14 April 2025
Peter Melican was promoted to the revived role of Deputy Chief Counsel, Dispute Resolution. The Secretary, Katherine Jones PSM, announced the promotion on 3 April. She said, ‘As Deputy Chief Counsel, Peter will build on his significant advocacy practice in addition to being a leading litigation practitioner in areas relevant to the Commonwealth.’
Peter first joined AGS in 2007 and has deep experience working on significant, complex and sensitive matters, including administrative law, statutory construction, information protection and civil penalties and regulation.
The National Leader of the Dispute Resolution practice area, Justine Knowles, reminisced about first working with Peter well over 15 years ago, particularly valuing ‘his skills of legal analysis, persuasion, clear written and oral advocacy, thoroughness, ability to cut through to the points that matter, and a most admirable ability to use strong foundational skills to branch out successfully into ever broader areas of the law, all while being a pleasure to work with and living the values of AGS with behaviour rather than talk.’
The AGS, Matthew Blunn, embraced Justine’s remarks and added how pleased he was that the position of Deputy Chief Counsel has been restored. ‘I am firmly of the view that it is of critical importance to the Commonwealth to have senior in-house counsel capacity at AGS,’ said Matthew. ‘I am grateful to Peter for accepting the responsibility of his new role.’
Congratulations to Peter on his worthy appointment.