Welcome to the Honourable Justice Robert French

Transcription

1 Welcome to the Honourable Justice Robert French Speech given by Ross Ray QC, President, Law Council of Australia at a Ceremonial Sitting to Welcome The Honourable Justice Robert French Upon Presentation of his Commission and Swearing in as the 12th Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia Monday 1 September 2008 GPO Box 1989, Canberra ACT 2601, DX 5719 Canberra 19 Torrens St Braddon ACT 2612 Telephone Facsimile Law Council of Australia Limited ABN

2 May it please the Court. I appear on behalf of the Law Council of Australia to express the pride of the entire Australian profession in Your Honour Chief Justice French s appointment as the 12 th Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. I do so on behalf of each constituent body of the Law Council and their members. The constituent bodies include every Australian Bar and every Australian Law Society. I note that Mr Dudley Stow, the President of the Law Society of Western Australia, is at the Bar Table this morning, although he will not be addressing the Court. Your Honour was, of course, a member of the Western Australian Law Society for more than 10 years, and you served on the Council of the Society. Your Honour brings to the office of Chief Justice a record of creative dedication to good causes and of extraordinary achievement for example, the Aboriginal Legal Service, the Native Title Tribunal, and Edith Cowan University. Only admitted to practice in December 1972, you played a central role in establishing the Aboriginal Legal Service in Western Australia from 1973 to As a lawyer, you chaired the New Era Aboriginal Fellowship. That was a vehicle for many non-aboriginals to work with Aboriginal people to establish health, legal and other services for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders. The Justice Committee of the New Era Aboriginal Fellowship established the Aboriginal Legal Service in Perth in 1973; and expanded it to serve Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander peoples in the north and south of Western Australia. The Aboriginal Legal Service of Western Australia continued to expand, and is now the largest community based Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander legal organisation in Australia. It provides such legal services throughout Western Australia. It is now governed by an Aboriginal Executive Committee. As a Judge, Your Honour was the inaugural President of the Native Title Tribunal from 1994 to As the Attorney has said, you guided the Tribunal through a period of charged public and political debate. In those difficult, early days of the Tribunal, Your Honour not only established the framework of processes within the Tribunal, but also wrote and spoke widely outside the Tribunal, explaining the Tribunal and its work Welcome to Justice Robert French.docx Page 2

3 Outside your Office as a Judge, Your Honour chaired the Council of the Western Australian College of Advanced Education from 1988 to In that time, the CAE attained University status. So, in 1991, you continued, then as foundation Chancellor of Edith Cowan University as the former CAE became. You continued to serve as Chancellor until Edith Cowan University awarded Your Honour the highest honour it is in the power of the University to bestow the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. Looking back with the wisdom of hindsight, we can see that the 9 th of December 1986 ceremonial sitting of the Federal Court in Perth was highly propitious. That sitting was to Welcome Your Honour to Federal Court. It was propitious because all 3 Western Australian Justices of this Court all 3 to date, that is the 3 generations of Western Australian Justices of this Court were on the Bench for that ceremonial sitting the other 2 generations to welcome you. Sir Ronald Wilson had then been on this Court for some years. He and the Western Australian Chief Justice Sir Francis Burt, were sitting with the Federal Court that day to honour your appointment to that Court. Justice Toohey was still on the Federal Court. However, his appointment to this Court, although not to begin until February, had been announced the previous day. Your Honour was about to begin the nearly 22 years distinguished service on the Federal Court that have brought you to this day on which you have taken the oath as 12 th Chief Justice. Like Your Honour, Justice Toohey had been educated by the Jesuit Fathers at St Louis, Claremont. Your Honour s childhood family home is across the road from that of John Toohey and he remembers knowing you from about the age of 7. There is also the connection that John Toohey QC was the first lawyer to take a position with the Aboriginal Legal Service in the North of Western Australia pioneering legal representation for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people in remote areas. And this was in the time that you were the Chairman of New Era Aboriginal Fellowship and were establishing and building the Aboriginal Legal Service Welcome to Justice Robert French.docx Page 3

4 I ve spoken about Your Honour s creative dedication to good causes and extraordinary achievement in establishing the Aboriginal Legal Service from 1973 to In 1975, you set about establishing a private law firm first with Rod Warren and Graeme McDonald and then adding Ross Harrison. The firm was Warren, McDonald, French & Co; and then Warren, McDonald, French & Harrison. Your Honour knew from the outset that you wanted to practise as a barrister. You were characteristically frank with Warren and McDonald. You said you would give them 2 or 3 years, but that you would then be leaving to go to the Independent Bar. Equally characteristically, once engaged on a task in this case, establishing a law firm you stuck with it to substantial completion. Your 2 or 3 years flew by and you ended up staying 8 years. The firm thrived and was highly regarded in Perth. Eventually, it merged to become part of Deacons, which has more than 900 lawyers in Australia and Asia. Your law firm practice was extraordinarily diverse, and you did a substantial amount of work without fee. You found it hard to say no. It s said that Your Honour took to a new level the tradition in the Australian Legal Profession of putting back into the profession, and into the administration of Justice, significant voluntary and informal pro bono work. One has the satisfaction of what one does. And the individual client is usually grateful. But this sort of work is largely un-noticed in the general scheme of things. It is something in which we in the profession take great pride. You attracted bright young lawyers to the firm. Not all could be nominally articled to you but all sought to work with you. You put off and put off going to the independent Bar and remained with the firm for 8 years, not going to the Bar until Your Honour also made a substantial contribution to the activities of the Law Council of Australia. You were a member of the Law Council of Australia Courts Committee, then based in Perth now the Federal Court Committee from its establishment. You were also a member of the Privacy Law Committee, and chaired that Welcome to Justice Robert French.docx Page 4

5 Committee, which made important submissions to the Commonwealth Government. Your Honour s intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm to do whatever legal work came your way has not diminished over the years. Even after more than 21 years on the Federal Court, you were always happy, when sitting on the full court, to have the first go at drafting a judgment. Sitting, as you have since 2003, as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Fiji, you found yourself thrown into Criminal Law, because very many of the appeals were in that field which is really out of left field for a Federal Court Judge. Though, as a Judge of the ACT Supreme Court, you also took on the long and complex murder re-trial in the case of Hellier. And in 2004, your high-level mathematical skills were immensely valuable in the President s reference to the Court in Qarase v Chaudhry. the Fiji Constitution has complex provisions for proportionate representation in the Cabinet. Your Australian brother judges on that panel Justice Keith Mason, then President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal, and Justice Mark Weinberg, now of the Victorian Court of Appeal were very glad that you were on the Panel and were able to master the mathematics. Your Honour s contributions to the profession have been recognised in your being made an honorary life member of the Law Society of Western Australia. More on the intellectual and scholarly aspects of law in practice and as a Judge, you are a member of the Australian Association of Constitutional Law. You also served as President of that Association from 2001 to 2005 You were also named as one of 36 Foundation Fellows of the Australian Academy of Law established and launched at Government House, Brisbane in July 2007 the newest, and very exclusive, Australian learned society of which your predecessor, former Chief Justice Gleeson is the Patron. Your Honour also runs the Marathon. This is a particular strength in one who has already shown remarkable staying power in coming on for 22 years on the Federal Court, and is now taking on the new challenge of leading this Court. You have the distinction of having run the Rome Marathon around the remarkable sights of the Eternal City, and along, in some cases, cobbled streets. And it s said you ran that Marathon in a wholly respectable time and that there Welcome to Justice Robert French.docx Page 5

6 is a splendid photograph of you running that Marathon which was on view in the Federal Court Perth chambers. Your Honour, it s my very great pleasure, on behalf of the Law Council of Australia, and of the Australian Legal Profession that makes up the Constituent Bodies of the Law Council, to wish Your Honour distinguished and satisfying service as the 12 th Chief Justice of this Honourable Court. May it please the Court. Disclaimer: This document remains the property of the Law Council of Australia and should not be reproduced without permission. Please contact the Law Council to arrange a copy of this speech. Elenore Eriksson Director, Public Affairs m e. elenore.eriksson@lawcouncil.asn.au Welcome to Justice Robert French.docx Page 6