The Honourable Michael Walton

The Honourable Michael Walton has a unique perspective on the drivers of litigation and the resolution of complex disputes.  Those skills were finely honed during the period Michael was appointed as a Supreme Court judge in the Common Law Division hearing major criminal and civil trials.  Those trials also included employment and work, health and safety matters.

Michael has a unique capacity to focus the parties on the key issues in dispute and to explore how to resolve matters before they get to court.  Those same attributes will also be utilised in Michael providing advice on legal matters including litigation across a wide variety of jurisdictions from industrial and employment law and administrative law to personal injury, tort and criminal matters.  Michael will also act as a mediator for legal disputes across all of those jurisdictional areas except crime.

Before joining Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers in February 2026, Michael had an extensive judicial career spanning close to 30 years.

Michael’s appointment as a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in the Common Law Division was in 2016, and extended to his retirement on 19 December 2025. He was President of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission from 2014 to 2016, Vice-President from 1998 to 2013, and a Judicial Member of the Industrial Court of New South Wales for the duration of that time.

Michael was called to the Bar in 1989 and appeared in numerous significant industrial and employment matters in Courts, including the High Court of Australia, and Tribunals. He was Counsel Assisting in the NSW Pay Equity Task Force’s inquiry, which played a crucial role in addressing gender-based pay gaps, and in the Industrial Relations Commission inquiries into the security industry, and the warehousing and distribution industry.

As a barrister, Michael also provided pro bono representation, advice, assistance and education on industrial, employment, and administrative law issues internationally, including in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Indonesia, Vanuatu, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Michael is a life member of the Australian Judicial Officers Association (AJOA), of which he served as President from 2022 to 2024 and Vice President from 2020 to 2022.  AJOA represents judges at all levels of the judicial hierarchy in Federal and State jurisdictions throughout Australia.  Since 2024, he has been a member of AJOA’s Standing Committee on Judicial Independence.

Michael is an Honorary Professor Fellow in the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Wollongong (since 2019) and a member of the Editorial Committee of the Australian Journal of Labour Law (since 2008). He is extensively published in academic journals and legislative submissions, and has made keynote presentations to audiences in Australia and internationally, from the Toongabbie Legal Centre, to the Sydney Business School at the University of Wollongong, and to the London School of Economics.

Michael’s previous appointments include:

• Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Common Law Division (2016 to 2025)
• President of the NSW Industrial Relations Commission (2014 to 2016) and Vice-President (1998 to 2013); Judicial Member of the Industrial Court of New South Wales (1998 to 2016)
• Delegate to the International Association of Judges’ Asian, North American and Oceanian group (2022 to 2025)
• Member of the Judicial Commission of New South Wales (permanent and ad hoc) (1999 to 2016) and of its Standing Advisory Committee on Judicial Education (2009 to 2016)
• Participating court member and open forum panellist in the Community Awareness of the Judiciary Program (2012 to 2015)
• Presiding member of the Parliamentary Remuneration Tribunal (1999 to 2003)