Young Guns 09: James Hutton, litigation lawyer, Blake Dawson
James Hutton worked as an associate to High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson from 2006 to 2007, studied law at the Australian National University, then went on to complete a Bachelor of Civil
James Hutton worked as an associate to High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson from 2006 to 2007, studied law at the Australian National University, then went on to complete a Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford University as a Commonwealth scholar.
Hutton, 29, was exposed to some important private law cases while working with Gleeson, including Sons of Gwalia and constitutional cases such as the validity of WorkChoices. He says it gave him some early exposure to high-level legal thinking and useful insights into the way appellate courts decide cases.
In September 2007, Hutton joined Blake Dawson's litigation and dispute resolution practice and says the transition from studying and then working as an associate to becoming a practitioner has been his greatest career challenge.
"There are certain practice-specific skills [such as] correspondence, drafting statements and so forth [which] requires an appreciation of the strategic dimension of practice, which is difficult or impossible to learn at university," he says.
"The luxury of studying postgrad law at Oxford and working as an associate at the High Court was that it gave me time to think about the underlying principles and historical development of the areas of law I encountered. Working at Blakes involves plenty of legal analysis, but has the added dimension of having to think strategically - not just about what the law is, or should be, but about what will result in the best outcome for the client."
Hutton has worked on some high-profile matters this year, including the collapse of lenders Opes Prime and Lift Capital, where Blakes acts for one of the financiers to the lenders, Merrill Lynch.
He is also employed as a case noter for the Australian Corporations and Securities Reports and the Butterworths Corporation Law Bulletin and works as a tutor in contracts and tort at Sydney University.