Chris Finn

Chris was admitted to legal practice in February 1968 and has worked continually since that time in various roles, as either a principal or partner of law firms. For the first twelve years Chris was a partner of the firm then known as FA Finn Roache & Company, and then spent a further fifteen years at Parish Patience, the law firm. For a time he was managing partner of that firm, and when he left, he was the firm’s senior partner. Since 1995, the rejuvenation of Finn Roache has been his labour of love.

He has degrees of Bachelor of Arts and Law from Sydney University, and a Master of Laws from the same institution. He was one of the first to become a NSW Law Society Accredited Specialist in Business Law and remains an examiner in that discipline for the Law Society Specialist Accreditation Board.

As first and foremost a commercial lawyer, Chris has been a career-long advisor to the business community, particularly in the areas of structures, sales and acquisitions, revenue and succession planning. He also has a depth of experience in the set up and operation of listed companies, and has advised on company floats, takeovers and prospectuses and compliance requirements associated with them.

His commercial experience has also led him to become a specialist advisor to the hotel, restaurant and hospitality industries and he has a thorough knowledge of liquor licensing and gaming machine legislation.

As a concomitant to his commercial experience, Chris has a depth of knowledge of property transactions gleaned from decades of experience with some of the country’s largest public and private developers and home builders. He has knowledge and experience in all title systems, including Old System or common law titles and drafted the documentation for one of the earliest community titles in New South Wales. He also has wide experience in commercial and industrial leasing and mortgages.

Chris' commercial bent led him early in his legal life to understanding the importance of intellectual property in the business community, at a time when the subject was not even studied in law schools.

For more than thirty years he has been an advisor to the creative industries, advising designers from all fields, including fashion, graphic, industrial, interior and architectural, both in Australia and overseas. Much of his working life is spent advising on intellectual property issues, particularly the protection of trade marks, copyright and designs and the resolution of disputes surrounding them.

Chris has been honorary solicitor for the Australian Graphic Design Association since its incorporation and is also honorary solicitor for the Australian Commercial and Media Photographers. During the 1980s, he was a commentator for the Australian Law Reform Commission on the legislative overlap between designs and copyright and an advocate for legislative change in that area. He has been a past contributor to a number of industry-specific magazines and is guest lecturer in the School of Visual Arts at the University of Technology, Sydney and Griffith University, Queensland. He was the copyright advisor to the Ausflag Design Committee and remains passionate about raising the awareness of all in the creative industries of their rights to exploit their intellectual property.