Peter Bartlett is one of Australia’s top media lawyers.
THESE days Peter Bartlett is known as one of Australia’s leading media and communications law experts.
A partner at Minter Ellison Lawyers, Peter has represented a number of high-profile clients in highly complex cases.
He was also one of the first students to attend Upper Yarra Secondary College from 1961 to 1966.
Since his graduation he has taken a strong interest in the school, including twice taking part in the “principal for a day” program.
Mr Bartlett said his Upper Yarra story started one night in October 1959 when his mother woke himself and his brother to look across the valley where the Warburton Higher Elementary School was on fire.
He was in year six at the time and had to attend his first year of high school in the Mechanics and Masonic Halls in Warburton.
“My classes were on the stage of the Mechanics Hall,” he said.
“We’d close the curtain but you could still hear all the other classes chattering.”
After significant debate, and a tug of war between Warburton and Yarra Junction, Yarra Junction won the right to build the new school.
“We moved after first term when I was in year eight,” he said.
“What a wonderful building it was – amazing views across the valley to Mount Donna Buang.”
He said the girls and boys were segregated to each end of the school at recess, with the cafeteria in the middle.
Mr Bartlett said year nine was “not a great year for me”.
“I failed,” he said, and added that the embarrassment of having to repeat the year and mix with the lower year level was overwhelming.
Mr Cote, the French teacher, took Peter aside and told him if he wanted to sweep the streets of Warburton for the rest of his life, he could keep going like he was.
“To this day it was probably the most significant thing ever said to me,” Peter recalled.
“It was a turning point for me.”
He did a few subjects by correspondence in year 11 and 12, and was lucky enough to be awarded a Commonwealth scholarship which supported him through his tertiary education.
“Without that, and free accommodation with my grandmother, I would never have been able to go to university,” he said.
Mr Bartlett said when he applied for law he had never met a lawyer and had little idea what it involved.
He said university was a rather daunting place, with very few people from the Upper Yarra.
His lucky break came in 1972 when he was offered to do his Articles at Gillott Moir and Winneke, a firm with wonderful clients but only some 27 staff.
“I started in 1972 and became a partner in 1974,” he said.
“I was the first partner in the firm who had not been to a private school.”
He led discussions on behalf of the firm in 1987, which led to the amalgamation of three different law firms to form Minter Ellison Lawyers.
He was on the board of Minter Ellison for 20 years and served as its chairman.
The firm is now the largest in Australasia, the Asia Pacific area and the southern hemisphere, and has acted for The Age newspaper since 1863.
“When I started I gradually did more and more media and communications work before taking over as practice head in the firm,” he said.
“It is a wonderful area of law with different challenges each day.
“We now act for many Australian and international media and communications companies.”
Mr Bartlett said his parents, Ethel and Peter, were active in the Warburton State School, football, tennis, and golf clubs.
They were anxious for their three children to maximise their opportunities.
“My brother and I headed to Melbourne,” he said.
“My sister, Jeannette and her husband, David Long, chose to stay in the valley.
“We have never regretted our decisions – I now have a wife and five wonderful children.”
“In my experience, Upper Yarra provides an impressive grounding for students in a wonderful environment.
“I encourage students to take full advantage of what the school has to offer.
“University or technology training is an important next step.
“When you put the effort in, if you love what you are doing, the sky is the limit.”
