Daniel Ward was a visiting fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. He is a director and co-founder of Chapel Lane Advisory, a boutique risk and public policy firm.

As General Counsel to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, and as Senior Adviser to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, Ward advised two Australian leaders in relation to the introduction of the country’s foreign influence and interference legislation.

Ward assisted Prime Ministers Morrison and Turnbull to navigate many of the Australian Government’s most significant challenges at the intersection of law and public policy. These included industrial relations reforms during the COVID-19 pandemic, Australian parliamentarians’ constitutional eligibility for office, novel anti-discrimination legislation, and a range of amendments to federal immigration, electoral and criminal laws. 

Prior to this, Ward served in the office of the Australian Attorney-General, in which capacity he was widely credited for devising the constitutional means to hold Australia’s nationwide plebiscite on same-sex marriage, without requiring the passage of legislation.

Outside the Australian Government, Ward was Special Counsel in the Sydney office of global law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright, and he clerked for the Chief Justice of the Federal Court of Australia.

Ward has a first-class masters degree in law from the University of Oxford, and a bachelor of law from the University of Sydney, where he graduated first of his year.  Ward also studied economics, government, and classical music.