Member Profiles
Contact Details
Lex Silvester
William Forster ChambersLevel 1
26 Harry Chan Avenue
DARWIN NT 0800
GPO Box 4369
DARWIN NT 0801
Tel:
08 8982 4700
Fax:
08 8941 1541
Email:
lsilvester@williamforster.com
Lex Silvester
Lex Silvester is a barrister at William Forster Chambers in Darwin, Northern Territory.
Year and Place of First Admission
1969 Melbourne, Victoria
Other Jurisdictions
Northern Territory 1970 High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia, Northern Territory Courts and Tribunals and the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of the Fiji Islands
Degrees
Bachelor of Jurisprudence 1967, Monash
Bachelor of Laws 1969, Monash
Areas of Practice
Administrative and Public Law, Appeals, Arbitration and Mediation, Commercial Law and Disputes, Company Law, Contract law , De facto Relationships, Defamation Law, Insolvency, Negligence and Economic Torts, Land and Business Valuation, Licensing, Mining, Resources and the Environment, Personal Injury, Professional Services, Real Property, Shipping and Marine, Town Planning, Trade Practices, Trusts, Wills and Estates.
Career
Lex practiced as a solicitor in Darwin from November 1970. After Cyclone Tracy on Christmas Day 1974, Lex commenced his own practice which eventually grew to become, by 1988, Darwin’s largest law firm. Lex then took time away from the law to establish a multi-award winning eco-tourism wilderness lodge in Gurig National Park. In 1990 he returned to Mildrens and in 1994 joined William Forster Chambers. There he became a leading senior junior barrister, undertaking many complex and demanding civil cases. Lex rejoined William Forster Chambers in January 2010, after an 18 month break taken for family reasons. Lex taught advocacy with the Australian Advocacy Institute, locally at Charles Darwin University, and with the Industrial Relations Society and Northern Territory Young Lawyers for some11 years. Outside the law, Lex is noted for his knowledge and skills across the broad spectrum of the marine environment and his love of wild places.
Major Reported Cases
- Hart v Wrenn and Australian Broadcasting Corporation – NTSC – Defamation.
- Leisure Investments Pty Ltd v Bilioara Pty Ltd – NTSC and Court of Appeal – partnership; valuation of land.
- Suncode Pty Ltd v Minister – Lands Acquisition Tribunal and rehearing in NTSC.
- Jumitogad Pty Ltd v Garraway & others – NTSC – professional negligence – taxation advice.
- Spicedew Pty Ltd v Fisher – Federal Court – equity, Trade Practices Act.
- Channel Island Seafood Pty Ltd and Wickens v Trezise & Bryjed Pty Ltd – Federal Court – fraud, equity, Trade Practices Act, contract.
- Pirntubula Pty Ltd v Middendorp – Federal Court – joint venture, tax, fraud and equity disputes – ownership of the forests on the Tiwi Islands.
- Blake v Sciacca – NTSC – equity, fraud.
- Veale v Christian Outreach Church – NTSC – common law – damages for sexual assault of children.
- Forno v Relkup Pty Ltd – Work Health Court and Appeal to NTSC – benefits for five children of murdered Borroloola publican.
- Campbell v Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu – Federal Court – professional negligence.
- Gardner v Northern Territory – Trial – NTSC; Court of Appeal – tort claim involving bushfire damage.
- Renehan v Commonwealth of Australia and Leeuwin Ocean Adventure Foundation – negligence on a sail training ship – NTSC.
- Pearls Pty Ltd v CSR and Meinhardt – NTSC – construction, Trade Practices Act, tort and contract.
- Apitzsch v Gayle; Geitzenauer v Sahara Tours Pty Ltd – NTSC – personal injuries to German tourists – large damages claims.
- Grunt Labour Services Pty Ltd v Work Health Authority – NTSC – Judicial Review.
- Gallagher v Newham – exchange control legislation, equity and trusts – Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Fiji Islands.
Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs – various appeals in the Federal Court and the Full Federal Court involving judicial review of decisions on applications for refugee status.
Coffey ats Calder – NTSC – partnership, equity.
Tchia v Rogerson – NTSC – equity, contempt of Court by a legal practitioner.
DPP v Burnett & others – restraining orders, unexplained wealth and procedural, administrative law and constitutional law challenges in the Full Court.
McCleary v Northern Territory – NTSC – judicial review – mining claims priority of marking out dispute.Lex has provided expert evidence for the assistance of the Superior Court of Alaska, Third Judicial District at Anchorage, concerning Australian and Territory regulation of safari hunting tourism in Azar v Tritton; and in Milatos v Clayton Utz – NTSC – solicitor’s duty of care in property development.
