Paul is a criminal lawyer with a combination of experience in litigation, policy and academia. He is admitted to practice law both in Australia and in New York (USA), and has worked as senior legal researcher for the now-retired Deputy Chief Justice Dikgang Moseneke at the Constitutional Court of South Africa, and a prosecutor at the Office of Public Prosecutions in Victoria.
At the moment, Paul is the manager of legal policy and community engagement at the Sentencing Advisory Council in Victoria. The focus of his PhD was the criminalisation of behaviours that cause purely psychological injuries, particularly in the context of family violence.
Paul has published articles on criminal law, family violence, and the effect of emerging technologies. He co-edited the book Criminalising Coercive Control: Family Violence and the Criminal Law. He has a particular interest in criminalisation theory, sentencing, and the increasing role of psychology in the criminal courtroom.
Experience
2016–present
Senior legal policy officer, Sentencing Advisory Council (Vic)
2015–2021
PhD candidate, Deakin University
2015–2019
Unit coordinator, Swinburne Online
2012–2017
Law Mentor, Australian National University
2015–2015
Senior legal researcher, Constitutional Court of South Africa
2014–2014
Assistant lecturer, Temple University
2011–2013
Prosecutor, Office of Public Prosecutions (Vic)
2010–2011
Lawyer, Comcare
Education
2021
Dwakin University (Melbourne, AUS), PhD (criminal law)
2014
Temple University (Philadelphia, USA), Master of Laws (LLM)
2010
Australian National University (Canberra, AUS), Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice (GDLP)
2010
Australian Public Service Commission (Canberra, AUS), Diploma of Government (Management)
2009
La Trobe University (Melbourne, AUS), Bachelor of Laws (LLB)
2008
La Trobe University (Melbourne, AUS), Bachelor of Legal Studies
Publications
2018
Causing someone else to commit suicide: Incitement or manslaughter?, Alternative Law Journal
2018
They found my iPhone, Law Institute Journal
2018
Book review: James C. Oleson's Criminal Genius: A Portrait of High-IQ Offenders, Australian and New Zealand Journal of Criminology
2017
The philosophy of criminalisation: A review of Duff et al's Criminalisation series, Criminal Law and Philosophy
2017
Criminalising emotional abuse, intimidation and economic abuse in the context of family violence: The Tasmanian experience, University of Tasmania Law Review
2017
A fair 'hearing': Earwitness identifications and voice identification parades, International Journal of Evidence and Proof
2017
A further critique of brain fingerprinting: The possibility of propranolol usage by offenders, Alternative Law Journal
2016
Judicial recognition of PTSD in crime victims: A review of how much credence Australian courts give to crime-induced PTSD, Journal of Law and Medicine
2016
"But I was so sure it was him": How Facebook could be making eyewitness identifications unreliable, Internet Law Bulletin
2016
Criminalising controlling and coercive behaviour: The next step in the prosecution of domestic violence?, Alternative Law Journal
2015
The limited impact of Facebook and the displacement effect on the admissibility of identification evidence, Criminal Law Journal