The Australian Women's Register

In 1985, Margaret Rizkalla was appointed a magistrate in the state of Victoria, the first woman to be appointed to the position. Changes to the appointment criteria, which introduced a Law Degree as a requirement for new appointments in the Victorian Magistrates Act, rather than a progression from the rank of Clerks of Courts, enabled this appointment. Rizkalla graduated with a law degree from the University of Melbourne in 1975 and completed the Leo Cussen Legal Education course as an alternative to completing articles in 1976. She was admitted to practice as a solicitor and barrister in Victoria in 1976.

Rizkalla practised at the Victorian Bar until December 1984, when she was appointed a Member of the Small Claims and Residential Tenancy Tribunal of Victoria. Her appointment to the magistracy occurred in September 1985.

Whilst a sitting magistrate, Rizkalla was also appointed Chair of the Police Disciplinary Board of Victoria. In June 1988, she was appointed President of the Victorian Equal Opportunity Board and Deputy President of the Victorian Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

In June 1994, Rizkalla was appointed a Judge of the County Court of Victoria. She retired from this position in February 2013.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Margaret Rizkalla for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Catherine Ann ‘Kate’ Warner AM is an Australian lawyer, legal academic, and the current (2015) Governor of Tasmania. She was sworn in as Tasmania’s twentieth-eighth Governor at Government House on Wednesday 10 December 2014.

In 2017, Kate Warner was made a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia ‘for eminent service to the people of Tasmania through leading contributions to the legal community, particularly to law reform, to higher education as an academic, researcher and publisher, and as a supporter of the arts, and environmental and social justice initiatives’.

Born and raised in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Gabrielle Upton is a Liberal party Member of the House of Assembly, for the seat of Vaucluse, in the Parliament of New South Wales. On 2 April 2015, she was appointed as Attorney General for New South Wales, having previously held the position of Minister for Family and Community Services between 23 April 2014 until 2 April 2015. Prior to that she served as Minister for Sport and Recreation from August 2013 until April 2014 and Parliamentary Secretary for Tertiary Education and Skills, from May 2011 until August 2013. She was first elected to parliament in 2011.

Roslyn Gay Atkinson AO is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland, having been appointed to that position in 1998. In 2002 she also became the Chairperson of the Queensland Law Reform Commission, and served in that role until her retirement in 2013.

Barbara Hocking graduated in Arts/Law at Melbourne University in 1962 and quickly demonstrated her life-long commitment to social justice issues, particularly Indigenous land rights. She completed her LL M degree at Monash University in 1970 focusing on this topic. Barbara was admitted to practice in Victoria in November 1975 and in the ACT in December 1975. She signed the Victorian Bar Roll in March 1976 and read with Leonard Ostrowski, later QC and a Judge of the County Court.

In 1982 Barbara Hocking became the first barrister briefed in the Mabo case which would finally right the legal fiction of ‘terra nullius’ and recognise native title in common law. She was a long-standing and active member of the Australian Labor Party and maintained her political commitments until her death. In 1986 Barbara became a Senior Member of the Commonwealth Veterans Review Tribunal and Chairperson of the Medicare Participation Review Committee, and in 2004 she was appointed to the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Barbara Ann Hocking and Jenny Hocking about their mother for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Kate Eastman has practised as a barrister in Sydney since 1998. She practises in the areas of human rights, discrimination, employment and public law. Previously, she worked as a solicitor at Allen Allen & Hemsley and as a senior legal officer at the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. She holds a BA/LLB (UNSW), LLM (UCL London), LLM (UTS) and a Diploma of International Human Rights Law (EUI Italy).

Kate Eastman has been actively involved in a number of human rights and international law organisations. She was a co-founder and president of Australian Lawyers for Human Rights. She has taught human rights/civil liberties and international law at the University of Technology (Sydney) and the University of Sydney, as well as a number of international programs.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Kate Eastman for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Dr Beth Wilson AM is a former senior public servant who retired in December 2012 after serving as Victoria’s Health Services Commissioner for 15 years (1997-2012). In this role, Dr Wilson managed complaints made against health service providers.

After graduating from Monash University (BA 1975, LLB 1977), Dr Wilson worked in administrative law with a particular interest in medico-legal and ethical issues.

Prior to her role as Health Services Commissioner Dr Wilson was president of the Mental Health Review Board, a senior legal member of the Social Security Appeals Board and legal member of the WorkCare Appeals Board. She has also held various positions with the Australian and New Zealand Association of Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, the Law Reform Commission, the Victoria Law Foundation and Telecom (now Telstra).

In 2001 Monash University acknowledged Dr Wilson by presenting her with a Distinguished Alumni Award. The award celebrated her contribution to research, public administration and ethical practice in the areas of law and health.

In 2003 Dr Wilson was recognised for her services to health with a Centenary Medal.

She received an Honorary Doctorate in 2004 from RMIT for her contributions to health education.

In 2008 Dr Wilson was named on the 2008 Victorian Women’s Honour Roll.

On Australia Day 2013 she received a Member of the Order of Australia ‘for significant service to the community of Victoria through the provision of dispute resolution in the area of health services’.

Carolyn Evans was born in 1970. She grew up in the outer suburb of Greensborough with father Terry, a printer, and mother Tess (then a primary school teacher, in more recent years a novelist) and younger brothers Tim and Julian. She attended St Mary’s Primary School Greensborough and Catholic Ladies’ College Eltham. At secondary school, she was particularly involved in public speaking competitions competing in several national and state level competitions.

She commenced at Melbourne University in 1989 and graduated with an LLB (hons) and BA. While at university, Evans was involved in debating and was Vice-President of the Melbourne University Debating Society. She participated in a wide range of mooting competitions, winning the Australasian Law Students Society Mooting Competition (at which she was also awarded Best Speaker), coming runner up in the International Final of the Jessup Mooting Competition (including winning best speaker in the international final), and winning the Governor-General’s Mooting Competition.

After graduating, Evans commenced Articles at Blake Dawson Waldron (as it then was) in 1994 and was admitted to practice in the following year. She worked across Banking and Finance, Property and Government law as an articled clerk and then solicitor in 1994-95.

Evans was awarded the Rhodes Scholarship for Victoria for 1995 and read for a DPhil in Law at Exeter College, Oxford. Her doctoral work on religious freedom was published as ‘Religious Freedom Under the European Convention on Human Rights’ by Oxford University Press in 2001. During her time at Oxford, Evans was appointed to a Stipendiary Lectureship in Law at Exeter College for two years.

In 2000, Evans returned to Australia and took up sessional work at Melbourne Law School where she was later appointed to a Senior Lectureship. She was promoted to Professor at age thirty-eight on the basis of her internationally recognized expertise in human rights law, particularly religious freedom and institutional protections of human rights. She was shortlisted by the United Nations for the position of Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2010. In the same year, Evans was awarded a Fulbright Senior Scholarship to allow her to travel as a Visiting Fellow at American and Emory Universities to examine questions of comparative religious freedom.

Evans is the author of ‘Religious Freedom under the European Court of Human Rights’ (OUP 2001) and ‘The Legal Protection of Religious Freedom in Australia’ (Federation Press: 2012). She is co-author of ‘Australian Bills of Rights: The Law of the Victorian Charter and the ACT Human Rights Act’ (LexisNexis 2008). She is co-editor of ‘Religion and International Law’ (1999, Kluwer); ‘Mixed Blessings: Laws, Religions and Women’s Rights in the Asia-Pacific Region’ (2006 Martinus Nijhoff) and ‘Law and Religion in Historical and Theoretical Perspective’ (CUP 2008). She is an internationally recognised expert on religious freedom and the relationship between law and religion and has spoken on these topics in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, China, Greece, Vietnam, India, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Malaysia, Nepal and Australia.

In 2011, Evans was appointed as the first female Dean of Melbourne Law School at the University of Melbourne. Prior to this she had held administrative roles including Associate Dean Research and Deputy Director, Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies. During her time as Dean, she has overseen the final years of the LLB and the growth of the Juris Doctor program. She led the development of a clinical and experiential set of subjects through the Public Interest Law Initiative and oversaw a major Campaign that raised millions of dollars for the Law School, including a funded chair in Human Rights.

Evans is married to Dr Stephen Donaghue Q.C. and they have two children, Caitlin and Michael Donaghue-Evans.

Catherine Ena “Cate” Holmes, AC, assumed the office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Queensland on 11 September 2015.She holds the degrees of B.Econ (ANU), B.A. (Hons), LLB, LLM (Advanced) (UQ).

Holmes was admitted as a solicitor in 1982 and as a barrister in 1984, taking silk in 1999. While in practice, Justice Holmes was at various times a part time member of the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal, Deputy President of the Queensland Community Corrections Board and, during 1998 and 1999, Counsel assisting the Forde Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse. Her Honour was appointed to the Supreme Court of Queensland in March 2000. She was the judge overseeing the Court’s criminal list for some years, and was the judge constituting the Mental Health Court from February 2005 until May 2006, when she was appointed to the Court of Appeal. From 16 January 2011 until 16 March 2012, Justice Holmes was the Commissioner of the Commission of Inquiry into the Queensland Floods 2010-2011.

Justice Holmes AC was made a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia on Australia Day in 2020, for eminent service to the judiciary, notably to criminal, administrative, and mental health law, and to the community of Queensland. She was a founding member of the Queensland Women’s Legal Service in 1984.

Catherine Ordway is a highly respected sports lawyer, sports administrator, lecturer and consultant. In recognition of her strong reputation for regulatory review in the international sport integrity field, Catherine has recently been awarded an academic appointment at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Victoria as Professor of Practice (Sports Management). As well as her academic appointment, Catherine holds a position as Special Counsel at Snedden Hall & Gallop (SHG Sport) in Canberra.

Ordway’s expertise in assisting organisations to strengthen integrity in sport programs has led to her consultancy services being highly sought after by National Anti-Doping Organisations and countries bidding to host Summer or Winter Olympic Games. She is regularly requested to present at conferences and seminars, and to comment in the media on sports law, gender equity and integrity issues.

In 1987 Deborah Bennett-Borlase became the first woman appointed as a Magistrate to the Perth Courts of Petty Sessions in Western Australia

Debra Mullins is a Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, a Trustee of the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation and the Chancellor of the Anglican Diocese of Brisbane. She is the patron of Justice and the Law Society based at the University of Queensland and a member of the Visiting Committee of the Griffith Law School. She is also extensively involved in judicial education through her work with the National Judicial College of Australia.

When Elizabeth Bolton was appointed South Australian Chief Magistrate in 2007, she became the first woman to head a court jurisdiction in the history of South Australia.

After completing a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) majoring in English Literature and then a Master of Arts degree at the University of Adelaide, Elizabeth Bolton subsequently completed a Law degree at the same university before commencing practice as a lawyer in 1985.

After periods as a prosecutor firstly with the state Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and then with the Commonwealth DPP, she was appointed as a magistrate in December 1999. She began with two years sitting in Elizabeth, where she also went on circuit to Tanunda, Clare, Peterborough and Berri. In 2004 she was appointed the regional manager at the Christies Beach Magistrates Court.

She became Chief Magistrate in 2007. This role was changed by legislation to be both Chief Magistrate and a Judge of the S.A. District Court in July 2013.

Chief Magistrate Elizabeth Bolton resigned from the position in July 2015 due to ill health.

Elizabeth Shaw is a qualified company director and holds degrees in arts and law as well as a Masters of Public Policy. She currently (2015) serves as the President of UN Women Australia, Deputy Chair of Global Voices, and as a Director of Inclusion WA. She has been recognised with an Australian Leadership Award from the Australian Davos Connection, and a West Australian of the Year Award.

Genevieve Bolton was born in Bendigo Victoria but spent most of her childhood growing up in Brisbane. After graduating from Mount Saint Michael’s College in Ashgrove, Brisbane she undertook her Bachelor of Law Degree at the Queensland University of Technology graduating in 1994.

She then spent a year in Melbourne undertaking a social justice volunteer placement run by the Jesuits and Sisters of Mercy where she was placed with the then Refugee and Advice Casework Service now Refugee and Immigration Legal Centre (RILC). In that role, she provided legal assistance to onshore asylum seekers and people seeking to sponsor relatives from refugee situations abroad.

She quickly learnt that she wanted to pursue a career in the community legal sector. In 1995, she completed her legal practical training at the Leo Cussen Institute in Melbourne and was admitted as a Solicitor and Barrister in Victoria and obtained her first paid legal job with then the Victorian Immigration Advice and Rights Centre now known as RILC. Genevieve has also been admitted as a Solicitor in Queensland and the ACT and is on the High Court roll.

Genevieve Bolton is currently (2015) the Co-ordinator/Principal Solicitor at Canberra Community Law which provides free legal services to disadvantaged and vulnerable people.

Dr Helen Durham is a leading international lawyer, focusing on international humanitarian law (IHL or the laws of war). With a passion for the protections afforded to civilians during times of armed conflict (in particular women) Helen has had a long term career with the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. In 2014 she was appointed as the Director of International Law and Policy for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) headquarters in Geneva Switzerland and is the first woman to occupy this role in the institution’s 150 year history.

In 2017, Helen Durham was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia ‘for distinguished service to international relations in the area of humanitarian and criminal law, to the protection of women during times of armed conflict, and to legal education’.

Helen Gay Murrell was sworn in as the Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Supreme Court on 28 October 2013, thus becoming the ACT’s first female Supreme Court Chief Justice.

Murrell was first enrolled as a solicitor in 1977, working in the then Commonwealth Crown Solicitor’s Office and the New South Wales (NSW) Legal Aid Commission. She was called to the NSW Bar in 1981, appointed silk in 1995, and has practised across criminal law, administrative law, environmental law, common law and equity.

In 1996, Judge Murrell was appointed a NSW District Court Judge in 1996. She is former president of the NSW Equal Opportunity Tribunal and set up the first NSW Drug Court in 1998

Jane Macdonnell is a lawyer with extensive experience in public sector administration. She grew up in North Queensland and is a graduate of the James Cook University and of the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

Macdonnell’s public sector career commenced as a graduate clerk with the Department of Defence in 1975 and thereafter she advanced to senior managerial positions in internal audit, corporate services, disability services and aged care programs in the then Departments of Social Security; Community Services; Community Services and Health. She was the first woman appointed to many of those positions.

Macdonnell was admitted to practise as a barrister in 1987 and was the recipient of the James Archibald Douglas prize for the outstanding reader of her Bar Practice Course. Having accepted an offer of employment with Henderson Trout, she was admitted as a solicitor in 1989. In 1990, she became the first head of the Queensland Office of State Revenue and served in that role for five years. She subsequently served as a General Manger of Victoria Legal Aid before returning to Queensland in 1998 as Director-General of the Department of Justice and Attorney-General.

In 2000, Macdonnell was named the Outstanding Alumni for Law by QUT. At the end of 2000, she returned to Victoria as a partner with Clayton Utz before joining the Victorian Bar in 2003 where she continued to practise public law. In 2010, Macdonnell was appointed the Principal Member of the Social Security Appeals Tribunal (SSAT) and served in that role until the SSAT amalgamated with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on 1 July 2015.

Judy Hogg has had a lifelong concern for the socially disadvantaged leading to her interest in law and political reform, and her involvement in the women’s movement in Victoria where she was a founding Member of the Kew Women’s Liberation Group. She returned to university after having children and was fortunate to graduate from Law School as the Family Law Act came into operation in 1976. As she had written a thesis on this legislation, she was placed in a strong position for entering the work force in that jurisdiction.

After working for several law firms, both large and small, and for Legal Aid, Hogg started her own firm in 1985. She invited her friend Janet Reid to join her and they formed Hogg and Reid (which amalgamated as Carew Counsel incorporating Hogg and Reid in 2013). The prime focus was Family Law which was dealt with in a non-sexist manner. Her philosophy was to ensure that the law was available to redress imbalances of power.

Hogg has always contributed beyond her professional role, and has served in a voluntary capacity on many committees and boards of management, including those of

• Fitzroy Legal Service
• Parents anonymous
• Twin Care
• Domestic Violence Committee, Rotary

Go to ‘Details’ below to read an essay written by Judy Hogg for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Justice Julie Dick is a judge of the District Court of Queensland, having been appointed to the bench in 2000. She has also served as an acting Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. She served as president of the Queensland Children’s Court 2007 – 2011, having been appointed a judge of that court in 2001.

Judge Dick was an articled clerk between 1973 and 1975. She was admitted to the bar in December 1975 and appointed Senior Counsel in November 1997. She had an extensive practice in criminal law, appearing in nearly fifty murder trials and many other high profile criminal matters.

Judge Dick was a member of the Law Reform Commission (Criminal Law Subdivision), a member of the Committee of the Queensland Bar Association and a member of the committee overseeing the 1997 Review of the Criminal Code. She was the inaugural Parliamentary Criminal Justice Commissioner between 1998 and December 2000 when she was appointed a District Court Judge. She was the President of the Children’s Court of Queensland from 2007 to 2011, Acting Supreme Court Judge in 2011 and a member of the Higher Courts Benchbook Committee since 2000.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read an essay written by Helen Moye about Julie Dick for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Born in Brisbane, Kate Auty was educated, and has worked, all over Australia. The former Victorian Commissioner for Environmental Sustainability, she is now an academic who continues to work as a barrister.

Auty was the inaugural Koori Court magistrate (Victoria) and Aboriginal sentencing court magistrate in the goldfields and western desert (WA). She has been a Mining Warden (WA). She was also a senior solicitor for the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody (Vic, Tas., WA).

Other diverse roles have involved developing justice e-technology in remote and regional settings, and chairing the Ministerial Council on Climate Change Adaptation (Victoria). Auty’s board memberships extend to having chaired the National Rural Law and Justice Alliance. She presently chairs the Boards of NeCTAR, the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute at the University of Melbourne and a La Trobe Research Focus Area. She is a member of the advisory boards of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority Advisory Committee on Social, Economic and Environmental Sciences, the University of Melbourne Community and Industry Board for the Office of Environmental Programs and the Australian Urban Research Infrastructure Network.

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Kate Auty for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Margaret Battye was the only child of Nellie May (née Robertson) and Charles Battye, a librarian. She graduated from the University of Western Australia (LL.B., 1931; B.A., 1933) and was admitted to the Bar in 1933. In June of 1933 she reputedly became the first woman to represent a client in a Western Australian court of law, and in so doing, according to the presiding magistrate, ‘created legal history’ by being the first woman to appear before him as a barrister. She won the case. From 1936 she practised on her own as a barrister and solicitor, and from 1939 worked for the Council for Civil Liberties.

Battye was active in several Western Australian women’s organisations, including the local branch of the Australian Federation of University Women, the Women’s Services Guilds, the Perth Business and Professional Women’s Club, the Karrakatta and the Soroptimist Clubs. She acted as honorary legal adviser to almost all the women’s organisations in Perth during the 1930s and 40s. She was also active in the Liberal Party of Australia’s Western Australian division and was given responsibility for the foundation of the State women’s committee. She chaired a national committee for the United Nations’ commission into the status of women

She became ill with Grave’s disease and passed away in 1949.

Elizabeth Hart was the second woman to be admitted a solicitor in Queensland and went on to enjoy a career that spanned five decades. She was a partner for thirty-four years and then a senior partner for twenty-one at the major Brisbane firm, Flower and Hart.

The Honourable Justice Annabelle Bennett AO was appointed a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia in 2003. She is also an additional judge of the Supreme Court of the ACT. Prior to joining the bench of the Federal Court, she was a barrister and then Senior Counsel specialising in intellectual property law. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 2005. In July 2011 her Honour was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of the University by the ANU.

Justice Bennett completed her BSc (Hons) and PhD in Biochemistry (the latter in the Faculty of Vet Science) at Sydney University and later obtained her law degree at the University of New South Wales. Her interest in biological sciences has led to membership of the Genetic Manipulation Advisory Committee, the Biotechnology Task Force, the Pharmacy Board of New South Wales and the Eastern Sydney Area Health Service. She is a member of several other boards and tribunals.

Ariel Couchman is a lawyer and women’s rights activist who works in the not for profit sector. She is (2015) the director of the Young People’s Legal Rights Centre (Youthlaw).

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Ariel Couchman for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.

Elected a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, Audette Exel is a founder of the Adara Group, established in 1998, and Chief Executive Officer of its Australian private placement and corporate advisory business, Adara Advisors. A qualified lawyer, she has used her knowledge of corporate law to establish not for profit businesses that help to generate wealth for women and children in developing nations.

Her business success has seen her recognised with multiple awards over the years. She was the recipient of the Economic Justice and Community Impact Award from the Young Presidents Organisation Social Enterprise Networks in 2010. In 2012, Exel won the Telstra 2012 NSW Commonwealth Bank Business Owner Award, and she was the winner of the 2012 NSW Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award. She was also one of The Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence in Australia in 2012. In 2013, Exel was awarded an honorary Order of Australia for ‘service to humanity through the establishment of the Adara Group to provide specialist care to women and children in Uganda and Nepal’ and was recognised by Forbes as a ‘Hero of Philanthropy’ in 2014.

The Victorian Ombudsman, Deborah Glass, left Monash University Law School in the early 1980s, never imagining that thirty years later she would be honoured with an OBE for her services to law and order. A law graduate who hasn’t practised since 1984, with the benefit of hindsight she nevertheless saw the legal training she received as a valuable foundation for supporting the various twists and turns her career has taken over the last thirty years.

After graduating in 1982, Deborah Glass began her professional career as a lawyer based in Melbourne, but relocated to Switzerland to work for Citicorp, a US Investment Bank. She then transferred into the financial regulation sector, pursuing a career with the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. Returning to Europe, she was appointed Chief Executive of the Investment Management Regulatory Organisation in 1998. Under her stewardship it was successfully subsumed into the London based Financial Services Authority. She also worked as an Independent custody visitor, someone who visits people who are detained in police stations in the United Kingdom to ensure that they are being treated properly, between 1999 and 2005.

Between 2001 and 2004 she was a member of the Police Complaints Authority, and it was from here that she was appointed to the Independent Police Complaints Commission in London. At the IPCC she was responsible, among other things, for many high profile criminal and misconduct investigations and decisions involving the police. These included decisions in relation to the police response to the phone-hacking affair and the decision to launch an independent investigation into the aftermath of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster.

She was awarded an OBE for services to the IPCC in 2012. She left the IPCC in March 2014, having completed a ten year term with the organization and returned to Melbourne to take up the position of Victorian Ombudsman. She is the first woman to ever hold the position

Go to ‘Details’ below to read a reflective essay written by Deborah Glass for the Trailblazing Women and the Law Project.