Geoffrey Nettle

Geoffrey Arthur Ackeroyd Nettle QC (b. 2 December 1950) is a judge of the Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Victoria, in the Australian state of Victoria. He became a barrister in November 1982, following several years practising as a solicitor with Mallesons Stephen Jaques. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1992. His major areas of practice were commercial law, taxation, constitutional law and administrative law. He was appointed a Judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria, Trial Division, in 2002, and a Judge of Appeal of the Victorian Court of Appeal, Supreme Court of Victoria, in 2004.

Unusually for an Appeal Justice, in 2013 he presided over the trial at first instance of Adrian Ernest Bayley for the rape and murder of Irishwoman Jill Meagher in Melbourne, Australia.

Justice Nettle completed a Bachelor of Economics at the Australian National University followed by a Bachelor of Laws, for which he received First Class Honours, at the University of Melbourne in 1975. While studying at Melbourne, he was a resident at Trinity College, where he rowed and played rugby. He then completed a Bachelor of Civil Laws with First Class Honours from the University of Oxford.

On 4 December 2014 the Commonwealth Attorney-General, Senator George Brandis, announced that Nettle will become a justice of the High Court of Australia, replacing Justice Susan Crennan who will retire on 3 February 2015. Nettle will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 for High Court justices in 2020.