David Bennett (barrister)
David Michael John Bennett AC, QC (born 22 December 1941) is an Australian barrister and former Solicitor-General of Australia.[1]
Early years
Bennett was born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire. He was educated at the Hall School in Hampstead, then moved with his family to Australia in 1951 and attended the Scots College, Sydney.[1] He subsequently attained degrees in Arts and Law (with honours) from the University of Sydney and an LLM and SJD from Harvard University.[1] His father, Louis Bennett, was a distinguished solicitor in Sydney, and as a Provost Major was in charge of the escort that took the Nazi Oberkommando der Wehrmacht to Nuremberg for trial.
Career
Bennett was a solicitor from 1964–67. He was called to the New South Wales bar in 1967 and was appointed Queen's Counsel in 1979.[1]
He was president of the Australian Bar Association from 1995–96 and of the New South Wales Bar Association from 1995–97. Bennett was president of the Association of Lawyer Arbitrators and Mediates in 1998 and President of the Australian Academy of Forensic Sciences from 1999–2001. He was Solicitor-General of Australia from 1998–2008. Bennett was awarded the Centenary Medal in 2003.[1]
He is married to Annabelle Bennett, a judge of the Federal Court of Australia.[1]
In a September 2011 Sydney Morning Herald article he addressed international agreement-making by writing that: "A non-binding promise by Australia or the US is worth more than a binding undertaking by Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia."[2] Its reductio ad Hitlerum character was alleged in a subsequent letter to the editor.[3]
References
- Use British English from August 2011
- Use dmy dates from August 2011
- 1941 births
- Living people
- Australian barristers
- Solicitors-General of Australia
- Companions of the Order of Australia
- Harvard Law School alumni
- People from Amersham
- Australian Queen's Counsel
- Australian Jews
- Sydney Law School alumni
- People educated at The Scots College