Biography
Dr James Popple is the CEO of the Law Council of Australia.
James was previously Official Secretary to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety and the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. He was also the inaugural Freedom of Information Commissioner, a Senior Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and a member of the ACT Remuneration Tribunal. Before that, James worked for 12 years in the Australian Attorney‑General’s Department in a variety of areas including privacy law; tribunal reform; administrative law; legal aid; Indigenous justice; personal property securities law; Commonwealth legal services; bankruptcy and personal insolvency; copyright; classification; international legal services; and support for the Attorney‑General in the performance of their First Law Officer role. Before joining AGD, he was a judge’s associate, then Deputy Registrar of the High Court of Australia.
James has degrees in law and arts, and is admitted as a barrister and a solicitor. He is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law, a Director of the AustLII Foundation Ltd, and an Honorary Professor of the Australian National University (in the College of Law and the College of Engineering, Computing and Cybernetics) where he conducted his doctoral research in artificial intelligence and the law.
