With more than three decades’ experience, the distinguished lawyer has practised as a barrister for 27 years and was appointed Senior Counsel in 2009. Every year for the past 14, Mr Brereton has been nominated as a Leading Silk (Band 1 ranking) of Chambers Global.
He has expertise in a range of legal disciplines and his main area of practice is in commercial law, with an emphasis on competition and consumer law, technology, media and telecommunications, resources and energy as well as financial services.
Some of the more high-profile and complex cases he has appeared in include Vodafone v ACCC, ACCC v Google, ACCC v Metcash, C7 and Wright Prospecting v Hancock Prospecting.
Mr Brereton started his career in 1992 as a solicitor at Freehills (now Herbert Smith Freehills) before becoming a Judge’s Associate in the Federal Court of Australia. He joined Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King & Wood Mallesons) in 1994, where he remained until 1997.
In 2007 Mr Brereton was appointed to the Advisory Committee for the Australian Law Reform Commission and was a member of the Council of Law Reporting for NSW from 2008 to 2015, and its chairman from 2012 to 2015. Since 2022 he has been a member of the Legal Profession Admission Board.
He has also taught in higher education at various points, tutoring at the University of Sydney and University of London in the 1990s and lecturing at the former institution from 2009 to 2018.
Mr Brereton will be sworn in as a Judge of the Supreme Court on 6 February 2025.
Attorney General Michael Daley said:
“I am delighted to announce the appointment of Peter Brereton SC to the Supreme Court bench.
“Mr Brereton is a distinguished barrister, and his expertise in a wide range of legal disciplines will be invaluable to the Court and everyone who interacts with it.
“I congratulate him on this well-deserved achievement.”
