Bryce Douglas-Baker Barrister

Fourth Floor Selborne Chambers174 Phillip StreetSydneyNSW2000

DX 531 SYDNEY

Bryce Douglas-Baker is a corporate and commercial barrister who advises and appears as counsel in a wide range of jurisdictions and areas of law, including building and construction, contracts, corporations, co-operatives, equity, family, property, and water law. 

Bryce is proud of having successfully appeared for a co-operative of over 100 farmers in Western Australia in what was the largest water rights case in Australian history, and he is just as proud of having successfully appeared for a retired pensioner in the Supreme Court of NSW to recover her life savings from a retirement home in a priority dispute with a large lender.  

The following email was sent to Bryce by his instructing solicitors following the Western Australia water matter:

“To our knowledge, this is the largest and longest running water case in Australia. The issues, in terms of jurisdiction as well as geography, presented significant challenges for development and implementation of the legal case. As you are aware, the Tribunal found resoundingly in favour of our client, in extremely complex factual circumstances. Our client has expressed a high level of satisfaction with the result, which is due in no small part to your efforts on their behalf.

In particular, our client has praised your contribution as counsel working with a large number of witnesses to prepare volumes of detailed and nuanced evidence concerning agribusiness, farming practice, water management and meteorological factors. Our client attributes much of their success in the case to your resolute, efficient and legally effective approach, prosecuted with a unique and unerringly engaging professional ‘bedside manner’.”

Bryce is a lecturer for the University of Sydney Law Extension Committee and is the unit of study coordinator for Commercial Transactions.  Bryce has also taught Commercial Equity, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Legal Ethics. 

Prior to being called to the Bar, Bryce was a solicitor at Atanaskovic Hartnell, where he worked in corporate and commercial law, including mergers and acquisitions, advising some of Australia’s highest net worth individuals and some of Australia’s most iconic companies.   

Before coming to the Law, Bryce taught English and Rhetoric at the University of Sydney, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy in English for his thesis titled, Virtue and Kingship in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.  Bryce has now combined his knowledge of literature and ethics with his knowledge of Law through his strong interest in legal ethics. 

Bryce has been awarded numerous academic prizes and scholarships, including the Aaron Levine Prize in Criminal Law at the University of Sydney (awarded to the most proficient student in Criminal Law, a compulsory subject for all law students at the University of Sydney) and the James Coutts Scholarship in English Language at the University of Sydney (awarded to the most outstanding undergraduate at the end of Third Year).

Bryce accepts briefs from solicitors and direct access briefs from in-house and government counsel.

BarristerSelf-employed, Fourth Floor Selborne Chambers
(previously Blackstone Chambers)
Called to the Bar — April 2015
Casual Academic – Lecturer and Unit of Study Co-ordinatorUniversity of Sydney, Law Extension Committee
Subjects taught: Commercial Transactions, and Rhetoric and Modern Legal Writing.
Casual Academic – Lecturer and TutorUniversity of Technology Sydney
Subjects taught: Commercial Equity, Civil Procedure, Evidence, and Ethics for the UTS Bar Preparation Program.
SolicitorAtanaskovic Hartnell
Practice area: Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate and Commercial Law.
SolicitorNorton White
Practice area: Transport Law (Aviation), Corporate and Commercial Law.
Barrister’s AssistantForbes Chambers
Legal assistant to Graham Turnbull SC, Peter Bodor QC, and Charles Waterstreet. Practice area: Criminal Law.
Casual Academic – Lecturer and Unit of Study Co-ordinatorAustralian Catholic University
Subject taught: Interpersonal Communication.
Casual AcademicUniversity of Sydney
Subjects taught: Rhetoric (senior), English Literature, Academic Writing, and Academic English, including sole teaching responsibility for some of these subjects in the Summer and Winter courses.

Aaron Levine Prize for Criminal Law
Awarded to the most proficient student in Criminal Law, a compulsory subject for all law students at the University of Sydney.
University of Sydney Graduate Program Entry Award – Law
Awarded for academic excellence.
University of Sydney Postgraduate Award – PhD
Awarded for academic excellence.
James Coutts Scholarship No 2 – English Language and Early English Literature
Awarded to the most outstanding undergraduate at the end of Third Year.

Juris Doctor, Law University of Sydney

Doctor of Philosophy, English University of Sydney

Thesis: Virtue and Kingship in Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale

This dissertation examined Chaucer’s characterisation of Theseus in the Knight’s Tale in light of the burgeoning concept of “virtuous kingship” in academic discourse in France in the thirteenth century. The first part of the dissertation offered an original and detailed study of the way in which thirteenth-century theologians and moral writers extended Aristotle’s political ethic to create a notion of virtuous kingship in accordance with pre-existing views on the connection between political and religious morality. The second part applied this understanding in a literary and historical analysis of Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale.

Bachelor of Arts, English & History, Honours University of Sydney

Thesis: The Tragedy of Fortune: Boethian Consolation in Chaucer’s Tale of Troilus and Criseyde

This dissertation researched the classical notion of tragedy and its adaptation by Boethius in his sixth-century text, The Consolation of Philosophy. The thesis then argued that a uniquely Boethian conception of tragedy informs the tragic narrative structure of Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde.

Male v Kempsey Shire Council [2022] NSWCATAD 39 

In the matter of Hillsea Pty Ltd [2021] NSWSC 1593

Goyal v West [2021] NSWSC 526

Ord Irrigation Co-Operative v Department of Water and Environmental Regulation [2020] WASAT 68

Probuild Constructions (Aust) Pty Ltd v DDI Group Pty Ltd [2017] NSWCA 151; (2017) 95 NSWLR 82

Deputy Commissioner of Taxation v Young and Anor [2017] NSWDC 146 (unled save for closing submissions)

In the matter of Bankstown City Radio Co-Operative Limited (in liquidation) [2016] NSWSC 1884

Oh v Grima [2016] NSWCATAP 239

Going to the Bar, an Interview with Bryce Douglas-Baker