Professor John Carter joined Freehills as a consultant in 1992. John holds a personal chair in the field of Commercial Law at the University of Sydney and is regarded as one of the pre-eminent contract lawyers in Australia.

John provides expert contract and commercial law advice. This involves:

• reviewing contracts, particularly in relation to liability, commercial risk management (eg the allocation of risk through indemnities and limitation of liability clauses) and enforceability
• advising on commercial disputes
• drafting contracts to reflect sophisticated contractual arrangements (for example, where it is necessary to deal with enforcement by multiple parties to the one contract, and statutory regimes such as the Australian Consumer Law, and
• providing assistance in the formulation of commercial strategies for clients in the structure and management of their transactions.
  

John has advised in the following matters:

• CBA outsourcing transactions
• the NRMA demutualisation
• standard form contract documents for the Avis Budget Group Australia, WorldxChange and David Jones
• the obligations in relation to the outsourcing of various investment and administration functions by a trustee in a funds management context
• advices to the National Bank’s Wealth Management Division on the general law and statutory duties of a trustee, a responsible entity and a life company (and their directors) under superannuation, managed investments, life insurance and financial services legislation (respectively)
• Air Services litigation, and
• numerous potentially litigious commercial contract disputes.

John is able to add immense value to the process and to the advice Freehills provides to a client, particularly through his finely tuned analytical skills and extensive knowledge of relevant case law. Further, due to his background and his extensive research and writing, John brings an objective approach to the resolution of a commercial problem, and can advise on the latest developments and current legal thinking overseas in a particular area to provide innovative solutions to complex legal problems.

John holds Bachelor of Laws and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Sydney. In 1977, he spent a year as Associate to the Hon Mr Justice Franki of the Federal Court of Australia. Between 1978 and 1980, he was W M Tapp Research Student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He graduated as a Doctor of Philosophy in 1981. In that year, he took up a Lectureship in the Faculty of Law of the University of Sydney.

John is also general editor of the Journal of Contract Law.

John has served as a commissioner (part-time) with the Law Reform Commission of New South Wales, executive editor of the Sydney Law Review and as chairman of the Education Committee of the Commercial Law Association of Australia.

John is widely published in contract law. His books include the two volume loose-leaf service Carter on Contract, published by LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney and four leading Australian texts:

• Breach of Contract, 2nd ed, 1991, published jointly by Law Book Co Ltd, Sydney and Sweet & Maxwell, London
• Contract Law in Australia, 5th ed, 2007, with Professor Elisabeth Peden and Associate Professor G J Tolhurst of Sydney Law School, published by LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney
• Carter’s Guide to Australian Contract Law, 2006, published by LexisNexis Butterworths, Sydney
• Mason and Carter’s Restitution Law in Australia, 2nd ed, 2008, with Keith Mason AC, QC formerly President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal, published by Butterworths, Sydney.

John is also the author of three titles in Halsbury’s Laws of Australia: ’Contract’, ‘Restitution’ (with Keith Mason and Andrew Bulley) and ‘Sale of Goods’.