Robert Stary is a former
Australian
Australian(s) may refer to:
Australia
* Australia, a country
* Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia
** European Australians
** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists
** Aboriginal A ...
criminal defence lawyer and current Magistrate at the
Melbourne Magistrates' Court
The Melbourne Magistrates' Court is the largest venue at which the Magistrates' Court of Victoria sits. It is a court in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia that deals with, and dispenses of, a range of criminal and civil matters, including crimin ...
.
He is well known for defending
Julian Assange, as well as
Jack Thomas, the first Australian to be convicted under anti-terrorism laws introduced in Australia after the
11 September 2001 terror attacks in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. Stary has been a vocal critic of the legislation and speaks out regularly against the issue.
As such, he is often the go-to lawyer for Australian terror suspects. Stary is also famous for his defence of powerful Melbourne underground figures Tony Mokbel and Carl Williams.
Early life and education
Robert Stary grew up in the western suburbs of Melbourne, and attended
St John's College, Braybrook and the
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb no ...
where he studied law from 1977 to 1980, and graduated with a
Bachelor of Laws
Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Ch ...
degree. Whilst studying, Stary co-founded the Western Suburbs Legal Service with Peter Gordon, and was involved in a number of socialist political groups.
Legal career
After graduation, Stary gained a position as a solicitor at Victoria Legal Aid, practicing in criminal law. He later worked for and became a partner in the prominent Australian law firm
Slater and Gordon. He established his own practice in 1995, Robert Stary Lawyers, which became Stary Norton Halphen in 2015, one of the leadin
criminal lawyers in Melbourne During his career, Stary also helped found the Western Suburbs Legal Service.
[
Stary has also appeared on an advertisement authorised by the ]ACTU
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU), originally the Australasian Council of Trade Unions, is the largest peak body representing workers in Australia. It is a national trade union centre of 46 affiliated unions and eight trades and l ...
calling for employees in the construction industry to be governed by the same laws as other workers. More recently, he has appeared in court on behalf of those charged as a result of certain incidents during the West Gate Bridge
The West Gate Bridge is a steel, box girder, cable-stayed bridge in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, spanning the Yarra River just north of its mouth into Port Phillip. It carries the West Gate Freeway and is a vital link between the inner ...
industrial dispute. In those proceedings, he urged that Industrial Relations
Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade
unions, employer organizations, ...
Minister Julia Gillard be charged with contempt of court over "inflammatory" and "calculated" remarks she made at an ACTU Congress in Brisbane.[ Victorian Magistrate Mr Muling found that he was not persuaded to charge Ms Gillard with contempt, nor refer her to the DPP.
Stary also represented crime underworld figure Carl Williams before Williams was beaten to death in ]Barwon Prison
HM Prison Barwon or informally Barwon Prison, an Australian high risk and maximum security prison for males, is located from the township of Lara, near Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The facility is operated by Corrections Victoria, part of ...
on 19 April 2010. Stary heavily criticised Premier John Brumby
John Mansfield Brumby (born 21 April 1953) is the current Chancellor of La Trobe University and former Victorian Labor Party politician who was Premier of Victoria from 2007 to 2010. He became leader of the Victorian Labor Party and premier ...
's refusal to call a Royal Commission inquiry into the death.
See also
* Australian Anti-Terrorism Act 2005
References
External links
Stary Norton Halphen - Criminal Law Specialists
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stary, Rob
Living people
Australian people of Hungarian descent
Lawyers from Melbourne
Year of birth missing (living people)