Rate My Professor Neil Rees

Emeritus Professor Neil Rees is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle, affiliated with the Newcastle Business School. He served as the Foundation Dean of the University of Newcastle Law School from 1991 to 2000. Rees earned a Bachelor of Laws with honours and a Bachelor of Jurisprudence from Monash University in 1973. He was admitted as a barrister and solicitor to the Supreme Court of Victoria in 1975 and as a solicitor to the Supreme Court of New South Wales in 1980. He obtained a Master of Laws from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, in 1981. As an undergraduate at Monash, he co-founded the Springvale Community Legal Centre, the first university-based community legal centre in Australia and the oldest continually operating one.

Rees's career encompasses significant roles in clinical legal education, government policy, administrative tribunals, and law reform. He directed clinical legal education at the University of New South Wales from 1980 to 1986 and was Assistant Director of Policy and Research in the Victorian Attorney-General’s Department from 1986 to 1987. He became the first President of the Victorian Mental Health Review Board and Chairperson of the Victorian Psychosurgery Review Board, both from 1987 to 1991. In New South Wales, he served as a member of the Mental Health Review Tribunal from 1992 to 2005, the Equal Opportunity Tribunal from 1994 to 1998, and the Administrative Decisions Tribunal from 1998 to 2007. Rees chaired the Victorian Law Reform Commission from 2007 to 2012 and was Foundation Co-Head of the Law School at the University of the Sunshine Coast from 2013 to 2016. A specialist in mental health law, administrative tribunals, and anti-discrimination law, he co-authored Australian Anti-Discrimination Law (Federation Press, 2008 and subsequent editions) and published articles including ‘Learning From the Past, Looking to the Future: Is Victorian Mental Health Law Ripe for Reform’ (2009) 16 Psychiatry, Psychology and the Law 69. In 2015, he delivered the Sir Ninian Stephen Lecture at the University of Newcastle, titled ‘I Look Ahead’. In 2017, Rees was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the law, legal education, and social justice.