Governance
Directors
The Honourable Robert French AC (Chair)
Robert French AC is a former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor in Western Australia and played a central role in establishing the Aboriginal Legal Service in Western Australia. He was appointed to the Federal Court and later became the inaugural President of the National Native Title Tribunal. Robert became the president of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law in 2001 and was a Foundation Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. In 2008, he was appointed as the first Western Australian Chief Justice of the High Court. He retired from the Court in 2017 shortly prior to his constitutionally stipulated expiry date.
Mr Paul Lenton
Paul Lenton is a Business Advisory Partner at the Sydney Office of Nexia Australia – an established, trusted, mid-tier Advisory and Accounting Firm that is a member of the Nexia International Network of independent firms.
Paul has over 40 years of professional experience advising businesses and private clients in matters including, income tax, structuring, accounting, finance, operations, improvement, growth strategy and succession planning. Paul advises businesses and their leaders at all stages of development.
During his time at Nexia, Paul also served nine years as Managing Partner where he oversaw the Firm’s expansion from 16 to 29 Partners and an increase in turnover from $19 million to $50 million. This growth included mergers, strategic acquisitions, organic business development, establishing new service lines and positioning the Firm to attract more mid-market corporate clients. Most importantly, Paul introduced training and coaching for business development, making it a mandatory competency for all Partners at his Firm.
Not only does Paul have extensive experience advising clients on how to operate successful organisations, but he also led a committed team of professionals through a scale-up phase during the COVID-19 years to achieve record growth and profitability. His strategic, project-focused approach is rooted in fostering a culture of success, underpinned by shared values of his people to achieve effective strategy execution.
Following his years as Managing Partner, Paul continues to practice as a Business Advisory Partner. He also coaches and mentors CEO’s, Managing Partners and younger professionals, helping them enhance their effectiveness and realise their full potential.
Paul is a Chartered Accountant, a registered Tax Agent, and an active member of several peer-to-peer advisory groups including Leaders for Impact.
Outside of work, Paul enjoys life with his family as well as his interests in classic cars and playing the guitar (albeit badly) whenever he gets a chance.
Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO
Distinguished Professor Larissa Behrendt AO is a Eualayai/Gamillaroi woman and Laureate Fellow at the Jumbunna Institute of Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology, Sydney. She is a graduate of the UNSW Law School and has a Masters and SJD from Harvard Law School. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities and a Founding Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. She has published numerous textbooks on Indigenous legal issues. Larissa won the 2002 David Uniapon Award and a 2005 Commonwealth Writer’s Prize for her novel Home. Her second novel, Legacy, won a Victorian Premiers Literary Award. Her most recent novel, After Story (2021, UQP) won the 2022 Voss Literary prize. Larissa is an award-winning filmmaker. She won the 2018 Australian Directors Guild Award for best Direction of a Documentary Film for After the Apology, the 2020 AACTA for Best Direction in Factual Television for her documentary, Maralinga Tjarutja and the 2025 NSW History Award Digital History Prize for One Mind, One Heart. Her latest project is Judgment: Cases that Shaped Australia for the ABC. She is Chair of the National Library of Australia, Chair of Writing Australia, a trustee of the Australian Museum, Chair of the Murrup Foundation, a Council Member of Creative Australia, a board member of Sydney Dance Company and Chair of the National Justice Project. She is a former Chair and Board Member of the Bangarra Dance Theatre and has previously held board positions on the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney Festival, Sydney Writers Festival and the Sydney Community Fund. With Lindon Coombes, Larissa co-authored the Do Better report for the Collingwood Football Club. She chaired the 2011 review of Indigenous Higher Education and was a member of the University Accord Panel in 2023. She was appointed Interim First Nations Commissioner of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission in 2025. Larissa was awarded the 2009 NAIDOC Person of the Year award and 2011 NSW Australian of the Year. She was awarded an Order of Australia in 2020 for her work in Indigenous education, the law and the arts. Larissa received the Human Rights Medal 2021 from the Australian Human Rights Commission. She is the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio. Larissa is a Native Title holder and a member of the Yuwaalaraay Euahlayi Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC as well as a member of the Metropolitan Aboriginal Land Council. She is also the host of Speaking Out on ABC Radio.
Professor Rosalind Dixon
Rosalind Dixon is a Professor of Law, at the University of New South Wales, Faculty of Law. She earned her BA and LLB from the University of New South Wales, and was an associate to the Chief Justice of Australia, the Hon. Murray Gleeson AC, before attending Harvard Law School, where she obtained an LLM and SJD. Her work focuses on comparative constitutional law and constitutional design, constitutional democracy, theories of constitutional dialogue and amendment, socio-economic rights and constitutional law and gender, and has been published in leading journals in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia, including the Chicago Law Review, Cornell Law Review, GW Law Review, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, International Journal of Constitutional Law, American Journal of Comparative Law, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Federal Law Review and Sydney Law Review.
Dr Murray Wesson
Dr Murray Wesson is an Associate Professor in the Law School, University of Western Australia, where he teaches and researches constitutional law, human rights law and legal theory. He has published widely on key public law concepts - such as free speech, social and economic rights, proportionality, and the rule of law - from an Australian and compartative perspective. He is lead Chief Investigator on the Australian Research Council Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment and Facilities grant, 'Digitisting the Drafting of the Australian Constitution.' Through a collaboration between the Quill Project at the University of Oxford and nine Australian universities, the grant will support the creation of an open-access, online archive that consolidates, corrects and enhances the digital record of the drafting of the Australian Constitution. Murray is co-chair of the Australia and New Zealand chapter of the International Society of Public Law, and co-convenor of the WA chapter of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law. He is regularly interviewed by the media on issues in his areas of expertise and has made numerous submissions to parliamentary and other inquiries.
Muray previously taught at the Central European University, the University of Leeds and the University of KwaZulu-Natal. He completed his BA and LLB degrees at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and BCL and DPhil degrees at the University of Oxford, where he studied as the Kwa-Zulu Natal Rhodes Scholar.
Professor George Brandis KC
The Hon George Brandis KC is Professor in the Practice of National Security at the Australian National University, in a joint appointment by the National Security College and the College of Law.
Professor Brandis was educated at the University of Queensland and Magdalen College, Oxford. A barrister by profession, he specialized in commercial law, competition law and equity. He also lectured in Jurisprudence at the University of Queensland Law School.
Professor Brandis was appointed to a casual Senate vacancy in 2000 and served as a Liberal Senator for Queensland for 18 years. He was a minister in the Governments of John Howard, Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull. Among other appointments, he was the Attorney-General in the Abbott and Turnbull Governments, and Leader of the Government in the Senate under Prime Minister Turnbull.
Upon his retirement from Parliament in February 2018, Professor Brandis was appointed as High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, serving from 2018-2022.
He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Council on Geostrategy, a London-based think tank, and a director of the Constitutional Education Fund. He has published extensively on legal and political topics, and writes a fortnightly column for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Mr George Harris
George is a legal practitioner with more than four decades experience in corporate practice and is Of Counsel with the international law firm Baker & McKenzie. He is an editor of The Journal of Banking & Finance Law and Practice and has lectured in the Master of Laws programme at UNSW. George is a director of a charity which supports the teaching of Ancient Greek and Latin in Australian universities and of a foundation which supports young Australians in the field of opera. He provides pro bono advice to charities involved in medical research and training and is a director of Australia’s oldest charity dedicated to avoiding blindness. George chairs a committee active in the translation of liturgical texts. Since 2010 he has been a member of the judging panel for the Governor-General’s essay prize organised by CEFA.
Emeritius Professor Geoffrey Gallop AC FASSA
Emeritius Professor Geoffrey Gallop is an Australian academic and former politician who served as the 27th premier of Western Australia from 2001 to 2006. He is currently a professor and director of the Graduate School of Government at the University of Sydney and former chairman of the Australian Republican Movement.
Born in Geraldton, Western Australia, Gallop studied at the University of Western Australia, and later progressed to St John's College at the University of Oxford after winning a Rhodes Scholarship. Having joined the Labor Party in 1971, he served as a councillor for the City of Fremantle between 1983 and 1986, and was elected to the seat of Victoria Park in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly at the 1986 state election. Having held several portfolios in the preceding Lawrence Ministry (including Minister for Education), Gallop replaced Jim McGinty as Leader of the Opposition in 1996 following McGinty's resignation.
At the 1996 election, Labor was defeated by the incumbent Liberal Party led by Richard Court despite a rise in Labor's share of the vote, but he remained as the party's leader, and at the 2001 election Labor was elected to government, with Gallop becoming premier. Having successfully contested the 2005 election, Gallop resigned as Premier, Labor leader and from parliament in early 2006.
