Colin Golvan

Colin Golvan is a Senior Counsel at the Victorian Bar. He practices law throughout Australia in the intellectual property and trade practices areas.
Colin holds a Masters of Law degree from Monash University and a Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) and Law degrees from Melbourne University. He has taught in the intellectual property area in the Masters of Law program at Melbourne University as a Visiting Fellow. He lectures on intellectual property subjects throughout Australia. He was admitted to legal practice in 1985, and worked as a solicitor (and senior associate) for Phillips Fox Solicitors for three years prior to signing the Bar Roll in November 1988 (having read with now High Court Justice Susan Crennan). He was appointed a Senior Counsel (SC) in 2002.
He is presently chairperson of the Indigenous Lawyers Committee of the Victorian Bar, chairperson of the board of trustees of the Victorian Bar Indigenous Barristers’ Fund and a former chairperson of his Barristers’ clerking list (List G). He is also a member of the Appeals Board of Football Federation Victoria.
As a lawyer, he has represented many leading corporate and government clients in advising them on their intellectual property rights, and in protecting and making optimum use of those rights both in Australia and internationally. He has appeared in the High Court and Federal Court throughout Australia.
He is the author of the legal books “Copyright - Law and Practice” (Federation Press 2007), "An Introduction to Intellectual Property Law" (Federation Press 1992), "Words and Law" (Penguin 1990) and co-author of "Writers and the Law" (Law Book Company 1986), and has contributed to the book “Landmarks in Australian Intellectual Property Law” (Cambridge University Press 2008). He has been general editor of the monthly Australian Intellectual Property Law Bulletin (published by Prospect Publishing) from 1988 to 1998 and the co-editor of the quarterly "Media and Arts Law Review" (published by Law Book Company) from 1992 to 1997. He is the author of papers on intellectual property subjects published in various legal journals, including the European Intellectual Property Review, as well as in the Australian Book Review and feature articles in the Review section of the Australian Financial Review.
He is also author of works of fiction “Theatre Daze” (Allen & Unwin 1990), non-fiction “The Distant Exodus” (ABC Books 1990), plays “Eichmann in Haifa” (Melbourne Theatre Company 1988) and “The Tramp’s Revenge” (Playbox 1985) and TV (for ABC and SBS TV) and radio scripts (for ABC Radio National). He was playwright in residence at the Playbox Theatre in 1983.
He was the founding chairperson of The Victorian Writers’ Centre, and has been on the Boards of St. Martins Youth Theatre Centre and the Arts Law Centre of Australia. He was a founding director and the chairperson (from 1997 to 2000) of Viscopy, the national visual arts collecting society. He is a board member and deputy chairperson of the Australian Book Review. He is a patron of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne International Festival, Victorian Arts Centre, Melbourne International Film Festival, the Melbourne Theatre Company, the Australian Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Book Review.
He has been Writer in Residence at the Playbox Theatre (in 1983), and worked as a journalist for the Associated Press, based in Tel Aviv during 1982-3. His articles on Israel and the Middle East were published in leading newspapers throughout the world, including “The Guardian” and “The International Herald Tribune”. In 1976, he was co-editor of Farrago, the Melbourne University student newspaper.

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