Our team

Natalie Nunn is a Senior Legal Consultant with Lexbridge Lawyers. She is a lawyer and legal researcher, specialising in international humanitarian law, arms control law and international criminal law. Her current research focuses on the implications of autonomous weapon systems for the application and development of arms control law and international humanitarian law.

Natalie’s experience includes working as a contractor with the International Committee for the Red Cross, and serving as both an advisor and supervisor for the Kalshoven Grieks Forum, where she oversaw research on specific projects involving issues of international humanitarian law. Prior to this she worked as a lawyer with the Australian Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, the International Service for Human Rights and the United Nations Assisted Tribunal for the Khmer Rouge.

Natalie holds a Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Laws from the University of Melbourne, and a Masters of Law from Leiden University. She has also previously held the position of Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at Cambridge University. Natalie is currently undertaking a PhD on autonomous weapons systems and international law, under the supervision of Professor Tim McCormack at the University of Tasmania.

Patrick Wall is a Senior Legal Consultant with Lexbridge Lawyers. Based in Geneva, Switzerland, Patrick has a broad-based expertise in international law, including in relation to refugee protection, corruption, money laundering and the financing of terrorism. He has also published academic works relating to conflict negotiation, treaty interpretation and the extraterritorial exercise of judicial authority.

Patrick is also an experienced practitioner of international law at the intersection of other relevant fields, including diplomacy, negotiation, global governance, and development assistance. He has worked for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, for example, to develop and execute a diplomatic strategy for the negotiation of the Global Compact on Refugees, an international agreement to improve respect for refugee rights that was affirmed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2018. In the Australian Government’s International Legal Assistance Branch, Patrick worked with jurisdictions in the Pacific to improve their compliance with international standards to combat money laundering.

Patrick holds Bachelors degrees with First Class Honours in Arts and Law from the University of Sydney, as well as an LL.M. in International Law (summa cum laude) from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and a Masters of Diplomatic Studies (with Distinction) from the Australian National University.

Neil Smith is a Senior Legal Consultant with Lexbridge Lawyers. He has more than 20 years’ experience in prudential regulation, enforcement and compliance, legislative and regulatory design and drafting, statutory interpretation and administrative law.

Neil is also a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University (ANU) where he teaches prudential regulation and regulatory theory, Criminology, the Australian Criminal Justice System, and Policing in Australia. In 2022, he was awarded for Teaching Excellence in the ANU Excellence in Education Awards.

Neil has worked in senior roles for a number of government agencies including the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Private Health Insurance Administration Council, and acting as a Senior Adviser on Foreign Investment in the Treasury.

Neil holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Adelaide, a Bachelor of Laws (Graduate) and Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice from the ANU. Neil was admitted in the ACT Supreme Court in 1994.

Tom McCrie is a Senior Legal Consultant at Lexbridge Lawyers with extensive experience providing legal, policy and strategy advice to government. His principal fields of expertise are energy transition; climate adaptation; environmental, social and governance (ESG); and broad public sector regulation and compliance.

Before joining Lexbridge, Tom worked in the Northern Territory Office of Sustainable Energy and was the Northern Territory lead for renewable hydrogen strategy, policy and regulation. His recent experience includes strategic policy and regulation reform relating to renewable energy, the environment and climate adaptation.

In addition to significant technical expertise, Tom has experience leading whole-of-government policy and regulation reform and representing the Northern Territory in interjurisdictional energy and hydrogen forums.

Earlier in his career, Tom worked as in-house counsel with the government owned Power and Water Corporation and as a government solicitor with the Department of Attorney-General and Justice providing commercial and regulatory services. Tom holds a Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Laws from Charles Darwin University.

Tara is a Senior Legal Consultant with Lexbridge. She has over twenty years of legal and government relations experience, including a decade dedicated to the Australian Red Cross (ARC) prior to working at Lexbridge.  Tara has spearheaded initiatives that have shaped government policies and fostered collaborations to advance both legal and humanitarian causes, in Australia and globally.

As ARC’s National Manager of Advocacy and Government Relations, she led the organisation’s engagement with federal and state governments on complex crises, including the 2019-20 bushfires and floods. As Legal Advisor in the Humanitarian Law (IHL) Department, Tara conducted IHL training for stakeholders including the Australian Defence Force and represented ARC in war games. She led major international initiatives including the entry into force and universalisation of the 2017 Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  She was a member of the International Red Cross Red Crescent Nuclear Weapons Core Group and remains a Board Member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

Tara has practised and taught international law in cross-cultural settings.  She was a Visiting Professional at the International Criminal Court.  Tara also spent over two years in an embedded advisory role for Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge Trials Taskforce, where she contributed to the development of the legal framework for the trials of senior Khmer Rouge leaders at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, to establish accountability for historical atrocities.

Passionate about the arts, antiquities and cultural heritage law, Tara has collaborated on policy development and dissemination with the Australian government, Blue Shield, International Committee of the Red Cross  and INTERPOL, to promote the safeguarding of cultural property during armed conflicts. Early in her career she worked as Legal Officer at the Arts Law Centre of Australia and later served as in-house counsel at a major film and television production house. Her recent work includes advising the Cambodian government in a matter concerning the sale of illicitly trafficked artefacts. Tara holds a Bachelor of Arts (Asian Studies) and Bachelor of Laws from the University of New South Wales (1997).