Member Profiles

Contact Details

Helena Blundell
Murray Chambers

Murray Chambers
1/3 Whitfield Street,
Darwin NT 0800

Tel: 0427 187 739
Fax:
Email: hblundell@murraychambers.com.au

Helena Blundell is a barrister at Murray Chambers in Darwin, Northern Territory.

Date and Place of First Admission

2002 Northern Territory

Other Jurisdictions

 2013 High Court Solomon Islands

Degrees

 Helena was awarded her BA/LLB from the University of Queensland in 1988.  She double majored in Politics for her BA.

Areas of Practice

Helena’s main area of practice is in general criminal law with a particular interest in Youth Justice matters.

  • Crimes against the person (Criminal)
  • Drugs (Criminal)
  • Extradition (Criminal)
  • Fraud (Criminal)
  • Youth Justice (Criminal)
  • Mental Illness (Criminal)
  • Property Offences (Criminal)
  • Sexual Assault (Criminal)
  • Traffic (Criminal)
  • White Collar and Corporate Crime (Criminal)
  • Coronial Inquests

Helena also has experience in Domestic and Family Violence matters and WorkSafe matters.

Career

Helena has had a varied and rewarding career both legal and non-legal.

Helena commenced her legal career with the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office as a Senior Investigation Officer.

Helena moved to the NT in 1995 and took on the role of establishing the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office in the Northern Territory as an independent office ending the NT Ombudsman’s delegated role.  Helena took on short term contract appointments with the both the Commonwealth Ombudsman’s Office and NT Ombudsman’s Office over several years, the latter investigating complaints about police.

Helena then took a career change and worked for a number of years as an Adventure Tour Guide in the Top End of the NT where she got to explore the region by 4WD and boat.

In 1999 Helena took on the positon of Public Interest Advocate with the North Australian Aboriginal Legal Aid Service (NAAJA) taking on two major projects focusing on advocating for an Indigenous Interpreter Service and against the Mandatory Sentencing regime for property offending.

In 2001 Helena commenced with the NT Legal Aid Commission completing her Article Clerkship and then in practice with NTLAC until 2013.  Helena practiced mostly in criminal law and youth justice with some family law, legal policy and community legal education (remote indigenous communities).

In 2009 Helena was appointed to the Classification Review Board (CWTH) where she conducted and determined de novo reviews of films and computer games as a Board Member until 2013.

Helena took up an opportunity to volunteer with the Innocence Project New Orleans (Louisiana) in 2012.

In 2013 Helena took up a position as Legal Advisor with the Solomon Islands Law and Justice Program which involved conducting serious criminal trials, including murder trials, and training and capacity building Solomon Island lawyers in the Public Solicitors Office.

Helena is a Law and Justice Civilian Expert (Australian Civilian Corp).

Helena was called to the Bar in 2015 upon her return from Solomon Islands and is at Murray Chambers in Darwin.

 

Murray Chambers | Northern Territory (murraychambersnt.com.au)