New Senior Counsel announced

Two lawyers from the State Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions have been announced as Senior Counsel in Western Australia from 32 applications received this year.

The appointments are Mr Bruno Fiannaca and Ms Troy Sweeney. Ms Sweeny becomes the second female silk in WA, joining Gillian Braddock.

Mr Fiannaca has been employed as a legal officer in the State Crown Solicitor's office from 1985, progressing to the position of Consultant Crown Prosecutor (now Consultant State Prosecutor) at the beginning of 2001.

Since 1992, he has specialised in the field of criminal law as a Crown Prosecutor. He has prosecuted regularly in the Supreme and District Courts and has appeared regularly for the State on appeals in the Court of Criminal Appeal (now the Court of Appeal). He has appeared on a special leave application in the High Court. He is a member of the International Association of Prosecutors and a member of the Executive of the Australian Association of Crown Prosecutors.

Ms Sweeney commenced with the Crown Solicitor's Office on 31 July 1989 as Counsel and has been responsible for the management and prosecution of criminal cases since that time. She is now a Senior State Prosecutor.

She has had continuous and extensive experience in prosecuting criminal trials in the Supreme and District Courts for some 15 years and has appeared frequently before the Court of Criminal Appeal, and now the Court of Appeal, arguing appeals against sentence and conviction.

She has been involved with the work undertaken by the Attorney General in relation to the area of criminal procedure in trials alleging sexual offences and last year was invited by the Attorney General to meet with the Attorney General of New South Wales to discuss the different approaches taken in this jurisdiction to the use of closed circuit television, pre-recordings and the experiences behind the proposed reforms. She recently met with members of a committee formed in South Australia to consider these same issues. Both meetings were an opportunity to promote the success of this State's progress in the use of remote facilities for children and affected witnesses.

Consultation by the Chief Justice of Western Australia, David Malcolm on the appointments was undertaken with Judges and Masters of the Supreme Court, the Judges of the Federal Court in Western Australia, the Chief Judge of the Family Court of WA, the Chief Judge of the District Court, the Chief Magistrate, the Solicitor General, the President of the Law Society of WA, the President of the WA Bar Association, a representative of the Women Lawyers' Association and nominated representatives of existing Queen's Counsel and Senior Counsel.

The appointment of Senior Counsel is made only on the basis that, in the opinion of a substantial majority of those consulted by the Chief Justice, the candidate meets the published criteria for appointment in Practice Direction No 2 of 2001, namely, eminence in the practice of the law, especially in advocacy; unquestioned integrity; availability; and independence. They rank in order of precedence in accordance with the respective dates upon which they were first admitted to practice.