Michael Christie is a Senior Counsel practising primarily in commercial law. He has acted for major Australian and overseas corporations in a wide variety of matters. He has an extensive practice in complex contractual disputes including those involving large infrastructure projects and the mining and resources sector, and has appeared in landmark cases in this field, including cases involving public law.
Michael is a graduate of the University of Sydney and Oxford University where he obtained the post-graduate degree of Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL) with First Class Honours (ranking first in his year amongst overseas graduates). He was admitted as a barrister in 1991.
In 2018, he undertook the Executive Education Program on Mediating Disputes at Harvard Law School.
He has appeared in various jurisdictions, including the High Court of Australia, the Federal Court of Australia, the Supreme Courts of New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory and in commercial arbitrations and hearings conducted by Court-appointed referees. He has been briefed in Singapore-seated international commercial arbitrations. He has also appeared in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands (Financial Services Division).
Michael has been a Part-time Lecturer at the University of Sydney Law School. He also taught taxation law (part-time) in the Department of Accounting in the University of Sydney. He has published articles in leading journals in England and Australia and is also a contributor to Principles of Equity (2nd Ed., 2003) (edited by Professor P. Parkinson with a foreword by Sir Anthony Mason). Michael is also a member of the New South Wales Legal Profession Admission Board’s Examinations Committee.