Bill Doogue was first admitted to practice as a Barrister and Solicitor in 1989 and has over 25 years experience as a defence Lawyer. Bill has also been an Accredited Criminal Law Specialist for 20 years since 1998. He was awarded a Law Institute of Victoria Service Award in 2013.
Bill has recently acted for high ranking church officials at a number of Royal Commission hearings. Bill has appeared for and advised, both current and former Liberal and Labour Politicians from both State and Federal parliaments in relation to allegations against them or where advice overlapping with criminal law or quasi-criminal law was necessary.
He has worked with Queen’s Counsel and Chief Corporate Counsel for one of Australia’s biggest corporations to provide strategic advice about potential issues that were faced. Bill’s firm acts for two of the accused currently involved in the Securrency case involving the Reserve Bank and allegations of Bribery of Foreign Officials.
Bill currently oversees most of the major criminal trials that are run out of the Melbourne Office. His firm runs jury trials day in and day out in the County and Supreme Courts which gives him and the firm an incredibly strong position from which to make assessments about how prosecutions work in a practical sense. Bill particularly enjoys the strategic challenges that come from being involved in matters before any charges are laid and where the aim is to make sure the client’s narrative is clearly expressed.
Bill’s expertise and experience is demonstrated in the results he achieves for his clients and their feedback:
In his early career, Bill worked for 2 1/2 years as a criminal lawyer for the Aboriginal Legal Service in the Northern Territory. Bill has appeared on behalf of the firm’s clients in Courts in NSW and South Australia and also advised in foreign countries.
Due to one of his cases involving terrorism he received a security clearance from the Australian Government to view classified documents.
Bill is the former Chairperson of the committee of management of the Broadmeadows Community Legal Centre. He volunteered on that committee for over ten years.
Bill is also a committee member of the Law Institute of Victoria’s criminal law section. He was that section’s representative on the County Court sex list user group.
Bill designed the database “Crimebase” a practice management /precedent base solution which won the CCH Legal Technology Award and is currently used by a number of other specialist criminal law firms in Victoria. Bill has recently designed a trial preparation database “Trialprep” that the firm is using to organise trials particularly where there are high volumes of documents.
Bill has co-written an ebook on the law relating to sexual offending charges and how to deal with allegations of sexual offences such as rape and indecent assault or illegal possession of child abuse material: Dealing With Allegations of Sexual Assault. It can be accessed on various ebook sharing sites such as Google Books and eLibrary. Bill also co-wrote the ebook Understanding the Sex Offender Registration Act and authored another about Royal Commission hearings: Appearing Before a Royal Commission.
Bill is a very well known and well respected criminal lawyer and believes he will help your case enormously with his practical and useful advice. Follow him on Twitter and Google+.