Ceremonial - QCs-SCs

[2006] HCATrans 1

[2006] HCATrans 001

H I G H   C O U R T   O F   A U S T R A L I A

CEREMONIAL SITTING

ON THE OCCASION

OF

ANNOUNCEMENT OF APPOINTMENTS

OF

QUEEN’S COUNSEL AND SENIOR COUNSEL

Coram:   GLEESON CJ

GUMMOW J
KIRBY J
HAYNE J
CALLINAN J
HEYDON J
CRENNAN J

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

AT CANBERRA ON MONDAY, 30 JANUARY 2006, AT 3.30 PM

The following Queen’s Counsel and Senior Counsel were present in Court:

Mr D.F. Jackson, QC

Mr D. Bennett, QC, Solicitor-General for the Commonwealth of Australia

Mr I. Viner, AO, QC, President of the Australian Bar Association

Mr B.R.M. Hayes, QC, representing the South Australian Bar Association

Mr P.J. Lyons, SC, President of the Bar Association of Queensland

Mr I.G. Harrison, SC, Immediate Past-President of the New South Wales Bar Association

Mr K.J. Martin, SC, President of the Bar Association of Western Australia

Mr G.C. Martin, SC, President-Elect of the Australian Bar Association

Mr R.C. Refshauge, SC, ACT Director of Public Prosecutions

Ms K. McMillan, SC, President of the Victorian Bar

Mr B.A. Meagher, SC, President of the Australian Capital Territory Bar Association

Mr G.P. Brzostowski, SC

Mr D.U. Arnott, SC

Mr S.D. Kalfas, SC

Mr P.H. Blackburn-Hart, SC

Mr C.M. Harris, SC

Mr P.D. Young, SC

Mr L.J. Ellison, SC

Mr C.W.J. Leggat, SC

Mr D.G. Staehli, SC

Mr R.J. Button, SC

Mr T.G.R. Parker, SC

Mr F. Gleeson, SC

Ms L. McCallum, SC

Mr R. Cobden, SC

Mr R.P. Devlin, SC

Mr A.J. MacSporran, SC

Mr B.G. Devereaux, SC

Mr L.F. Kelly, SC

Mr P.J. Davis, SC

Mr P.J. Dunning, SC

Mr C.J. Wren, SC

Mr D.J. Neal, SC

Mr B.J. Hess, SC

Mr B.M. Griffin, SC

Mr A.A. Nolan, SC

Mr C.J. Ryan, SC

Mr P.J. Cosgrave, SC

Mr M.R. Pearce, SC

Mr C.J. Blanden, SC

Mr G.J. Lyon, SC

Mr S.M. Anderson, SC

Mr M.P. McDonald, SC

Mr S.E. Marks, SC

Ms M.M. Williams, SC

Mr M.W. Thompson, SC

Mr B. Fiannaca, SC

Ms T.D. Sweeney, SC

GLEESON CJ:   Mr Meagher, President of the Australian Capital Territory Bar Association.

MR MEAGHER:   May it please the Court, I inform the Court that the following member of the Bar here present has been appointed as Senior Counsel for the Australian Capital Territory:

George Peter Brzostowski who ranks in seniority after Robert William Blowes

GLEESON CJ:   Thank you, Mr Meagher.  Mr Harrison, Immediate Past‑President of the New South Wales Bar Association.

MR HARRISON:   May it please the Court, I inform the Court that the following members of the Bar here present have been appointed as Senior Counsel for the State of New South Wales.

They are:

David Ulric Arnott who appears in the Bar list next after David Cowan

Simon Demetrius Kalfas who appears in the Bar list next after Peter George Maiden

Paul Hampden Blackburn-Hart who appears in the Bar list next after Simon Demetrius Kalfas

Christopher Mark Harris who appears in the Bar list next after Paul Hampden Blackburn-Hart

Philip David Young who appears in the Bar list next after Paul Ivan Lakatos

Lindsay James Ellison who appears in the Bar list next after Philip David Young

Craig William James Leggat who appears in the Bar list next after Lindsay James Ellison

David Geoffrey Staehli who appears in the Bar list next after Craig William James Leggat

Richard James Button who appears in the Bar list next after David Geoffrey Staehli

Thomas Guy Radcliffe Parker who appears in the Bar list next after Richard James Button

Fabian Gleeson who appears in the Bar list next after Thomas Guy Radcliffe Parker

Lucy McCallum who appears in the Bar list next after Philip Mark Strickland

Richard Cobden who appears in the Bar list next after Lucy McCallum

GLEESON CJ:   Thank you, Mr Harrison.  Mr Lyons, President of the Bar Association of Queensland.

MR LYONS:   May it please the Court, I inform the Court that the following members of the Bar here present have been appointed as Senior Counsel for the State of Queensland.

They are:

Ralph Patrick Devlin who ranks in seniority after Peter John Murphy

Alan John MacSporran who ranks in seniority after Ralph Patrick Devlin

Brian Gerard Devereaux who ranks in seniority after Alan John MacSporran

Liam Francis Kelly who ranks in seniority after Brian Gerard Devereaux

Peter John Davis who ranks in seniority after Liam Francis Kelly

Peter John Dunning who ranks in seniority after Peter John Davis

GLEESON CJ:   Thank you, Mr Lyons.  Ms McMillan, Chairman of the Victorian Bar.

MS McMILLAN:   May it please the Court, I inform the Court that the following members of the Bar here present have been appointed as Senior Counsel for the State of Victoria.

They are:

Christopher Joseph Wren who ranks in seniority after James Dudley Elliott

David John Neal who ranks in seniority after Christopher Joseph Wren

Barry John Hess who ranks in seniority after David John Neal

Brendan Michael Griffin who ranks in seniority after Barry John Hess

Anthony Aloysius Nolan who ranks in seniority after Brendan Michael Griffin

Christopher James Ryan who ranks in seniority after Anthony Aloysius Nolan

Paul James Cosgrave who ranks in seniority after Christopher James Ryan

Michael Richard Pearce who ranks in seniority after Paul James Cosgrave

Christopher John Blanden who ranks in seniority after Michael Richard Pearce

Gregory John Lyon who ranks in seniority after Christopher John Blanden

Stewart Maxwell Anderson who ranks in seniority after Gregory John Lyon

Michael Phillip McDonald who ranks in seniority after Stewart Maxwell Anderson

Simon Edward Marks who ranks in seniority after Michael Phillip McDonald

Michele Muriel Williams who ranks in seniority after Simon Edward Marks

Michael William Thompson who ranks in seniority after Michele Muriel Williams

GLEESON CJ:   Thank you, Ms McMillan.  Mr Martin, President of the Western Australian Bar Association.

MR MARTIN:   May it please the Court, I inform the Court that the following members of the Bar here present have been appointed as Senior Counsel for the State of Western Australia.

They are:

Bruno Fiannaca who ranks in seniority after Grant Richard Donaldson

Troy Denise Sweeney who ranks in seniority after Bruno Fiannaca

GLEESON CJ:   Thank you, Mr Martin.  Does any member of the Bar move?

On behalf of all the members of the Court, I congratulate the newly appointed Senior Counsel.  Your appointments are a public recognition of your professional eminence; a recognition that comes from your professional colleagues.

Until fairly recently, Senior Counsel was a term used in Australia to describe barristers who had been appointed by government to the rank of King’s Counsel or Queen’s Counsel.  At the end of the 19th century, the office of King’s Counsel or Queen’s Counsel was described in a leading case as an office of the Crown and “a mark of recognition by the sovereign of the professional eminence of counsel upon whom it is conferred”.  King’s Counsel or Queen’s Counsel were originally appointed to assist, when called upon to do so, the Attorney-General and the Solicitor-General.  Until the early part of the 20th century they required a dispensation to appear against the Crown.

In 1670, during the reign of King Charles II, the Monarch declared that King’s Counsel took precedence not only over outer or junior barristers but also over serjeants-at-law.  This assertion of prerogative led to the professional dominance of King’s Counsel, and the ultimate decline of the rank of serjeant-at-law.

In recent years, governments in Australia have handed over the formal, as well as the practical, exercise of this power of appointment of Senior Counsel to the profession itself.  The rank of Queen’s Counsel was not abolished.  It was simply not conferred by future governments, but the rank is retained by those upon whom it had already been conferred.  The Bar now confers what is presumably seen as the constitutionally neutral title of Senior Counsel on those the Bar identifies as the appropriate recipients.  In legal theory a commission as Queen’s Counsel merged with a commission as a Judge of a superior Court.  This is an interesting topic, possibly complicated by federalism.  I am reasonably clear about my New South Wales commission, but the legal process by which my separate commissions as one of Her Majesty’s Counsel for the States of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia merged, in 1988, with my commission as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales has never been entirely clear to me, but I accept it as an article of faith.  Some retired judges have resumed the title of Queen’s Counsel, presumably upon a principle of demerger.

It was customary for Senior Counsel to make formal announcements of their appointment to the Supreme Court of the State or Territory in which they have their principal practice.  Making such announcements in this Court at the commencement of law term came about with the development of a national bar.  As in most federations, the Australian legal profession is organised and administered primarily on a State basis, but arrangements for reciprocity of admission and recognition of status, combined with a high degree of mobility between jurisdictions, mean that the Australian Bar has now become a cohesive national institution.

Appointment as Senior Counsel in this country has never been regarded as something to which a barrister is entitled simply by reason of long service.  Durability and eminence sometimes go hand in hand but they are not the same thing.  The appointment is a formal recognition of the professional standing of those whose learning, skill and ability have come to be regarded by their peers, and by the relevant appointing authority, as warranting such a distinction.  The appointment as Senior Counsel carries with it responsibilities as well as privileges.  You now occupy a position of leadership in your profession, and your conduct will be taken as an example by others.  Solicitors, members of the public and courts will place special reliance on your ability and, as a rule, the work that you will be given to do, and the cases that you will conduct, will be more onerous.

Most of you in Court today, and all of us here on the Bench, have travelled to be here.  Some of you have travelled a long way.  Coming to the nation’s capital and seat of government to make, or attend, these formal annual events itself signifies the national character of the legal profession. 

The occasion marks something else that is equally important.  It signifies the relationship between Bench and Bar, which is part of our legal and constitutional inheritance.  You have all been admitted to practice as officers of a State or Territory Supreme Court.  By virtue of that admission federal legislation entitles you to practice in federal courts.  In whatever courts you appear, State or Federal, your overriding duty as advocates is to the court.  The courts depend for their capacity to administer justice upon your skill and integrity.

In our legal system, most judges are appointed from the ranks of experienced legal practitioners.  The professional strength and independence of spirit of the Bar sustains the strength and independence of the judiciary.

You have now reached a milestone in your professional careers.  You are faced with new challenges and new opportunities.  Some of you have been accompanied on this occasion by members of your family and friends.  The Court is delighted to welcome their participation in this occasion.  I trust that each of you will find personal and professional satisfaction in your new rank.  Thank you for the courtesy you have shown in informing the Court of your appointments.

The Court will adjourn until 10.15 tomorrow.

AT 3.44 PM THE COURT ADJOURNED