The Great Defender
Dunn was a distinctive figure around the magistrates' courts of Melbourne - he was balding, plump, wore glasses and had a memorable, gravelly voice. He chose to remain a solicitor and declined all inducements to become a barrister. Despite this decision, Dunn built a reputation as one of the outstanding defence lawyers of his time. A man of stunning mental agility, he defended clients against police prosecutions of any type and specialised in gaming legislation. In 1967, he forced the Victorian government to amend the Motor Car Act of 1958, when he secured an acquittal for a truck driver accused of exceeding the blood alcohol limit.
Throughout his life, Dunn was closely associated with the police force, both in and out of the courtroom. He lectured on prosecution and criminal law in courses at the Detective Training School and the Victoria Police College, and acted as legal counsel for the police many times. Engaged by the Victoria Police Association to defend members who had been counter-summonsed by people that they had arrested, Dunn only lost twice in more than eighty such cases during the mid-1960s. For more than a decade, he worked part-time as a lecturer in criminal procedure at Melbourne University as well as the new law school at Monash University and at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's articled clerks' course. He was highly sought-after as an after-dinner speaker.
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