Adam Chernok

Adam is an experienced defence advocate in a broad range of serious criminal law and related administrative law and public interest matters.  He is particularly adept at representing clients in cases arising out of sophisticated investigations and involving complex evidentiary and legal issues.

He regularly appears for the defence (both unled and with a leader) in trials in the State courts, appeals, committals, contested hearings and bail applications as well as a range of procedural hearings and hearings in coercive commissions of inquiry, such as Royal Commissions, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and IBAC.

In recent years, he has been briefed in cases involving: homicide; violence; large-scale drug offences; armed robberies on ‘hard targets’; fraud and money laundering; property offences; arson; and charges arising out of protest actions.

Prior to being called to the Bar, Adam was an associate to the Honourable Justice Byrne at the Supreme Court of Victoria, worked in-house at the Office of Chief Examiner and for a number of years regularly appeared as a solicitor advocate with the Melbourne offices of Doogue & O’Brien and also as a sole practitioner.

Adam is passionate about and maintains an active interest in academic, international and pro bono work.

He has published widely and has studied and undertaken research at the University of Melbourne, Griffith University and the University of Queensland. His research interests include: civil disobedience and protest; coercive powers; covert policing; police accountability; surveillance; and conflicts between law enforcement methodologies and human rights more broadly.  

Adam has carried out anti-death penalty campaign work in Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, defended asylum seekers charged with criminal offences in the Republic of Nauru and worked in remote Aboriginal communities.  He has also undertaken international humanitarian response training with RedR Australia.  He is a member of the Organising Body for Melbourne Activist Legal Support and regularly defends activists on a pro bono basis.

Adam read in Crockett Chambers with Mandy Fox KC (now Justice Fox) and senior mentor Peter Morrissey SC.  He was a founder of and now practices in Niagara Lane Chambers; a boutique and private set of chambers for defence barristers devoted to upholding human rights. He is also a member of Mindil Chambers in the Northern Territory.

He holds an Indictable Crime Certificate, is on the Victoria Legal Aid Preferred Barrister List and is accredited as an advocacy instructor by the Victorian Bar.  He is also a member of the Criminal Bar Association and Liberty Victoria.