David Heilpern was appointed as a Magistrate in 1998, and was at the time the youngest magistrate in Australia. He sat in the criminal, mining, family, industrial, coronial and children’s jurisdictions of the Local Court, and was the Senior Civil Magistrate for five years.
Prior to his appointment, David was a litigation lawyer on the North Coast where he co-founded the law school at Southern Cross University, rising to becoming the Dean in 1996.
David has a commitment to ensuring that drug laws change to reflect the principles of harm reduction. In particular, he believes that harm is only increased by applying a law and order model to victimless crimes.