The Australian Women's Register

Her Honour Helen O’Sullivan is a retired judge of the Queensland District Court. She began her career as a Junior Clerk in Toowoomba, prior to returning to school and graduating from a Bachelor of Commerce degree.

Following her practice as a Senior Accountant in Perth, O’Sullivan graduated from a part-time Law degree and began practice as a Solicitor in Brisbane. In 1981, she was appointed Director of Continuing Legal Education at the Queensland Law Society, after which she commenced practice as a Barrister at the private bar.

Her Honour was appointed to the District Court bench in 1991 and retired at the end of 2009. She famously declared herself ‘an unapologetic feminist’ at her swearing-in ceremony on 9 April 1991. The official published transcript of proceedings deleted the word ‘unapologetic’ – reminding us that the Queensland bench was one of society’s most conservative bastions. Originally reluctant to accept a judicial appointment, O’Sullivan eventually agreed, believing it to be the best pathway with potential to change the system.

O’Sullivan was committed to a variety of pro bono and community causes. Before accepting her judicial appointment, she acted as a duty lawyer for Legal Aid and as a volunteer at the Caxton Street Legal Service. She was a foundation member of the Women’s Legal Service and volunteer lawyer there for some years. With Di Fingleton, she was the co-founder of the Financial Counselling Service.

Veronica McCarthy left school at the age of 15 and joined the public service. She decided to become a librarian and completed secondary school by evening classes. However, when Myles Kane offered her articles of clerkship, she accepted.

In 1967 McCarthy began her articles, performed secretarial work at Roberts & Kane and attended the University of Queensland at night. In 1972 she was admitted as a solicitor, the 42nd woman to be placed on the roll. She continued to work as a solicitor at Roberts & Kane where she became a partner in 1977.

Veronica McCarthy was the inaugural Secretary of the Women Lawyers Association, a position she continues to hold. She has served on the Law Society Grants Committee and was a member of the Supreme Court Library Committee.

Randa Abdel-Fattah is an Australian born Muslim with Egyptian/Palestinian heritage. She is a published author and former lawyer who has an interest in multiculturalism in Australia.

Wendy Abraham QC is an extensively experienced barrister in the criminal law jurisdiction. Her practice is focused principally on criminal appellate cases in the states’ Criminal Courts of Appeal and in the High Court of Australia. In addition to her work as a barrister, Wendy has also been an advocacy teacher since 1994.

Elisabeth Armitage was a Judge in the Northern Territory Magistrates Court (now known as the Northern Territory Local Court). Prior to May 2016, judges in this court were called Magistrates and Armitage was a Stipendiary Magistrate. On 5 January 2023, the Northern Territory Government appointed her to the position of Northern Territory Coroner.

Lea Armstrong was the first female Crown Solicitor appointed in New South Wales. Attorney General Gabrielle Upton today announced the appointment of Lea Armstrong as NSW Crown Solicitor.

“Ms Armstrong is an outstanding solicitor with 23 years’ experience in government and commercial law, including 18 years at the NSW Crown Solicitor’s Office,” Ms Upton said.

“Last year she became NSW Treasury’s first General Counsel and today she has achieved another milestone – becoming the first woman in the state to be appointed as a Crown Solicitor.”

Ms Armstrong has provided the NSW Government with advice on the development of the electricity network ‘poles and wires’ legislation passed by NSW Parliament last week. She has also advised on other major government projects including the long term leasing of the state’s three largest ports: Newcastle, Botany and Port Kembla.

During her previous period at the Crown Solicitor’s Office, she worked as General Counsel with a focus on major commercial transactions and reform projects for a range of clients including Treasury. She also served as an Assistant Crown Solicitor in commercial law and in administrative law.

Prior to joining the Crown Solicitor’s Office in 1995, Ms Armstrong worked for a major commercial law firm for three years and spent a year as an associate for the now retired High Court judge Michael McHugh.

Ms Armstrong holds a Masters of Law from the University of NSW, a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours, First Class) from the Australian National University.

Ms Armstrong will begin serving as Crown Solicitor on 13 July 2015.

“I am extremely honoured to be the first female Crown Solicitor in NSW, particularly as I am following in the footsteps of the state’s first female Attorney General and Treasurer,” Ms Armstrong said.

“I think it is incredibly important for female lawyers and women in government to have positive role models who hold senior positions in the public service.

“There is no doubt it will be a huge challenge, but an exciting and rewarding one and I look forward to working broadly across the legal and government sectors over the coming months.”

The Crown Solicitor is the largest provider of legal services to the NSW Government and plays a vital role in the functioning of the state. It employs over 350 legal and support staff.

Rowena Armstrong AO QC is a consultant at Norton Rose Fulbright and focuses on government and parliamentary matters, interpretation of legislation and drafting of subordinate legislation. Before joining the Firm as a consultant, she was Chief Parliamentary Counsel for Victoria for 15 years.

In 1982, Jean Austin became one of the most senior women in the Commonwealth Public Service: after almost three decades of service (during which she had acted as principal legal officer (common law) and then assistant deputy crown solicitor), Austin had attained the position of deputy crown solicitor in New South Wales. Austin attended Fort Street Girls’ High School and then went to the Deputy Crown Solicitor’s Office where she was engaged as a typist. She was appointed to the Commission of the Peace for the State of New South Wales in 1953.

Although she had originally wanted to be a surgeon, the relevant courses were overseas, and so she decided to study law, doing so on a part-time basis at the University of Sydney between 1950 and 1954. Her academic achievements saw her awarded the George and Matilda Harris Scholarship in both the second and third year of her degree. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1955 and was subsequently admitted to the Bar. She did not, however, practise as a barrister, believing that the better briefs – for women practitioners – were in the Crown Solicitor’s Office (now the Australian Government Solicitor). Austin was a Committee member of the Women Lawyers’ Association of New South Wales. In 1978 she was awarded an MBE for public service in the field of law.

Her Honour, Cecily Backhouse QC was appointed a Judge of the District Court New South Wales, retiring in 2004.

From an early age Harriet May Hordern was encouraged to study law by her father a solicitor. It was unusual in those days, she being born in 1888, when women were still regarded as ornaments, where possible, but otherwise of little use except around the house.

Her achievements in Melbourne University were as follows:

Bachelor of Arts – 22 April 1910 (First in all subjects plus University Medal)
Bachelor of Laws – 6 April 1914
Master of Laws – 23 December 1915
Master of Arts – 10 April 1914

On 20th July 1914 she became an articled clerk with James Whiteside McCay, Barrister, practising at 360-366 Collins St. Melbourne. Harriet was admitted on 1st March 1916, to practise as a Barrister and Solicitor in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

As to whether she was involved in cases heard in the Supreme Court I can only assume that she was, considering that she did recount some of her experiences, and was most likely called to do so between 1916 and 1918, when so many men were away at the War. My father, Rev Canon Nigel a’Beckett Talworth Backhouse and Harriet May married in 1919, soon after Nigel returned from service in the 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment.

Mary Baczynski graduated with a Bachelor of Laws in 1968, a Bachelor of Arts in 1978 and Master of Laws in 1982. After practising as a solicitor Mary signed the Bar Roll in 1972 and practises principally in Criminal law, Family law and the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Mary practises in all areas of family law including children’s issues and child kidnapping cases. She has appeared in the High Court on issues relating to forum and jurisdiction. In the criminal area, Mary is an experienced trial advocate, appearing in trials for rape, fraud and crimes of violence. She has appeared for intellectually disabled persons in all her areas of specialization. In the Administrative Appeals Tribunal Mary has represented the Commonwealth in pension matters and work related claims. She has appeared in a variety of appeals before the State Administrative Appeals Tribunal including administrative decisions, criminal compensation and Children’s Court matters. Mary gained accreditation as a commercial mediator in 1996.

Rosemary Balmford was the first woman judge appointed to the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The Honourable Justice Virginia Bell AC is the fourth woman since 1901 to have been appointed to the High Court of Australia.

Jennifer Blackman is a retired Judge of the District Court of New South Wales. She was appointed an AO for her service to the law, particularly as a supporter of the advancement of women in the legal profession, and to the community through a range of church, youth and aged care organisations.

Jenny May Blokland is a Judge of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. She was appointed to the Court on 9 April 2010. Justice Blokland is the third female appointment to the Court since it was established in 1911. At the time of her appointment, the Court for the first time had two females Judges, with Justice Judith Kelly being appointed in August 2009. At the time of her appointment Justice Blokland was the Chief Magistrate of the Northern Territory having been appointed firstly as a Magistrate in 2002 and then Chief Magistrate in 2006.

Her Honour Judge Gillian Braddock was the first woman president of the Bar Association and was appointed a Judge of the District Court of Western Australia in 2011. Braddock completed her law degree in the United Kingdom at Girton College in Cambridge and was admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales in 1981. From 1985 to 1987, she worked at the Director of Public Prosecution’s chambers in Hong Kong as Crown Counsel conducting prosecutions in all jurisdictions. She moved to Perth in 1987 and practised civil litigation for two years and then moved to the Legal Aid Commission of Western Australia. In 1990 Judge Braddock joined the bar and has been involved in criminal litigation in all jurisdictions, defence and prosecution, personal injuries and general litigation. She took silk in 1995.

Kornelia Brandt was the 56th woman in Victoria to sign the Bar Roll.

Antoinette Braybrook is the Chief Executive Officer of Djirra (formerly the Aboriginal Family Violence Prevention and Legal Service Victoria). She was instrumental in founding the Service and is a trailblazer for women’s and Indigenous women’s rights.

Laura Brennan worked as a solicitor at J M Smith & Emmerton. She was an immensely interesting and accomplished person.

Susan Brennan SC (BA., LL.B (Hons)) was admitted to practice in 1994 and signed the Bar Roll in 1998. Since admission Susan has specialised in town planning, local government and environmental law and prior to joining the Bar was a solicitor at Minter Ellison.

Susan regularly appears in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, in the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation, before Advisory Committees and planning panels and in the Supreme Court of Victoria, representing developers, local councils and resident community groups.

In 2003, Susan was appointed to the Heritage Council of Victoria.

Anna Brown has worked with the HRLC since 2011, and has led much of the Centre’s work on LGBTI rights, police accountability, protester rights, and equality law reform. Her work has included strategic litigation to advance marriage equality (Cth v ACT); recognise sex and gender diversity (Norrie’s case), and efforts to strengthen protection of political expression and assembly (Muldoon v Melbourne City Council; Attorney-General of SA v City of Adelaide). Major law reform projects include securing federal LGBTI discrimination protections and ongoing work to expunge historical convictions for gay sex offences in various states in Australia. Anna was named Victorian GLBTI person of the year in the inaugural GLOBE community awards in November 2014 in recognition for her contribution to the LGBTI community. Anna is Chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Institute of Victoria, Co-Convener of the Victorian Gay & Lesbian Rights Lobby and on the board of the National LGBTI Health Alliance and ILGA Oceania. Anna was previously an adviser to the former Victorian Attorney-General and Deputy Premier, the Hon Rob Hulls. She has also worked as a Senior Solicitor with the Victorian Government Solicitor’s Office, a Senior Associate with Allens Arthur Robinson and a Federal Court associate.

A leading family lawyer in Melbourne, Mary Cameron was the principal in the firm Stedman Cameron. Mary Cameron’s father was strongly against higher education. He considered universities a “hotbed of communism”, and she had to argue long and hard before he made the grudging concession that if she were to go to university it must be to study “something useful”.

When she entered law school at the University of Melbourne in 1935, she was one of only five females studying with 95 males. On graduation in 1938 she was incensed to learn that the academic responsible for finding employment opportunities was asking the females if they also typed. She organised a protest and the academic backed down.

Mary Cameron, who was born in Ballarat on September 27, 1917, began her career with Rylah and Anderson, one of the most highly regarded law firms in Melbourne.

She quickly learnt that the law was pretty much a boys’ club and when many male lawyers were called up for World War II she seized the opportunity for advancement.

She never described herself as a feminist or any sort of equal-opportunity activist, although she lived and worked through times of significant upheaval and advances in the workplace. She never spoke publicly about the prejudice she encountered as a young female lawyer but proved her mettle in the courtroom.

In 1955, she was elected president of the Women Lawyers’ Association.

A formidable counsel who could have progressed to the bar, Cameron chose to remain a solicitor because it enabled her to have a longer and more intimate association with her clients.

After eight years at Rylah Anderson and a short stint at another firm, she struck out on her own. In her first year she grossed £25 which – minus work expenses – was just enough to get by.

In 1952 she advertised for the creation of a partnership, signing the advertisement simply ”Lochiel”. It was answered by Colin Steadman, who was taken aback to discover that Lochiel was a woman. But their partnership prospered and Steadman Cameron became a well-regarded family law firm.

From the start Cameron took on gritty common law cases and her first courtroom victory was for her uncle, who had allegedly walked against a red light. Other relatives came out of the woodwork, all wanting her to fix their grievances – even her father. But when she sent him her advice, her mother, Clara, told her: “He does not agree with your interpretation of the law.”

Her father, John Cameron, had taken the family to Kenya when Mary was seven. Nuns at the Loreto Convent in Nairobi taught her to confront life. Many years later that quality enabled her to cope, with no great alarm, with the fire-bombing of her car and house by the enraged former husband of one of her clients.

In Kenya she also learnt Swahili.

In her latter years she could no longer drive and had to rely on taxis. But instead of resenting this, she used it as an opportunity for chats in fractured Swahili with African cab drivers.

Her father’s adventures probably inspired her own and, with her sister Clare, she travelled to China, Soviet Russia and elsewhere.

Cameron retired as a partner in Steadman Cameron in 1982 but remained a consultant for nearly two decades.

In 2007 she was made a Member of the Order of Australia.

Mary Cameron did not marry. Her sister Clare predeceased her.

Jane Campton (’70) was one of a family of six girls who all attended St Catherine’s School. Her ambition at school was to be a journalist and to write a deep and meaningful novel. Life, however, had other plans for Jane.

She graduated from the University of Melbourne in 1975 and practised as a barrister before being appointed as a County Court Judge in 2002. In between, she lived in Switzerland and London for a period and worked for the High Commission for Refugees and the World Health Organisation. In addition, Jane is an accredited Mediator, a member of the Victorian Women Lawyers’ Association and has been awarded the Victorian Supreme Court Prize in Law Contract.

Jane is married with two daughters and enjoys travelling and skiing. She is passionate about the environment and appreciates wine and Aboriginal art.

Justice Carter began her law career as a solicitor in 1972 and then transferred her interest to the bar in 1978 where she specialised in family law and de facto relationships.

She was invited to lecture at the Leo Cussen Institute in 1979/1980 and again in 1985/1986 and was a member of the Family Law section of the Law Council of Australia in 1985.

In 1989/90 Justice Carter was the secretary of the Victorian Family Law Bar Association.

While practicing in WA in the early 1990s, Justice Carter was appointed deputy registrar and magistrate of the Family Court of Western Australia.

Justice Carter said that it is not easy being a judge in the Family Court – apart from the wide range of legal knowledge required the cases are highly emotional and one is rarely able to please both parties.

“When delivering judgments, I often think of the story about Owen Dixon who said that the most important person in the court is the litigant who is going to lose. That person must leave the Court satisfied with the system, satisfied that his counsel and his case had fair treatment and every chance.”

“I may be one of the few judges who have had singing protesters outside this court building and posters about my judgments put up in shops but I have done my best in every case to be mindful of the litigant who is going to lose,” Justice Carter said. “As the cases before the Family Court become more complex, I and the other judges will miss the experience and wisdom that Justice Carter has acquired and has always been willing to share,”

Chief Justice Bryant said.

“The Court wishes Justice Carter a long and happy retirement with her family and thanks her for her contribution over the years.”

Dr Natasha Cica is the founding director of Kapacity.org.

Natasha’s professional experience spans public administration (including as a legal and policy analyst advising Australia’s national parliament), crisis management, corporate law, and the higher education and non-government sectors. She has held policy-focused roles at think tanks and led strategy at start-ups in Australia and Europe – and is an award-winning author, broadcaster and public commentator.

In 2013 Natasha was recognized by the Australian Financial Review and Westpac banking group as one of Australia’s 100 Women of Influence, in the category of innovation. She was an inaugural recipient of a Sidney Myer Creative Fellowship in 2011, rewarding outstanding talent and exceptional courage in the field of thought leadership. She was a selected participant in the Australian Future Directions Forum – a leadership forum sponsored by Telstra, Qantas, BHP Billiton, the National Australia Bank and Australia Post, under the patronage of the Prime Minister of Australia.

Until 2014 Natasha was founding director of the Inglis Clark Centre, which she established in 2011 to advance the University of Tasmania’s engagement agenda.

In Europe, Natasha has provided professional services to the British Council, the Salzburg Global Seminar, the Serbian Investment and Export Promotion Agency (SIEPA) and Serbia’s Commission for the Protection of Equality. She has led and supported a range of capacity-building initiatives in partnership with local entrepreneurs across the business sector and civil society.

In Australia, she has served as a member of the Topic Advisory Panel on Governance Progress for Measures of Australia’s Progress, Australian Bureau of Statistics; as an adviser to Creative Partnerships Australia and the Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce + Industry; as a member of the advisory committee to the Tasmanian Government developing a Tasmanian Cultural Policy; as a member of Tasmania’s Educational Attainment Working Group; as a consultant to the Legislative Amendment Review Reference Committee established by the Tasmanian Government in response to Sharing Responsibility for Our Children, Young People and their Families; as co-founder of the Sandy Duncanson Social Justice Fund; as a member of the management committee of homeless men’s shelter Bethlehem House; as a juror of the Australian Institute of Architects Architecture Awards; as adviser to the Alcorso Foundation fostering cultural exchange between Europe and Australia; as a member of the steering committee of Arts Tasmania’s Design Island Program; and as an advisor to a coalition of Australian arts organisations on their successful campaign against the sedition provisions in the Anti-Terrorism Bill 2005 (Cth).

Natasha is an adjunct professor at the ANU College of Law at the Australian National University, and has been visiting professor at the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Law, and visiting academic at the Alvar Aalto Academy in Helsinki. She was the inaugural Rubin Research Fellow at the School of Public Policy at University College London.

Natasha holds a doctorate in law from the University of Cambridge (as a WM Tapp scholar at Gonville and Caius College), a masters in law and ethics from King’s College London (awarded the Professor Sir Eric Scowen Prize for the best masters candidate), and a BA LLB (Hons) from the Australian National University (awarded the Blackburn Medal for research in law, the Tillyard Prize for the honours student ‘whose personal qualities and contributions to University life have been outstanding’, and a Lionel Murphy Overseas Postgraduate Scholarship). In 2014 she presented the ANU College of Law graduating address as a distinguished alumna.

Gay Clarke (then Walker) was crowned Miss Queensland then Miss Australia in 1972. She went on to study law and was admitted as a Barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1982. She specialised in the area of Alternative Dispute Resolution and was a legal academic at the Queensland University of Technology for 20 years.

Judith Cohen was the first female commissioner of the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission, appointed in 1975.