Dr Simon Smith AM FRHSV

Dr Smith is a leading legal history scholar. His work has included overseeing the research and publication of an authorised history of the Supreme Court to mark the 175th anniversary of that court in Victoria. He is a regular contributor to scholarship in that area and also a leading insurance historian. His most recent book is on the history of Solicitors and the Law Institute in Victoria.

As a Monash law undergraduate in the 1970s, he helped found Australia’s first community legal centre, the Springvale Legal Service. With that venture, he became the first clinical legal education academic in Australia. He is also a founding editor of a leading practice text, the Lawyers Practice Manual.

In the 1980s, Simon was a pioneer in alternative dispute resolution and was the first ombudsman in the Australian financial services sector. Later he was Senior Counsel with a top 500 insurance company and a curator of the nationally significant insurance archive, the Suncorp Insurance Archive, now in the hands of the State Library of Victoria.

In the 2019 Australia Day honours he was appointed a member of the Order of Australia for Significant service to the law particularly in consumer affairs, to higher education, and to history.