Career
He became a barrister in 1940 and served in the 2nd AIF in Australia, the Middle East and the New Guinea campaign between 1940 and 1945 during World War II. Upon his return he was a law lecturer at the University of Sydney. He was also President of the Australian Section of the International Commission of Jurists. In 1966 St John was elected to the House of Representatives as the Liberal member for the safe seat of Warringah.
As a barrister, St John successfully defended Richard Walsh, editor of the satirical magazine Oz at the first Oz obscenity trial in 1964. Of his last two major cases he successfully defended Thomas and Alexander Barton, two company directors charged with a series of alleged offences in which Barton company shareholders lost millions of dollars. The prosecutor for the NSW Corporate Affairs Commission was Tom Hughes QC, a former Liberal Attorney-General. The other was a major action arising out of the Chelmsford Hospital scandal.
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Famous quotes containing the word career:
“Whether lawyer, politician or executive, the American who knows what’s good for his career seeks an institutional rather than an individual identity. He becomes the man from NBC or IBM. The institutional imprint furnishes him with pension, meaning, proofs of existence. A man without a company name is a man without a country.”
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