Craig Birtles
Barrister
Recognised as the 2024 Lawyer of the Year in the practice area of Trusts & Estates, Craig is also repeatedly named in Doyle’s Guide as a leading New South Wales Estate Litigation Junior Counsel. Called to the Bar in May 2017, Craig is a member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners, and the Succession & Elder Law Committee of the NSW Bar Association.
After gaining early exposure to public speaking and lecturing experience, Craig knew that a career on his feet in Court, rather than seated at a table in the second row, was where he belonged.
To date, achieving positive results in cases such as Chant v Curcuruto [2021] NSWSC 751, Robertson v Barker [2021] NSWSC 1682, Daniel v Athans [2022] NSWSC 1712, Estate Awad [2023] NSWSC 765 and Reeves v Reeves [2024] NSWSC 134, are just a few notable highlights in his excellent professional journey.
Some interesting facts about Craig?
He shares a common thread with Academy Award winner, actor Russell Crowe. Both are enthusiastic supporters of the NRL team, the South Sydney Rabbitohs.
From 2008 to 2017, he practiced as an employed solicitor with Teece Hodgson & Ward.
Outside of the legal realm, Craig immerses himself in his children's sporting endeavours and plays basketball in the NSBL.
Practice Areas
Select Cases
As Counsel Craig has appeared in:
Testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, family provision
Response to application for leave to appeal interlocutory injunction
Testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval, family provision, mesne profits
Interim provision, interlocutory injunction
Construction of Will
Leave to renounce probate
Undue influence, knowledge and approval
Estoppel by encouragement; construction and rectification of will
Binding death benefit nomination; capacity; unconscionable conduct
Probate undue influence; equitable undue influence; knowledge and approval
Statutory Will
Family Provision
Proprietary estoppel – dependent member of the household family provision claim
Trust, declarations as to ownership of trust property, application under s 86A Trustee Act 1925 (NSW) to vary trust deed
Burial and funeral rights
Contested probate – testamentary capacity – knowledge and approval
Construction of Will
Testamentary capacity, knowledge and approval
Intestacy, last will not propounded by beneficiary
Family provision
Cy pres scheme
Application for approval of release
Complex estate – trustee for sale – order for possession
Appeal of probate proceedings – new trial ordered
Powers of interim administrators, judicial advice, voluntary administration
Construction and rectification of will
Settlement of proceedings, two beneficiaries do not consent
Admissions
- Admitted to the Bar (New South Wales): 2017
- Admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales: 2008
Seminars
Craig has presented over 20 seminars since 2011 including:
- The Worm Begins: Family Provision Origins to Today, STEP NSW (21 August 2024)
- Will drafting from a litigator’s perspective (War on Trusts II: The Love of Trusts), Law Society Tasmania, Estate and Succession Law Conference (10 August 2024)
- War on Trusts, Two Wentworth Succession Conference (23 Mar 2024)
- Constructive trusts, estoppel and family provision, The Education Network (6 Mar 2024)
- Will drafting from a litigator’s perspective, Blue Mountains Law Society (8 Sep 2023)
- Everything’s not awesome – Let’s build it together, Construction and Rectification of Wills, paper presented for Macarthur Law Society (13 Jun 2023) and Southern Tablelands Law Society (3 Nov 2023)
- When reading over is not enough, paper presented for Succession Law Conference Bowral (Mar 2022) and St George Sutherland Law Society (15 Mar 2024)
- Statutory Wills, paper for Succession Law Conference (March 2021) (Tie): Family Provision Review 2020: The worm and the robin, paper for the 18th Annual Succession Law Symposium (Mar 2021)
- Statutory Wills, paper for Television Education Network Wills and Estates Masterclass (Sep 2019)
- Statutory Wills, paper for Law Society of NSW Accredited Specialists Conference (Aug 2018)
- Family Provision: the worm turns again, paper for St George-Sutherland Regional Law Society (Mar 2018)
- Testamentary capacity and knowledge and approval, paper for Legalwise (Nov 2017)
- Family Provision: the turning of the Worm, paper for College of Law, Specialist Legal Conference: Wills & Estates (May 2017)
- Informal Testamentary Documents, paper for UNSW CPD (Mar 2017)
- Statutory Will applications and the protective jurisdiction, a paper by Craig Birtles and Hugh Morrison presented for the Blue Mountains Law Society at the Inaugural Succession Law Conference (Sep 2016)
- Testamentary dispositions, seminar 3 in Estate administration: Probate, Protective and Family Provision Jurisdiction series co-presented with Michael Willmott SC for the NSW Bar Association and Law Society of NSW (Published in the Australian Bar Review: Estate Administration, Probate, Family Provision and Protective Cases (Dec 2016) 43 ABR 1)
