Our Lawyers

Philip Bovey was born and educated in Brisbane. He left school early in year 11 and then worked in a variety of capacities including for a time as a builder’s labourer (ironically working on the building that later became the QIT Law School).

Philip subsequently completed his senior education at adult classes and gained entry to the Bachelor of Laws program at what was then known as the QIT (now Queensland University of Technology). Philip completed that degree in 1983 and then completed a graduate diploma in legal practice in 1984 and was admitted as a solicitor of the Supreme Court in 1984.

Philip worked for a short time in private practice in Brisbane and Mackay and then moved to Cairns in 1987 to run the criminal law section of the Legal Aid Commission of Queensland. In 1988 Philip went into private practice with the firm specialising in criminal law and at that stage holding the retainer to represent indigenous Australians through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Legal Service. This saw Philip travel to Thursday Island, Pompuraaw, Lockhart River, Kowanyama and Cooktown.

With the commencement of a family this travel became impracticable and Philip concentrated on criminal practice in Cairns and its surrounds. Philip practised as a sole practitioner until 2005 when Philip Bovey and Company merged with O’Reilly and Stevens to form O’Reilly Stevens Bovey Lawyers.

Philip has been involved in the full time exclusive practice of criminal law since 1987. Philip has represented parties in a number of prominent cases including inquests into the death of Julianne Leahy and Vicki Arnold on the Atherton Tablelands and the inquest into the death of the Lonergans whilst diving off the coast of Cairns. Philip has undertaken work for clients as geographically separate as Perth, Melbourne and Sydney.

He is married with children and for leisure he plays golf badly.