilled and fearless in running a trial and not shy to take his client’s case to trial if that was in their best interests. Perhaps that is what prompted one barrister to say of negotiating with Robert “if you’ve got a good case Robert won’t give you a lot. If you haven’t then he’ll give you nothing”. Doyle KC recently recalled to me a very long running case in which he was led by Robert in the late 1980’s. Robert was unflinching in his approach to the trial, notwithstanding difficulties arising from a relative paucity of resources. They were rewarded with success.

Robert’s service to the profession and his fellow barristers has been as outstanding as his own professional achievements. During his career at the Bar Robert mentored 15 readers. He provided tremendous encouragement and assistance not just to them, but to many others. Robert was extremely generous with the time he gave to any barrister, particularly junior barristers, who asked for assistance. I was one of the many beneficiaries of that. Although I was neither his pupil nor a member of his chamber group at the time, Robert was very good to me when I first came to the Bar, giving me guidance, devilling work and mentorship generally. Robert has always been a great promoter of the junior Bar in general, including of increased female entry to the Bar in particular.

Robert was an energetic and masterful chambers’ leader. In 1997 he moved from his then chambers on level 13 of 239 George Street to become a fellow founding member and the leader of a new group that formed on level 15. The group included members who were silk and others who were later to become silk and/or judges. Robert took his role as chambers’ leader seriously and worked diligently and well to ensure that the administration of the group, staff relations, group harmony and individual wellbeing were always in good shape. Another fellow member of that group, Doyle KC, recently

reminded me that we then referred to Robert as “the Major”, not just because of his military bearing and sense of chain of command, but because of his real sense that he was responsible for the chambers and the people within it. His door was always open.

He was held in the highest regard by all members, each of whom regularly sought his counsel.

When that group ultimately disbanded, Robert became a founding member and chamber’s leader of Chambers33, where he was similarly highly regarded through to his retirement. The members of that group describe him not just as their leader, but as a “paternal presence” and “enthusiastic teacher”. They are grateful to have had his guidance for so long and greatly miss his presence in chambers.

It was not only junior barristers and chamber colleagues who were the beneficiaries of Robert’s generosity and guidance. His counsel was sought by many barristers, at all levels of seniority, including Bar presidents. He was also very good to employees. His most recent long-term executive assistant, Rachel, describes herself as very lucky to have worked for a “boss in a million” and a “father figure”.

Robert also gave great service to the profession through his long service on committees of the Bar Association. Robert dedicated much time and energy to the preparation of young lawyers for practice at the Bar. He was a member (and generally the senior member) of the Bar Practice Course Management Committee for more than two decades, from 2000, until his retirement in 2023. During that time the course substantially developed, including in the substance, quality and rigour of its content, in ways that significantly benefit those preparing for practice as barristers. Highly trustworthy and ethical, Robert also gave similarly lengthy service in relation to the maintenance of proper professional standards, through his work, over decades, as the senior member of the Professional Conduct Committee.

The Bar in general and many barristers individually, owe a debt of gratitude to Robert. Fittingly, in November 2016, life membership of the Bar Association was conferred on Robert.

The Honourable Patrick Keane AC KC has provided the following observations, which I respectfully adopt:

Robert Bain loved being a barrister. He loved the English language; and he delighted in its subtleties and shadows. Practice at the Bar gave him plenty of opportunity to engage his passion for exploration of nuance and shades of emphasis in language. This passion, combined with his diligence in the presentation of his client’s cause, made him a formidable opponent. But he was also the most honourable and trustworthy of barristers so that appearing in cases against him made for a challenging contest but one entirely devoid of rancour.

Robert was a mentor to many at the Bar. He was kind and generous in his dealings with others, especially junior members of the Bar and also the solicitors’ branch of the profession. For myself, I am proud to have been able to call him “my learned friend”, but more important I am happy to be able to call him my friend.

Robert is a genuine and kind person with a good and caring heart. He is a loyal and good friend. Beyond the Bar he delights in his family and, until curtailed by health issues, pursued his recreational interests of fishing and golf. Although Robert had a long and successful career, his retirement was premature in that it was consequent upon ill-health. He is however, well supported by his loving family, particularly his wife Lana and daughter Alexandra (their son, Dugal, lives abroad). They are good hands to be in and he should be well satisfied with the tremendous contribution he made in his time at the Bar.

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Manuel (Mal) Varitimos CBE KC

by the Honourable Justice John Logan RFD

There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries.

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act IV, scene ii

Manuel (Mal) Varitimos was reluctantly compelled by personal and family health considerations to wind down his practice at the Queensland Bar and abroad on and from mid-2024 at the relatively young age of 60. His career offers a proof perfect example that Brutus’ famous exhortation of Cassius is not Shakespearean dramatic licence.

After graduating from the then Queensland Institute of Technology Law School with Honours in 1986, Mal was admitted to the Queensland Bar on 16 May 1988. He commenced a general civil practice shortly thereafter. The late John Griffin QC and the late N M (Marshall) Cooke RFD KC – each of whom had a considerable practice in Papua New Guinea, as well as at the Queensland Bar – thought well of Mal. Via that association and patronage, Mal came to be admitted as a legal practitioner of the Supreme and National Courts of Justice of Papua New Guinea on 1 April 1997.

This admission date was not a coincidence. A Commission of Inquiry constituted by Justice Warwick Andrew of the PNG judiciary had latterly been appointed to inquire into the engagement of by the PNG government of the mercenary organisation, Sandline International, to train and assist the PNG Defence Force in relation to counter-insurgency operations on Bougainville Island. Led by Cooke QC, Mal appeared at this inquiry for the then Prime Minister, Sir Julius Chan, and the government of PNG.

Truly this proved to be the tide in Mal’s professional affairs. His embrace of the opportunity was wholehearted. His practice ever increasingly thereafter took on a PNG focus with frequent appearances in both PNG’s superior court of general jurisdiction, the National Court and its appellate court, the Supreme Court. In time, this also led to a wider South Pacific dimension to Mal’s practice.

Again led by Cooke QC, Mal again appeared for Sir Julius Chan, by then former Prime Minister, the following year in both the National Court and in the Supreme Court in a series of public law and electoral cases to which Sir Julius and either the Ombudsman Commission or the Electoral Commissioner were parties. Frequent appearances with either Cooke QC or Griffin QC or leading a local practitioner in a range of heavy commercial, other civil and public law cases in both original and appellate jurisdictions followed.

Papua New Guinea’s legal profession is fused. At present, there is no separate referral Bar. Local legal practitioners can, and do, act as both barristers and solicitors. By 2011, Mal was ever increasingly appearing as counsel leading practitioners in the heaviest of PNG cases. The latter included a constitutional case of the highest national importance, In re Reference to Constitution section 19(1) by East Sepik Provincial Executive [2011] PGSC 41; SC1154, which was decided in December that year, shortly after I first took up judicial office in PNG. The case concerned whether Sir Michael Somare had forfeited the office of Prime Minister such that the Hon Peter O’Neill and the Hon Belden Namah had become respectively Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Mal appeared for O’Neill and Namah in that case. In the result and by majority it was held that Somare had not forfeited the office.

As I observed from the bench firsthand throughout the ensuing decade – and ever more as Griffin QC and Cooke QC gradually wound down their practices in PNG – Mal became a leader of choice for many of PNG’s leading law firms. He was not without competition from the relatively confined class of non-resident legal practitioners. From the Queensland Bar, Ian Molloy and, until his appointment to the then Federal Circuit Court, Greg Egan, also had considerable PNG practices as leaders, as did from the New South Wales Bar, James Renwick SC. Mal was solicitous of his local juniors and never condescending. They repaid this with loyalty, respect and demand for his services.

Mal’s advocacy was always well received by the PNG judiciary, the product of meticulous research and well-focussed oral and written submissions. The PNG judiciary do not enjoy the same range of legal research resources which those in developed countries take for granted. Mal was invariably assiduous in ensuring that the bench was provided with a comprehensive authorities book containing pertinent legislation and authorities. This was greatly appreciated by the judges before whom he appeared. So, too, was Mal’s candour and transparent sincerity.

The two-year international border closure as between Australia and PNG, while a challenge for those with practices like Mal, was overcome by a ready embrace by the PNG judiciary of appearances by remote audio-visual means. As I also observed firsthand from the bench, Mal was adept in his mastery of this medium as an advocate.

The Sandline Commission of Inquiry proved to be but the first of many appearances by Mal, including as a counsel assisting on occasion, in a number of important public inquiries either in PNG or in Tonga: Commission of Inquiry into Transparency in Government Dealings and Accountability of Public Office Holders; Commission of Inquiry into National Provident Fund in Papua New Guinea; Commission of Inquiry into the Conduct Generally of the Privatisation; Commission and Matters Relating to the Privatisation of Finance Pacific Limited and the Sale of the Papua New Guinea Banking Corporation; Commission of Inquiry into the Sinking of the Rabaul Queen and Commission of Inquiry into the Sale and Purchase of the Motukea Wharf and Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Sinking of the Princess Ashika (Tonga).

Although as a Commonwealth realm it probably could, PNG has not to date adopted the practice of appointing Silk. However, in 2013, the Queensland Bar, in recognition of his eminence as counsel based in Queensland undertaking work in PNG and elsewhere in the South Pacific took the singular course of recommending to the Chief Justice that Mal’s name go forward to the Governor-in-Council for appointment as Queen’s Counsel. He was appointed as one of Her Majesty’s Counsel for the State of Queensland on 14 November 2013.

Mal was an early and zealous supporter of continuing professional education for the PNG legal profession. In this he was amply supported by Griffin QC, who had undertaken lecturing duties at the University of Papua New Guinea Law School for about eight years, from 1968 until shortly after Independence. When in 2012 after a request conveyed to us in person while in PNG by the then Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, Sir Salamo Injia, John Bond SC (as Bond JA then was) and I presented a proposal to the Queensland Bar to deliver, with AusAid support, a commercial litigation workshop at the Legal Training Institute, Mal was an early and enthusiastic volunteer. His input was invaluable in ensuring that workshop problem scenarios and practice content were relevant to PNG. He took time off from his busy practice to assist the Queensland Bar team from the first such workshop in 2013 and in every subsequent year, engaging with students via video link during the border closure period. Mal also volunteered his time and talent in other South Pacific CPD activities conducted by the Queensland Bar’s South Pacific Region Education Committee. He was dined out from that committee earlier this year by committee President, Andrew Crowe KC at a memorable lunch at Tattersall’s Club hosted by Dr Joe Crowley.

Mal’s eminence in the profession in PNG and his voluntary contribution to legal professional education in that country were recognised by his appointment as a Commander of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for Papua New Guinea of 11 June 2016 (London Gazette No. 61611). PNG has its own domestic orders of chivalry but also continues to use the Imperial Honours System, usually for appointments on the Monarch’s Birthday, and not liberally. Mal’s appointment as CBE was therefore a relatively rare and high honour in PNG.

Mal is conscious, and proud, of his Greek heritage. He combined this and his chosen profession in his membership of the Hellenic Australian Lawyers Association (National President 2017-2020 and Queensland Chapter Chair 2015-2018). In combination with his wife, Sylvia, Mal was the driving force in the delivery of a highly successful Hellenic Australian Lawyers conference on Rhodes in 2018, officially opened by the President of Greece in the presence of Australia’s Ambassador to Greece.

Mal Varitimos is by nature modest and self-effacing. However, as the reader may well think after reading this account, there is no reason other than innate character for that modesty. That said – and Mal’s character would make him the first to acknowledge it – it may be doubted whether he would ever have expected on his admission in 1988 that his career would have evolved in the direction it did. Mal did indeed take the tide of professional opportunity at the flood, thereby gaining the chance fully to display his innate ability.

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Christopher (Chris) Newton

by James Bell KC

When Chris Newton finished drinks and left our chambers on 27^th June this year, I sat down to reflect on the 45 years that I had just completed sharing chambers with a very good man.

It was in April 1978 that I had joined Newton in chambers (with David Jackson, Tom Kirk, Graham Gibson and John McGill on 18^th floor of what was then known as the MLC Building).

Newton was, from the very beginning, the reliable, grounded and thoughtful man who retired  in June this year after 48 years practicing at the Queensland Bar. These are not just words. The character of the man guaranteed his reliability, his integrity and his friendship over the years. It is something very special to have a friend at the Bar who is constantly a good person and predictable throughout the journey, one that inevitably involves the highs and lows of a life in practice as a barrister.

The barristers who were members of Carbolic chambers changed over the years, but they all valued their relationship with Chris or ‘Bomber’ as he was affectionately known to those close to him. It was easy to see when he led the fun and laughter of new members and old at chambers functions. He always did.

When we met, it was plainly apparent to me that he had the advantage of being from a strong family of country people. They had given him not just an education at TSS but the life lessons which arm young people with the skills to deal with the hard hits that too often arrive in life. I can vouch for him; he lived up to their expectations and those of all his friends.  

Chris was admitted at the end of 1974 and spent his first year in the Public Defender’s office before coming to the private bar. His early years involved him in criminal and family law, however, he soon developed a strong personal injuries practice with an interest in succession too. He was much involved in the education and practice of mediation and made an important contribution in his role with the Australian Lawyers Alliance and was appointed Chairman of the Settlement Week Committee.

Those that knew him in practice, considered Chris a valued, steadfast colleague and someone who epitomised the best traditions of the Bar.

Outside his life at the Bar, he shares a strong relationship with his wonderful wife Leonie. He is the father of three children and grandfather to four grandchildren.

He is certainly not finished yet, but he will be missed by many of us at the Bar.