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Dr Clyde Croft SC
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Senior Counsel, Arbitrator and Mediator
Born 1949
Called 1978 (NSW) and 1979 (Vic)
Silk (Australia) 2000
Chambers (Australia)
Owen Dixon Chambers
205 William Street
Melbourne. Victoria. Australia. 3000
Tel: +61 (0)3 9225 8622
Fax: +61 (0)3 9225 6787
Mobile: +61 (0)411 244 260
Email: ccroft@bigpond.com
Education
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (WM Tapp Research Student). PhD (Cambridge) (1983)
Monash University, Melbourne. B Ec (1971); LL B (1973); LL M (1979)(Monash)
Professional
Called/Signed Bar Roll - 1978 (NSW) and 1979 (Victoria); and admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor 1974 (Supreme Court of Victoria and the High Court of Australia)
Senior Counsel – Silk (Australia)[Victoria (Letters Patent - 28 November 2000; New South Wales (reciprocal recognition - December 2000); Tasmania, ACT and NT (reciprocal recognition - April 2001)]
Chairman, Barristers Clerking Services Pty Ltd (Barristers’ List A, Victorian Bar)(2004 to date)
Member, International Bar Association
Member, Law Council of Australia (LCA)(and Member, International Law Section, LCA)
Member, Leases Committee (Law Institute of Victoria)
Member, Property Law Committee (Law Institute of Victoria)
Sessional Member, Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT)(2003-2008)(assigned to the Legal Practice List, the Occupational and Business Regulation List and the State Taxation List)
Statutory Arbitrator and Conciliator under the Retail Tenancies Act 1986 (1989-1998)
Crown Solicitor for the Northern Territory of Australia/ Solicitor for the Northern Territory of Australia (1987-88)
Public Notary, Northern Territory of Australia (1987)
Adjunct Professor of Law, Deakin University (Melbourne)(1993 to date; and currently appointed to 2010)
Examiner in Commercial Tenancy Law for Solicitors’ Specialist Accreditation (Law Institute of Victoria)
Treasurer and Director, Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA)(2003 – to date)
Immediate Past President, Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA) (2000-2001)
President, Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA)(1997-2000 )
Vice President, Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) (1996-2003)
Chair, Education and Training Committee, Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA)(1996-2000)
Chair, “The Arbitrator” Journal Advisory [editorial] Committee, Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA)(1995-2001)
Life Fellow, Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (FIAMA)
Fellow, Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (FACICA)
Liveryman, Worshipful Company of Arbitrators of London
Member, London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA)
Member, Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK)
Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA) - Grade 1 Arbitrator (Grade 1 being the highest grading)(and Member of the Panel of Commercial Arbitrators)
Institute of Arbitrators and Mediators Australia (IAMA)- Accredited Mediator
Asia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group (APRAG) – Member of the Panel of International Arbitrators
Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (ACICA) – Member of the Panel of International Arbitrators
Victorian Bar - Accredited Mediator
Experience
Extensive experience and expertise in property, equity and commercial law (including equity, trusts, real and personal property, corporations, commercial projects and associated freehold and leasehold conveyancing, mortgages and securities, securitisation, commercial leases, commercial contracts generally, trade practices, construction and engineering and related matters) and international and domestic commercial arbitration, involving:
• appearances in the higher courts, statutory tribunals and arbitration tribunals;
• commercial arbitration as arbitrator (having conducted a very significant number of domestic commercial arbitrations and, as sole arbitrator, tribunal chairman or co-arbitrator, a significant number of international commercial arbitrations), including major construction and engineering disputes;
• mediation, conciliation and other aspects of alternative dispute resolution (as mediator or conciliator and appearing for parties); and
• advice generally, including analysis of and advice on related policy issues and policy development for both Government and private clients;
In particular, in relation to international commercial arbitration (and mediation): Chairman of International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Arbitral Tribunal in relation to aircraft “wet” leasing; Member of ICC Arbitral Tribunal in relation to the construction of a hydro-electric scheme in the Philippines (involving a series of major hearings and awards over five years); arbitrator, appointed by an ad hoc international tribunal in the same proceedings, deciding all procedural and substantive privilege issues (domestic and international), involving extensive awards and hearings; sole arbitrator, arbitral tribunal member or chairman in commodities, franchising and other commercial arbitrations (under various arbitration rules, including ICC and UNCITRAL); and nominated arbitrator or arbitral tribunal member in other (ICC and UNCITRAL) commodities and other commercial arbitrations where matters have not proceeded to final award.
Additionally, was Foundation Vice-President of Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (1985-6), Vice-President (1996–2003) and Treasurer (2003 to date); adviser to the Victorian Government in relation to ACICA’s establishment (and subsequently consultant to ACICA); foundation member of the Asia-Pacific Council of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) and formerly LCIA National Liaison Member for Australia.
Represented the Asia Pacific Regional Arbitration Group (APRAG) at sessions of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Working Group on International Arbitration (Vienna (43rd Session, 2005, 45th Session, 2006 and 47th Session, 2007) and New York (44th Session, 2006, 46th Session, 2007 and 48th Session, 2008)) revising the UNCITRAL Model Arbitration Law and the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules (and see the APRAG Reports of these Sessions at www.aprag.org).
Government
Secretary [Department Head] Northern Territory Department of Law (Attorney-General’s Department) and Crown Solicitor/Solicitor for the Northern Territory (1987-88); Executive Director, Law Reform Commission of Victoria (1986); Assistant Secretary (Policy Co-ordination), Acting Deputy Secretary, Law Department (Attorney-General’s Department), Victoria (1984 – 1985); and extensive legal and policy advice to various Australian Governments in the areas of expertise and experience, above (1988 - to date). Also adviser to the British Columbia Government in relation to the establishment of the British Columbia Commercial Arbitration Centre and enabling legislation enacting the UNCITRAL Model International Commercial Arbitration Law (1986).
Publications
The Mortgagee’s Power of Sale (Butterworths, 1980); a second edition of this work, joint author with Jan Johannsson, was published in June 2004 (Butterworths/LexisNexis);
Commercial Tenancy Law in Australia (Butterworths, 1990; Butterworths, 2nd edition, 1997) joint author with Professor A. Bradbrook, University of Adelaide; with a third edition, jointly with Professor Bradbrook and Robert Hay, due to be published in late 2008);
Retail Leases Victoria – under the Retail Leases Act 2003, the Retail Leases (Amendment) Act 2005 and under the 1986 and 1998 retail tenancies legislation (Butterworths/LexisNexis); a major loose-leaf work published in March 2006 (being the fifth edition of Croft, Retail Leases, previously published between 1992 and 2004 by the Leo Cussen Institute);
Fisher and Lightwood’s Law of Mortgage - Australian Edition (Butterworths, 1995; jointly with Professor ELG Tyler and Mr Justice PW Young CJ in Equity (Supreme Court of NSW)); second edition (joint author, as above) published November 2005 (Butterworths/LexisNexis);
Equity (Law Book Co, jointly with Mr Justice PW Young CJ in Equity and Megan Smith; to be published 2008;
Consultant Editor, CCH Victorian Conveyancing Service [a text dealing with land contracts, leases, mortgages and commercial conveyancing];
General – Editor, Australian Property Law Journal (Butterworths/LexisNexis);
Attorney-General’s (Vic) Working Party on Alternative Dispute Resolution Report (1990) written in consultation and with the agreement of the Working Party;
Review of the Retail Tenancies Act 1986 which was prepared for submission to the Minister for Small Business by the Small Business Advisory Network;
General Editor Leo Cussen Institute - Contemporary Issues in Property Law (1997 - four books in the series to date) (a series of substantial books containing papers on property law issues of current relevance; including leases, mortgages, sale of land and more generally); and
Various articles and conference papers on commercial arbitration (domestic and international) and other property and commercial law subjects.