Maxwell was educated at
Melbourne Grammar School and the
University of Melbourne where he was resident at
Trinity College. He played rugby and
Australian rules football at Trinity, where he was the senior student in 1973. After graduating with honours in 1974, he was selected as Victorian
Rhodes Scholar for 1975, completing a Bachelor of Philosophy at
Oxford University. In 1978, he became a barrister at
Lincoln's Inn in
London practising briefly at the English Bar. He signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 1984 and became a QC in 1998. In 2019, Maxwell heard the high profile
County Court appeal of Cardinal
George Pell against his conviction for the commission of sexual offences. Maxwell concurred with the Court of Appeal 2-1 majority rejecting the appeal, which was subsequently overruled by the
High Court. During an appeal into a drug importation conviction by
Tony Mokbel due to the actions of
Nicola Gobbo in providing information to
Victoria Police, Maxwell called the actions of Gobbo and others involved in her informing "disgraceful" and a "matter of profound importance". Maxwell is an adjunct professor at
Victoria University. He is married with three children. His wife is a daughter of Sir
Ninian Stephen who was a
Governor-General of Australia and High Court Justice. ==References==