The Australian Women's Register

Justice Antoinette Kennedy has been a leader and a mentor in the legal profession and has achieved many ‘firsts’ that have allowed others to follow in her footsteps.

These include:

• She was the only woman from her year at high school to attend university
• She was the only woman from her graduating class at the University of Western Australia to gain articles of clerkship
• She was the second woman to join the Independent Bar in Perth to practise as a barrister
• She was the first woman judge to be appointed in Western Australia when appointed to the Bench of the District Court in 1985
• She was a founding member of Women Lawyers of Western Australia Inc. (she ahs been a Patron of that group since 1999)
• She was the first woman to be appointed Chief Judge of the District Court of Western Australia in 2004.