Lewis Winter

Lewis accepts briefs to advise and appear in criminal, quasi-criminal, regulatory, disciplinary and public law matters. He has a particular interest and expertise in:

• white-collar and corporate crime (including OH&S prosecutions);
• investigations into financial and other misconduct;
• confiscation and proceeds of crime litigation; and
• inquests and commissions of inquiry.

Lewis has a broad criminal practice and appears regularly at plea hearings, bail applications, committals, contested hearings and sentence appeals. He has also been briefed to provide written advice and appear in complex criminal prosecutions and regulatory investigations, which include: allegations of police corruption, frauds against Commonwealth agencies and complaints made against regulators such as IBAC and the Victorian Ombudsman.

Prior experience

Before coming to the Bar, Lewis worked in the public sector at state and federal prosecution agencies and arguably the two most significant royal commissions this century. He also worked in private practice in the Disputes and Investigations team at Allens.

• At Allens, Lewis assisted individuals and companies with responding to regulatory and law enforcement investigations into allegations of financial misconduct (including foreign bribery and other forms of corporate crime). He also worked on general commercial and construction disputes.
• During his time as a federal prosecutor at the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Lewis regularly appeared at a range of summary hearings in the Magistrates’ Court. He also advised agencies (such as the AFP, ASIC and ACCC) in relation to investigations into complex commercial crime.

Lewis worked on both sides of royal commissions. He was a member of the solicitors’ assisting the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse (where he worked exclusively on Catholic Church investigations and public hearings) and the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry. While at Allens, he worked on the Victorian and Western Australian Royal Commissions into Crown Casino.

In the early stages of his career, Lewis was the Tipstaff to the Honourable Justice Michael Pembroke AO SC in the Equity Division of the New South Wales Supreme Court. Prior to that he worked with the Office of the Co-Prosecutors at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia, as part of the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials.

Lewis read with Karen Argiropoulos. His senior mentor is Albert Dinelli KC.