Patrick is the senior Partner of Kennedys in Australia. Based in Sydney, Patrick brings over 35 years’ experience to his role as a leading expert in reputational risk and dispute resolution. Patrick is a trusted adviser to many high profile clients often involving sensitive and high value matters and significant media interest.
His expertise includes complex commercial disputes, defamation and privacy, insurance coverage, professional liability, directors’ and officers’ liability, international arbitration and sports law. He is also experienced in investigations and inquiries by ASIC, APRA, the Ombudsman, ICAC, Inquiries and Royal Commissions.
In the 1980s, he acted against Prime Minister Bob Hawke for Time Magazine and against NSW Premier Neville Wran for journalist, Geoffrey Sims: Sims v Wran [1984] 1 NSWLR 317. He later acted for The Age newspaper in NSW for nearly 20 years.
In the 1990s, he was involved in some of the largest commercial cases of the period, including the Estate Mortgage case. He has conducted international arbitrations in France, Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK and the USA and was an original Board Member of ACICA.
Since joining Kennedys as a founding partner in 2006, Patrick has acted for two former Prime Ministers, Kevin Rudd and Paul Keating; the AOC President and Vice President of the International Olympic Committee, John Coates; NSW Premier/ Senator Kristina Keneally; Victorian Premier Ted Baillieu; NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Adams; amongst many others.
Patrick is the author of the definitive text ‘Defamation Law in Australia’ (3rd Edition published by LexisNexis in 2017) and editor of the text ‘Social Media and the Law’ (2nd Edition published by LexisNexis in 2016) to which he contributed Chapters on Defamation and Criminal Law.
