• Degree of Barrister-at-Law, The King’s Inns, Dublin
• Master of Laws Degree Melbourne University
• University of Sydney, LLB (Hons)
• University of Sydney BA (Economics BA) 

Admitted to the Bars of England and Wales, the Republic of Ireland, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Northern Territory, Australian Capital Territory, and Fiji.

Appointed Queen's Counsel (now King's Counsel) in 1989, aged 41.

Construction and Engineering:

Bruce specialised in complex engineering and construction litigation for principals, contractors and subcontractors, government departments, governments and state and federal instrumentalities. His practice encompassed a wide scope of subject matter and including many large-scale construction projects, such as: gas and coal fired power stations; hydro-electric power stations; quarrying and drilling operations; oil and gas exploration, delivery and transportation; manufacturing plants; railways, airports and infrastructure.

Bruce is a member of the Oversight Committee, which advises the organisation responsible for 90% of construction and engineering adjudications in Australia. He has been appointed a platinum adjudicator for the purpose of hearing complex high-value adjudications.

Bruce also has had substantial experience as an expert in the reading and interpretation of technical specifications, detailed construction programmes, architectural, mechanical, steel fabrication, engineering and other technical drawings and the conduct of cross examination involving such drawings and expert evidence generally, including critical path programming. 

Equity and Commercial Cases:

Bruce practiced regularly in the Commercial List of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Companies List of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, Equity, Probate and Common Law Divisions. Bruce’s wide breadth of experience includes:

• fiduciary duty claims, partnership disputes, company and shareholder disputes, partnership disputes;
• engineering and construction cases;
• energy market analysis and electricity pricing;
• Trade Practices and competition law;
• Numerous breach of contract cases involving the purported exercise of contractual and common law powers;
• Bank guarantees and performance bonds;
• first instance bankruptcy and appeals, taxation, receiverships and trusts.

Senior Government appointments

• Appointed by the New South Wales Government to Chair and Conduct an Inquiry into Insolvency in the Construction Industry and to report to the Minister for Finance & Services (2012)
• Appointed as Counsel to advise the Australian Federal Government in the World Trade Organisation proceedings in Geneva commenced by Ukraine, Honduras and Dominican Republic alleging that the Australian Plain Cigarette Packaging Legislation, breaches Australia’s trade law obligations (2012)
• Appointed by the NSW State Government as an Independent Commissioner against Corruption to inquire into certain matters concerning the conduct of the Kyogle Shire Council and to report thereon to the Parliament of New South Wales (1992).
• Appointed by the NSW State Government as an Independent Commissioner against Corruption for the purposes of an inquiry into certain aspects of the conduct of the Planning Department of South Sydney City Council and to report thereon to the New South Wales State Government (1991).
• Appointed by the New South Wales State Government as an Independent Commissioner against Corruption to inquire into certain affairs of the New South Wales Police Department and to report thereon to the Parliament of New South Wales (1990).

Sport:

Bruce has extensive experience in sports arbitration, including rugby union, fencing, golf, soccer, rowing, kayaking and athletics, as well as appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and drug cases before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (pro bono) and the Cricket Australia Appeals Committee. Bruce has been appointed multiple times to the Australian Olympic Committee as a consultant, and by the International Olympic Committee as a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

• Panel of Arbitrators for the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre
• Panel of Arbitrators of the Kuala Lumpur Regional Commercial Arbitration Centre
• Panel of CIETAC Panel of Arbitrators in Beijing
• Panel of Arbitrators of the Nepal International Alternative Dispute Centre
• Board of Advisors of the Indonesian Arbitrators Association
• List of Arbitrators for the Mauritius International Arbitration Centre
• London Panel of Arbitrators for Sport Resolutions Ltd.

Bruce has lectured extensively on a broad array of legal subjects, including at arbitration conferences in Hong Kong, Tokyo, Istanbul, Jakarta, Seoul, and Singapore. He regularly teaches at higher education institutions across Australia on international commercial arbitration and other topics. As a member of New South Wales Bar Association, Bruce has membership on multiple high-level committees and has undertaken significant roles as an educator and trainer. Bruce writes and publishes extensively on legal subjects, including on the practice of international commercial arbitration. 

• Appointed as the Australian Member of the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris (2012 – 2018)
• Appointed Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (FCIArb) (United Kingdom) (2011)
• Invited by the US Department of Commerce to participate in the Commercial Law Development program, Foreign Aid (2016)
• Invited by the University of Western Australia to lecture and participate in numerous programs relating to international commercial arbitration (2016)
• Appointed Conjoint Professor of Law at the University of Newcastle with the special task, amongst others, of devising and presenting the Undergraduate and Post Graduate courses in International Commercial Arbitration (2015)
• Co-chairman and presenter at the International Arbitration Conference in Beijing in 2012.
• Member of the teaching faculty in Cross Examination in International Arbitration Courses in Beijing and Shanghai in 2012.
• A principal presenter to the 2013 International Arbitration Conference in Hong Kong where he spoke on challenges to arbitrators.
• Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) Panel in Dubai in 2013.
• Member of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) Panel in Lagos, Nigeria in 2013.
• For the last several years Collins has made an extensive study of the civil law and in particular its application in international arbitration.  He has extensively researched the French Civil Code and has attended a number of conferences in South American and other civil law countries, for the purposes of developing greater familiarity with civil law principles.
• Since delivering the Independent Report on Insolvency in the Construction Industry, Collins has been invited to deliver lectures on that subject in New Zealand, Victoria and New South Wales.
• Invited by the Nepalese Arbitration to prepare and deliver the first comprehensive arbitration course to NIAC Kathmandu 6 and 7 November 2014
• Hong Kong Society of Construction Law Management of Expert Evidence in Complex Arbitrations

Australian