Elon Musk's Australian lawyer back in the limelight
X Corp's legal battle with Australia's online safety regulator thrusts Thomson Geer partner Justin Quill back in the national spotlight, in short order after successfully defending Network Ten in the Lehrmann defamation trial.
Media lawyer Justin Quill probably didn't expect to be back in the national spotlight quite so quickly.
In short order after successfully defending Network Ten against former political staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation claims, the Thomson Geer partner is now representing Elon Musk’s X Corp in the social media platform’s legal fight against the Australian government’s eSafety Commissioner. For Quill, it means back-to-back involvement in two of the biggest and most closely-watched legal cases in the country.
Thomson Geer's legal team in the Lehrmann lawsuit was led by partner Marlia Saunders. But it was Quill's comments in front of the massed media following the Ten judgement last week – criticising the way defamation lawsuits scrutinised journalists’ stories as being “divorced from reality” – that prompted Federal Court Judge Michael Lee to request a transcript as well as copies of articles Quill wrote linked to the case.
Just a week after the Lehrmann judgement, Quill is back in the Federal Court, with Australia's online safety regulator taking X (formerly Twitter) to court to force it to comply with orders to remove graphic footage of last week’s stabbing of a Christian bishop in Sydney’s west.
