A barrister set to represent Bruce Lehrmann wants to remain anonymous until the former Liberal staffer's appeal proceedings are given an official court date.
"Until I have the hearing date for the appeal and I have formally briefed him, he wishes to remain unnamed just on the basis he doesn't wish to be trolled or harassed," Mr Lehrmann's lawyer, Zali Burrows, said on Wednesday.
"For example, as I have experienced."
Mr Lehrmann is appealing findings he, to the civil balance of probabilities, raped Brittany Higgins inside Parliament House after a drunken night out.
"Why can't you tell me? Or can you write it on a piece of paper?" Justice Wendy Abraham asked.
"Yes, I can you honour," Burrows replied.
But while Mr Lehrmann's latest barrister-to-be wants to remain out of the spotlight for the time being, Justice Abraham said the senior counsel had in fact already "been named".
While it has not been confirmed, the barrister in question could be Guy Reynolds SC.
"We need that money because I propose to brief Guy Reynolds, who provided the advice in the matter and for him to settle the amended appeal which has been drafted," Ms Burrows said in September, when she sought to recover legal costs to help fund the appeal.
Ms Burrows indicated she also intended to brief junior counsel.
Last month, Justice Abraham cleared the path for Mr Lehrmann to appeal the sexual assault findings made against him by delivering a key ruling in his favour.
The Federal Court judge ordered a stay on Mr Lehrmann having to pay $2 million of Network Ten's legal fees resulting from his failed defamation action against the television network and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.
More importantly, Justice Abraham ruled against Ten's application asking the court to force the former Liberal staffer to put down $200,000 as costs security before his appeal could even be heard.
On Thursday, parties disagreed about a date for that appeal.
Justice Abraham ultimately asked parties to hold the dates of August 19-22 next year for proceedings and said the court would be in contact to formalise the hearing time.
She cannot set court dates herself.
Barristers for Ten and Ms Wilkinson fought against allowing Mr Lehrmann's appeal, claiming the cash-strapped man had his day in court during an expensive civil trial.
Matthew Collins KC, representing Ten, previously described some of Mr Lehrmann's appeal grounds as "hopeless" and others as "faintly arguable".
Those grounds include the trial judge could not have upheld Ten's substantial truth defence.
But Justice Abraham ruled there was a public interest in allowing the appeal, especially given all parties involved in defamation proceedings had expressed issues with Justice Michael Lee's April judgment.
That defamation judgment was made to a civil standard and does not amount to a criminal conviction.
Mr Lehrmann's ACT criminal trial was aborted in 2022 following juror misconduct and the charge of sexual intercourse without consent levelled at him dropped over concerns for Ms Higgins' mental health.
