Gerry has appeared in the
UK Supreme Court on joint
enterprise law and the
Australian High Court on rights to second appeal. She has conducted research and handled cases involving human trafficking and
modern slavery. In 2015, she assisted in reprieving human trafficking survivor
Mary Jane Veloso from execution in Indonesia. She co-wrote a legal memorandum on due diligence and compliance issues under international law (including modern slavery considerations) regarding the
Singapore stock exchange listed Golden City scheme in Myanmar. This memo led to divestment from the scheme. She is a professor of Legal Practice at
Deakin University, where she teaches courses on contemporary international legal challenges, including
sanctions law, war crimes, modern slavery, and digital law. She is a commentator on international legal issues, particularly relating to international crimes, terrorism, and human rights abuses. She has appeared in a number of documentaries and news stories, including
BAFTA nominated,
The Cruel Cut, the
Foreign Correspondent produced,
Mary Jane: The woman who escaped a firing squad, the
Logie Award nominated,
The Queen & Zak Grieve, and BBC Three's
Sex on the Edge. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of
ANZSIL Perspective.
Key cases • Gerry led the appeal before the
UK Supreme Court in
R v Jogee, in which the court held that the law on
joint enterprise had been wrong for three decades. • Co-counsel for
Al Hassan at the
International Criminal Court. • Lead counsel for the Bahtijari defence team at the
Kosovo Specialist Chambers. • Led the defence for an accused 'Federation Square bomb plot' at the
Supreme Court of Victoria and for a '
terrorist acts' case associated with a fire at a mosque in a
Melbourne suburb in 2016. • Led the team that obtained the first successful petition for mercy in the
Northern Territory for young Indigenous man Zak Grieve. • Led the intervention for
Justice on the law on
'subjecthood' in the
Shamima Begum appeals. • Led the submission for reparations for historic slavery in the
Cook Islands for Cook Islands lawyer Michelle Tangimama.
Law reform In 2014 Gerry was part of the
Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales team drafting a report to the Parliamentary Inquiry into
Female Genital Mutilation ('FGM'), which contributed to legislative change on
FGM law in the United Kingdom. She is the co-author of the
Sexual Offences Handbook: Law, Practice and Procedure, published by Wildy, Simmonds and Hill Publishing in the United Kingdom and has written two reports for
LexisNexis on women in prison. She is also leading the campaign for posthumous exoneration of
Christine Keeler, who was jailed for nine months in 1963 for a perjury, associated with the
Profumo scandal. In addition to her work in
R v Jogee, she has contributed research and advocacy to changing the law on joint enterprise in the United Kingdom, and was a co-drafter of the
Joint Enterprise (Significant Contribution) Bill tabled in UK Parliament by
Kim Johnson MP in 2023. == References ==