Admission Dates
Legal Profession: 1983 NSW and 1989 Victoria
NSW Bar: 2001 NSW & 2009 England and Wales (Gray’s Inn)
Principal Areas of Practice
• Administrative and Constitutional
• Commercial
• Civil and Human Rights
• Criminal Law
• Industrial/Employment
• Inquests and Commissions of Inquiry
• Personal Injury
• Sports Law
Academic Qualifications
BA (Hons) LLB PhD (UNSW)
Previous Occupations
Dr Tom Hickie brings to his practice his background as a judge, barrister, solicitor, lecturer, author and sports administrator.
A former Judge of the High Court of Fiji as well as an ex officio member of the Fiji Court of Appeal, his ability to cover a wide of area of law was recognised when serving on the bench in Fiji where he delivered judgments covering administrative and constitutional law, commercial law, contempt, criminal law, discrimination, employment, human rights, tort (defamation, personal injury, medical negligence and road traffic matters), to estate and land law.
In 2009, he was Called to the Bar of England and Wales (Gray’s Inn) and joined 7 Bedford Row Chambers (one of London’s leading common law sets) where he remains a Door Tenant.
In 2012, he returned to Australia and the NSW Bar where he has a broad practice reflecting his wide ranging career and interests.
From 2016 until early 2019, Dr Hickie served as the part-time Independent Legal Services Commissioner for Fiji.
Memberships & Panels
• NSW Bar
• Bar of England & Wales
Dr Hickie is a past board member of the Lloyd McDermott Aboriginal Development Team (seeking to give talented Indigenous youth a future through education and sport), a Life Member of the Australian Society for Sports History and a member of the Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Association.
Special Interest
As a member of the Bars of both NSW and England and Wales, he has practised in the area of Sports Law as well as been the Course Coordinator of ‘Sport and the Law’ at the University of NSW for over a decade (being jointly awarded in 2005 the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Sessional Teaching).
He also taught in the area as an Adjunct Professor with the Boston University Sydney Internship Program, as a Sessional Lecturer in the LLM distance program at the University of New England, as well as lectured to the Bars of NSW and Jamaica, and practitioners in Fiji.
Publications (since admission as a Barrister)
• Books
Donna T. Spears and Thomas V. Hickie, Criminal Law for Common Law States, LexisNexis Butterworths, Chatswood, 2009.
Thomas V. Hickie and Ian S. Lloyd, Criminal Law for Common Law States, 2nd Edition, LexisNexis Butterworths, Chatswood, 2014.
• Joint contributor
Thomas V. Hickie and Ian S. Lloyd (joint contributors ‘criminal law terms’), in R. Finkelstein and D. Hamer (eds) LexisNexis Concise Australian Dictionary, 5th Edition, LexisNexis, Chatswood, 2014.
• Articles
Book Review – Thomas V. Hickie, ‘Sports Law, 4th Edition, Simon Gardiner, John O’Leary, Roger Welch, Simon Boyes and Urvasi Naidoo (Routledge, London, 2012)’, Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal, (2012) Vol. 6, No 1, pp. 147 – 152.
Book Review – Thomas V. Hickie, ‘Reading Baseball: Books, Biographies and the Business of the Game’, Braham Dabscheck, (Fitness Information Technology, International Center for Performance Excellence, west Virginia University, Morgantown, 2011)’, Australian and New Zealand Sports Law Journal, (2012) Vol 6, No 1, pp. 153 – 155.
• Monographs
Thomas V. Hickie, Anthony T. Hughes, Deborah Healey and Jocelynne A. Scutt (eds), Essays in Sport and the Law, Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH) Studies Series, No. 24, Melbourne, 2008.
Mary Bushby and Thomas V. Hickie (eds), Rugby History: The Remaking of the Class Game, ASSH Studies Series, No. 22, Melbourne, 2007.
• Chapters in Books
Thomas V. Hickie and Mary Bushby, ‘Rugby at the Crossroads – A Case Study of Sydney University Football Club 1995-97: Grafting professionalism on to the amateur ideal’, in Greg Ryan (ed.), The Changing Face of Rugby, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle Upon Tyne, 2008.
Thomas V. Hickie, ‘Do What I Say, Not What I Do’: Is this the ‘Play True’ Reality of the World Anti-Doping Code?’, in U.Haas and D. Healey (eds), Doping in Sport and the Law, Hart Publishing, London, 2016
• Law Reports
Thomas V. Hickie and Marie Chan (eds), 2001 Fiji Law Reports, High Court of Fiji and University of South Pacific Bookshop, Suva, 2008.
Conference Papers / Presentations (since admission as a Barrister)
• 2018
Lecture/Address: “Aspiring to be a Lawyer? Problems and Prospects – It’s all okay!”, Bema Open Forum Presentation to students and staff, University of Fiji, Samabula Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands, 7 February 2018.
• 2017
Conference Paper: “Aspiring in Disciplinary Matters: The Good, The Bad and What about the Mitigation – a forgotten art?”, presented to the Fiji Law Society Conference, InterContinental Fiji Gold Resort and Spa, Natadola, Fiji Islands, 2 September 2017.
Conference Paper: ‘Coitus Interruptus, the Rhythm Method and Socrates’ Symposia in the Twenty-First Century’, 14th Annual International Conference on Law, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Business and Law Research Division, Athens, Greece, 10 – 13 July 2017.
Address: “Becoming a Lawyer’, oratory and the Law”, Presentation to students and staff at a launch of “The Bema” for law students, University of Fiji, Samabula Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands, 1 February 2017.
• 2016
Lecture/Address: ‘Sports, Sexism and the Law: Is Law part of the problem or part of the solution?’ Member of Panel of three speakers, Public Forum, Western Sydney University Law School, Parramatta, 28 April 2016.
• 2015
Joint Conference Paper (with Ian Lloyd QC): Commissions Fighting Corruption or Star Chambers? Some issues arising from the NSW ICAC Investigation into Margaret Cunneen’, 12th Annual International Conference on Law, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Business and Law Research Division, Athens Greece, 14 – 17 July 2015.
CPD Lecture: ‘Pre-Trial Tactics’, Fiji Law society, Suva 25 July 2015.
• 2014
CPD Lecture: ‘Does a Horse Have More Rights Than an Athlete?’, in-house CPD Seminar, 7 Bedford Row, London, 6 November 2014. Symposium Paper: ‘Doping in Sport: The Athletes’ Perspective’, ‘Doping in Sport Symposium’, UNSW Law School Division, 16 April 2014
• 2013
Forum Presentation: ‘Doping in Sport : The Athletes’ Perspective’, Member of Panel of five speakers, ‘Public Forum: Doping in Sport’, UNSW Law School Division, 10 October 2013. Conference Paper: ‘If Promoting Fair Play is the Basis of the World Anti-Doping Code then is it not Ironic that the Code is so Unfair?’, 10th International Conference on Law, Athens Institute for Education and Research, Business and Law Research Division, Athens, Greece 8 – 11 July 2013.
Lecture/Address: ‘Court Administration: Challenges for Courts in Remote Areas’, Presentation to a Delegation from the Curts of Justice, Thailand (40 Chief Justices from each provincial court in Thailand), UNSW Centre for Continuing Legal Education, UNSW Faculty of Law Kensington Campus, Sydney, 3 May 2013.
• 2012
Lecture/Address: ‘Rule of Law or Rule of the Mob? Challenges for Judges in a “coup” culture’, Presentations to a Delegation from the Courts of Justice, Thailand (40 Chief Justices from each provincial court in Thailand), UNSW Centre Continuing Legal Education, UNSW Faculty of Law, Kensington Campus, Sydney, 27 September 2012.
• 2011
Presentation of hypotheticals as part of a panel of barristers presenting a Summer CPD Sports Law Series, 7 Bedford Row Chambers for London practitioners.
‘Football Governance – Getting It Right or Getting It Wrong’, (Commercial, Company and Criminal Law), 8 July 2011;
‘Players Behaving Badly – Divergent Perspectives’, (Personal Injury, Clinical Negligence, Employment and Criminal Law), 30 June 2011.
• 2010
Presentation, ‘Courage and Fiji: A view from a former member of the Bench’, Association of Gray’s Inn Students, London, 27 April 2010.
• 2009
Presentation, ‘Courage and Fiji: A view from a former member of the Bench’, University of Western Sydney London Alumni, London, 6 November 2009.
In-house seminar, ‘An Introduction Sports Law’, 7 Bedford Row Chambers, London, 5 November 2009.
• 2008
Conference Lecture: ‘Challenges for Prosecutors: A View from the Bench’, presented to the 10th Annual DPP’s Conference, Yanuca, Fiji Islands, 10 December 2008.
Conference Lecture: ‘Recent issues in “Sport and the Law”‘, presented to the 10th Annual Attorney-General’s Conference, Yanuca, Fiji Islands, 28 November 2008.
Presentation, ‘Courage, Fiji and the Judicial Oath’, University of NSW Law Society, UNSW Law School, Sydney, 18 September 2008.
Joint Presentation with Justice Nazhat Shameem, ‘Contempt and the Media – the Do’s and Don’t’s’, separate presentations to journalists with Fiji TV, Fiji Radio and Fiji Times.
• 2007
Conference Paper: ‘Thank God for El Masri as Madame Defarge is alive and well and living in Australian Sport’, Sporting Traditions XVI Conference, The Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH), Canberra, 30 June 2007.
Lecture/Address: ‘Development of Sports Law’, presented to the NSW Bar Association, Sydney Downtown Mini Conference, 17 March 2007.
• 2006
Lecture/Address: ‘The Development of “Sport and the Law” Over the Last Four Decades’, presented to the Jamaican Bar, University of West Indies, Kingston, 15 July 2006.
• 2005
Conference Address: ‘Sydney University Football Club: A Case Study in Change Management’, to Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators, Melbourne, 25 August 2005.
• 2003
Conference Keynote Address: ‘The Amateur Ideal in the Era of Professional Rugby’, presented to ‘Rugby, History and the Remaking of the Class Game’, organised by the Australian Society for Sports History (ASSH), University of NSW, 8 November 2003.
• 2002
Conference Paper: ‘The PM, the Attorney-General and the Role of the Legal System: a clear vision and understanding’, presented to ‘Thirty Years Later: The Whitlam Government as Modernist Politics’, National Key Centre for Australian Studies and the Parliamentary Studies Unit, Faculty of Arts, Monash University, Old Parliament House Canberra, 2-3 December 2002.
