The Honourable Geoffrey AA Nettle AC KC
Former Justice of the High Court of Australia
Geoffrey Nettle graduated from the Australian National University as a Bachelor of Economics; from the University of Melbourne as a Bachelor of Laws (with first class honours); and from the University of Oxford as a Bachelor of Civil Law (with first class honours). He was admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria on 1 March 1977. In July 1982, Geoffrey joined the Victorian Bar and, in November 1992, he was appointed Queen’s Counsel. At the Bar, he practised in state and federal courts, principally in commercial law, equity, administrative law, taxation, and constitutional matters. He was, too, for some time a sessional member of the Victorian Administrative Appeals Tribunal and later the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
In July 2002, Geoffrey was appointed a judge of the Trial Division of the Supreme Court of Victoria where he sat as a trial judge, in all jurisdictions, until he was appointed to the Victorian Court of Appeal in June 2004. In February 2015 he was appointed to the High Court of Australia, where he served until he reached the constitutionally mandated retirement age of 70 years in December 2020. In July 2021, Geoffrey was appointed by the State of Victoria under executive contract as Special Investigator to investigate and prepare briefs of evidence for prosecution in connection with the deployment of Nicola Gobbo as a human source. He resigned that office In July 2023.
In 2019 Geoffrey was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia for eminent service to the judiciary, and to the law, to criminal and civil appeal reform, to legal education and to professional standards.