User:Maddoc2/sandbox/Matthew Collins (barrister)

Dr Matthew (Matt) John Collins QC (born 17 February 1970) is an Australian barrister, academic and writer. He practises predominantly in media law, particularly defamation, as well as constitutional and commercial law. He is best known for having acted in a number of high profile defamation and free speech cases.

Early life
Collins was born in Adelaide to Robyn Dolan and John Collins. He was educated at Port Moresby International High School and Prince Alfred College. Collins studied law and arts at Adelaide University. He was associate to Justice Donnell M Ryan of the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne and a solicitor at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons).

Collins has a partner, Leonard Vary, who is the CEO of the Sidney Myer Fund and the Myer Foundation. They live in Melbourne.

Professional life
Collins was admitted to practice as a lawyer in 1994 and became a barrister in 1999. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2011 and Queen’s Counsel in 2014.

Collins holds a PhD from Melbourne University. His 1999 thesis considered the implications of the internet for principles of defamation law, leading to his first book, The Law of Defamation and the Internet (Oxford University Press), which ran to three editions. He also wrote Collins on Defamation (Oxford University Press), a text on the law of libel and slander in England and Wales.

In his practice as a barrister, Collins has acted in a number of significant media law cases, including Andrew Bolt’s trial for racial discrimination under section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, the Joe Hockey v Fairfax Media ‘Treasurer for Sale’ litigation, and actress Rebel Wilson’s defamation case against Bauer Media, which reportedly resulted in the highest damages award in a defamation case in Australian history.

Collins is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School and a member of the Melbourne Law School Foundation Board. With his partner, Collins has established a scholarship for disadvantaged students in his father’s name.

Collins is a member of the Council of the Victorian Bar and has served as its Senior Vice-President, Chair of its Readers’ Course Sub-Committee, Executive of its Education and Professional Development Committee and member of its Indictable Crime Certificate Committee.

Collins has written widely in other areas, including freedom of speech in the age of terrorism and marriage equality.