Two top lawyers to assist NT inquiry

Two senior lawyers will serve as counsel assisting the royal commission examining juvenile justice in the Northern Territory.

Attorney-General George Brandis says Peter Callaghan SC and Tony McAvoy SC will play a critical role in supporting the work of the royal commission in its seven month inquiry.

The government launched the royal commission last month following an ABC program showing teenage boys in juvenile detention being stripped naked, tear-gassed and held in solitary confinement.