Michael Whitten QC is the current Lord Chief Justice of the Kingdom of Tonga. Prior to his Honour’s appointment in mid-2019, he was a member of the Victorian Bar and Chancery Chambers in Melbourne, Victoria. There, he practised for more than 20 years in commercial litigation, specialising in building, construction, infrastructure and energy disputes. Prior to that, his Honour’s legal career started in Brisbane in the Public Defender’s Office, then associate to the late Judge J.P. Kimmins, then as a law clerk at Blake Dawson Waldron, before being called to the Bar there in 1990.