Simon Buchen SC

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

Simon Buchen practices in the criminal law and related areas. He was admitted to legal practice in February 1999 and called to the bar in August 2004. He took silk in 2018.
 
He has appeared for both the defence and the prosecution. He is regularly briefed in complex criminal cases by solicitors from private firms, Legal Aid NSW and prosecutorial bodies such as the Office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. He has advised and represented a variety of clients, including individuals, large corporations and government agencies. He has appeared in a number of interstate jurisdictions.
 
Although regularly appearing in first instance matters, such as trials and sentence hearings, his practice has a strong appellate focus. He has appeared in many appeals in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. He has also appeared in a number of High Court appeals and special leave applications over the years. In May 2018 he appeared for the appellant in Lane v The Queen [2018] HCA 28; (2018) 92 ALJR 689, an appeal against a manslaughter conviction which concerned the application of the proviso to s 6 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1912 (NSW) to errors that breach the fundamental presuppositions of trial.
 
In recent years he has developed a specialised practice in the area of cartel offences and serious contraventions of competition laws. He appeared (as junior counsel to Tim Game SC and James Lockhart SC) 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 is presently briefed in a number of serious cartel matters, including for a party in a recently commenced banking cartel prosecution.
 
For some years he has advised and appeared in complex federal criminal matters, such as those involving insider trading, market manipulation, taxation fraud, police corruption and foreign bribery offences. He has also advised and appeared in respect of areas connected with the criminal law, such as: coronial inquests (including as counsel assisting the coroner); statutory commissions of inquiry (including appearing before the ICAC, the Police Integrity Commission, ASIC; the Australian and NSW Crime Commissions); serious environmental, industrial, aviation and other regulatory offences; and proceeds of crime litigation.
 
Simon Buchen has served as an active member of a professional conduct committee of the NSW Bar Association from 2013 to the present.
 
Principal areas of practice

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

 
Some recent cases of note

• McPhillamy v The Queen [2018] HCA 52; (2018) 92 ALJR 1045 — an appeal to the High Court concerning the admissibility of sexual interest tendency evidence in criminal trials

• Lane v The Queen [2018] HCA 28; (2018) 92 ALJR 689 — an appeal to the High Court concerning the inapplicability of the proviso to radical defects in the trial process and the need for a unanimity direction in a trial for murder or manslaughter when the Crown relies upon multiple acts causing death

• Xiao v The Queen [2018] NSWCCA 4; (2018) 96 NSWLR 1; (2018) 329 FLR 1 — a decision of an enlarged bench of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal overturning longstanding authority on 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

• Wilson v Director of Public Prosecutions (NSW) [2017] NSWCA 128; (2017) 94 NSWLR 450; R v Wilson [2018] NSWDC 487 —important  litigation concerning the alleged concealment of historical child sexual offences within the Catholic Church

• Smith v The Queen [2017] HCA 19; (2017) 259 CLR 291 — an appeal in which the High Court clarified the law in relation to 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

• Director of Public Prosecutions (Cth) v Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha [2017] FCA 876; (2017) 254 FCR 235 — appeared for the defendant company in the first criminal cartel prosecution in the Federal Court of Australia

• Environment Protection Authority v Caltex Australia Petroleum Pty Ltd [2017] NSWLEC 8; Chief Executive, Office of Environment and Heritage v Essential Energy [2017] NSWLEC 27 — appeared for Caltex and Essential Energy in sentence proceedings in the NSW Land and Environment Court for serious environmental offences

• 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, for serious drug importation and police corruption offences ​

• Xiao v R (2018) 96 NSWLR 1; R v Hull [2016] NSWSC 634; R v Stromer [2015] NSWSC 741; (2015) 106 ACSR 525; Hartman v R [2011] NSWCCA 261 — appeared for the defendants in a number of significant insider trading cases

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• Moustapha Dib v R [2016] NSWCCA 15 — appeared for the appellant in his appeal against conviction; the appellant was acquitted of murder in the Court of Criminal Appeal

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

CONTACT HERE