Simon Buchen SC

Admitted as a legal practitioner in 1999
Admitted as a barrister in 2004
​Appointed Senior Counsel in 2018

Simon Buchen has practised in the criminal law and related areas for over 25 years.
 
He has appeared for both the defence and the prosecution. He is regularly briefed in complex criminal cases by both defence firms and prosecutorial bodies. He has advised and represented a variety of clients, including individuals, corporations and government agencies, and has appeared in a number of interstate jurisdictions.
 
He regularly appears in first instance matters, such as trials and sentence hearings. His practice also has a strong appellate focus. He has appeared in appeals in the High Court of Australia and in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal and Court of Appeal.
 
He has advised and appeared in various inquiries, such as coronial inquests (including as counsel assisting the coroner) and statutory commissions of inquiry (including appearing before the ICAC, the Police Integrity Commission, ASIC and the Australian and NSW Crime Commissions). He has also appeared for applicants before the State Parole Authority.
 
He appears in cases involving the full range of State offences, including murder, sexual offences and major drug crime. He has advised and appeared in respect of complex federal criminal matters, such as those involving insider trading, market manipulation, taxation fraud, police corruption and foreign bribery offences. 
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He has advised and appeared in cases involving cartel offences and serious contraventions of competition laws. He appeared in the first case to be heard in the Federal Court’s criminal cartel jurisdiction, DPP (Cth) v Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha [2017] FCA 876; (2017) 254 FCR 235. He successfully defended the ANZ bank in the recent banking cartel prosecution and another large Australian corporation following an ACCC investigation.
 
He has also advised and appeared in respect of areas connected with the criminal law, such as serious environmental, industrial, aviation and other regulatory offences, and proceeds of crime litigation conducted in the Supreme Court.
 
He served as a member of a professional conduct committee of the NSW Bar Association (from 2013 to 2022) and as the Bar Association’s appointed member of the Legal Aid Review Committee.  He contributed to the Bar Association’s anti-money laundering working group. He is currently a member of the Bar’s Criminal Law Committee.

 
Principal areas of practice

• Criminal law
• Appellate
• Corporate crime
• Competition law offences
• Environmental offences
• Commissions of inquiry and inquests

 
Some cases of note
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• Delaney v R [2025] NSWCCA 76 — appeal in which a murder conviction was quashed on the basis of a miscarriage of justice due to mistaken legal advice and expert psychiatric evidence concerning the defence of mental health impairment

 

• MJR v R [2025] NSWCCA 51 — successful sentence appeal in relation to firearms offences which considered application of the totality principle when imposing an aggregate sentence

 

• New v R [2025] NSWCCA 32 — an appeal in which convictions for sexual offences in two trials were quashed and acquittals entered on the basis of wrongful admission of tendency evidence and erroneous tendency directions to the jury

 

• Environment Protection Authority v Eastern Creek Operations Pty Ltd [2022] NSWCCA 97; (2022) 108 NSWLR 198 — an appeal confirming the power of the Land and Environment Court to dismiss a prosecution at a pretrial hearing (after a preliminary hearing into the question whether an essential condition of criminal liability could be established or proceed to a final hearing)

 

• R v Kinghorn (No 4) [2019] NSWSC 1420, (2019) 348 FLR 281; R v Kinghorn [2021] NSWCCA 313; (2021) 106 NSWLR 322 — litigation concerning the intersection of legal professional privilege and the prosecution duty of disclosure in criminal cases, and the operation of the accusatorial principle in respect of compulsory examinations conducted under the taxation laws

 

• Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Ltd (No 5 Indictment) [2021] FCA 1345; (2021) 394 ALR 403; Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Citigroup Global Markets Australia Pty Ltd (No 3 - privilege claims) [2021] FCA 1208 — advising and appearing for ANZ in the banking cartel case

 

• R v AA (No 3) [2019] NSWSC 1892; R v AA (No 5) [2021] NSWSC 195 — a sentencing matter involving an offence of contravening a United Nations sanction enforcement law

 

• Lane v The Queen [2018] HCA 28; (2018) 265 CLR 196 — manslaughter appeal in the High Court concerning the inapplicability of the proviso to defects in the trial process involving potential non-performance by the jury of its function and the requirement for a ‘unanimity direction’ when the prosecution relies upon multiple acts causing death

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• Xiao v The Queen [2018] NSWCCA 4; (2018) 96 NSWLR 1 — a decision of an enlarged bench of the Court of Criminal Appeal overturning previous authority about the manner in which pleas of guilty may be taken into account in federal sentencing; the case involved the most severe sentence imposed in Australia for insider trading
  
  
• McPhillamy v The Queen [2018] HCA 52; (2018) 92 ALJR 1045 — High Court appeal concerning the admissibility of sexual interest tendency evidence in criminal trials
  
  
• Wilson v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) [2017] NSWCA 128; (2017) 94 NSWLR 450 — a case concerning the proper construction of s 316 of the Crimes Act 1900 and whether a person can commit a concealment offence in relation to historical offences; and R v Wilson [2018] NSWDC 487 — a successful appeal against conviction involving the most senior clergy member to be charged with concealing sexual offences
  
  
• Smith v The Queen [2017] HCA 19; (2017) 259 CLR 291 — High Court appeal about the mental element for drug importation offences, including consideration of whether the reasoning in Kural v The Queen (1987) 162 CLR 502 applies to offences under the Commonwealth Criminal Code
  
  
• Standen v The Queen [2016] HCASL 243; Standen v The Queen [2015] NSWCCA 211; (2015) 298 FLR 35; Standen v Commonwealth DPP [2011] NSWCCA 187; (2011) 254 FLR 467; R v Standen [2011] NSWSC 1422 — appeared as a Crown prosecutor in the trial, appeals and special leave application of Mark Standen, the former assistant director of the NSW Crime Commission who was convicted of serious drug importation and police corruption offences

For further details or enquiries regarding Simon Buchen’s areas of expertise, fees and terms of engagement please contact his Clerk.

CONTACT HERE