Stephen Wright

Stephen Wright serves as Senior Counsel with a distinguished career spanning across native title, taxation, trusts, and mining law. His journey in the legal field began at Mallesons, before he joined the Western Australian State Solicitor’s Office in 1996. After over a decade there, he ventured into private practice with Wright Barristers & Solicitors, eventually joining Francis Burt Chambers in early 2010. Throughout his career, Stephen has gained recognition as a leading barrister in native title matters, having counselled on numerous claims and 'future act' litigations and arbitrations at the National Native Title Tribunal, Federal Court, Full Federal Court, and the High Court. His expertise extends to representing a broad spectrum of clients, including native title parties, representative bodies, government, and mining entities. Stephen's background as a negotiator is well-regarded, especially in advising and representing parties engaged in Indigenous Land Use Agreement negotiations, benefits management trust structures, and taxation-related concerns. In addition to his native title work, Stephen offers comprehensive stamp duty and tax advisory services, covering areas such as income tax and GST. He regularly appears in tax cases before the Court of Appeal (WA), Federal Court, and various State and Commonwealth Tribunals. Stephen's legal practice encompasses alternative dispute resolution, commercial law with a focus on contractual disputes, mining and resources, environment and planning law, inquests and inquiries, public and administrative law, and tax and revenue matters. Holding an LLB from the University of Western Australia since 1992, Stephen Wright continues to impart his extensive legal expertise across multiple domains with an unwavering commitment to his clients.