SHANE SIMPSON, LL B (Hons) M. Jur.
Special Counsel
ssimpson@simpsons.com.au
S
Shane Simpson established the firm in 1986.
Shane is chairman of The Song Company, chairman of the Peggy Glanville-Hicks Composers’ Trust, a director of the Australian National Academy of Music, and a trustee of the Freedman Foundation, the Aboriginal Benefits Foundation and the Dictionary of Sydney.
He has lectured extensively on the law relating to intellectual property, new technology, publishing, visual arts, music and museums.Shane has written or edited numerous books including: Music Business,Museums and Galleries: a Practical Legal Handbook, The Visual Artist and the Law in Australia, Discovery and Interrogatories, Music -The Business and the Law, and numerous articles in both Australian and international periodicals, most of which tackle various aspects of the often difficult relationship between copyright, innovation,arts practice, and the legal system. He headed the Federal Government Inquiry into “Copyright Collecting Societies in Australia”and acts as a consultant to governments, NGO’s, other law firms, institutions and major corporations, both nationally and internationally.
Amongst many other appointments he has also been a member of the Cultural Grants Advisory Council of the New South Wales Ministry for the Arts, ministerial appointee to the Council of Sydney College of the Arts, chairman of Museums NSW, chairman of the NSW Film and Television Office, a board member of the New Zealand Film Commission, a director of the Australian Writer’s Foundation, a director of the Music Council of Australia, the Crafts Council of Australia, the Australian Exhibitions Touring Agency, and several other organisations.
Shane has been an academic in the Faculty of Law of the University of New South Wales and was the founder and first Director of the Arts Law Centre of Australia. He has also been Visiting Professorial Fellow, Faculty of Law at the University of Wollongong, and is on the International Advisory Board of the National Institute of Entertainment and Media Law at Southwestern University, California.