Member Profiles

Contact Details

Tom Anderson

PO Box 2061
Parap NT 0804

Tel: 0438 780 976
Fax:
Email: tom@tanderson.com.au

Tom Anderson is an independent barrister in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Year and Place of First Admission

1991, Victoria

Other Jurisdictions

High Court, Federal Courts and Tribunals, Northern Territory

Degrees, Appointments and Awards

  • BA (Melb), LLB (Hons) (Melb), 1991
  • Leo Cussen Institute Advocacy Award, 1991
  • Chairman of the AFLNT Tribunal (1999-2015)

 

Areas of Practice

Administrative and Public Law, Anti-discrimination, Appeals, Commercial Law, Constitutional Law, Contract Law, Criminal Property Forfeiture, Defamation, Employment Law, Engineering and Construction Law, Equity, Human Rights,  Injunctions, Inquiries, Insurance, Land Rights and Native Title, Licensing, Mining, Resources and the Environment, Professional Services, Real Property, Tax (stamp duty) Law, Trade Practices, Torts and Town Planning.

Career

Following admission, Tom joined Victoria’s largest regional legal practice (based in Ballarat) in January 1992 as in-house counsel as an alternative to joining the independent bar. Courtroom advocacy has been a large part of his practice ever since.

After four years in regional Victoria, Tom moved to the Territory in 1996 to take up a position with the Solicitor for the Northern Territory working on the first native title cases to go to trial before the Federal Court. After two years Tom was lured to the Darwin office of Clayton Utz where he worked for a range of private and government clients in a diverse range of litigious matters – from tort and contract disputes to employment and industrial matters, licensing and regulatory crime.

Tom returned to the Northern Territory Crown in 2003 where he took charge of a range of significant litigation.  In April 2008 Tom joined the chambers of the Northern Territory Solicitor-General as Crown Counsel, where he continued to provide high level advice and representation to Northern Territory Government Ministers, agencies and instrumentalities in a wide range of matters.

 

Tom joined the independent bar in October 2009 and practised from William Forster Chambers until July 2021.  Since then, he has acted for a wide range of government and non-government clients in a diverse range of matters before all courts and tribunals.

With 30 years’ experience, Tom is a leading senior junior at the Darwin bar and is usually briefed alone. Tom has also appeared as junior counsel to some of the country’s leading silks, including Michael Grant QC (now Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory), Arthur Moses SC, Roger Derrington QC (now Derrington J of the Federal Court), Guy Parker SC (now Parker J of the NSW Supreme Court), and Tony Slater QC (in Alcan (NT) Alumina Pty Ltd v Commissioner of Territory Revenue (2009) 239 CLR 27; [2009] HCA 41).