The Australian Women's Register

The late Lillian Lieder QC and Betty King QC (later Justice King, Supreme Court of Victoria) joined the Bar in the mid-1970s. In 1992, they were the first women barristers practising in criminal law to take silk.

Dr Heron Loban is a Senior Lecturer at the Griffith law School.

She is a Torres Strait Islander woman with family connections to Mabuiag and Boigu. She is admitted to practice as a solicitor in the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory, Supreme Court of Queensland and of the High Court of Australia. Her research interests are Indigenous legal issues and consumer law.

Her publications include:
“Inequities, Alternatives and Future Directions: Inside Perspectives of Indigenous Sentencing in Queensland”, (2013) Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, Vol. 20(6), pp. 812-823.

Linda Lovett was the first Indigenous woman admitted to the Victorian Bar.

Mary Mangan was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1977.

Lee Marks was admitted to the Victorian Bar in the 1970s.

Victoria is currently the CEO of Trust for Nature (the Victorian Conservation Trust), a position she has held since late 2009. Prior to assuming this role, Victoria was Victoria’s Legal Services Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Services Board. As a lawyer, Victoria specialised in media and communications law and policy and was the Deputy Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman and prior to that the Deputy Director of the Communications Law Centre. Victoria has a background in the arts, having graduated in Drama from the Victorian College of the Arts. She has held various board positions with such organizations as the Arts Centre, the Victorian Women’s Trust and the Melbourne Writers Festival. Victoria was chair of the Circus Oz Board for 14 years and is currently a board member of the Consumer Action Law Centre and a Director of the Australian Advertising Standards Council.

Carmel Marlow was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1972.

Carolyn Martin’s life was one of many firsts. So small and elf-like was the prematurely born Carolyn Hoare, her parents gifted her Elvina as a second name. Such prematurity however, did not impede Carolyn’s intellectual development: aged five, able to read and write fluently and already showing signs of extraordinary intelligence, Carolyn was immediately placed in grade two, having arrived in WA from the UK with her family only shortly before.

In Grade 7, a scholarship brought Carolyn to PLC, where she was a student for the next six years. Always conscientious, and excelling at history, Latin and chemistry, Carolyn later went on to graduate with honors from the University of Western Australia. A Master of Laws at the University of London followed.

Returning to Western Australia, Carolyn was first admitted to practice as a lawyer in 1977. After several years Carolyn joined the WA Family Court as a registrar, the first female appointee to that position.

Other firsts followed. In 1985, Carolyn became the first female stipendiary magistrate, and in 1996, the first female judge of the Family Court of Western Australia. Adoption law called Carolyn, who became the leading authority in Western Australia, if not Australia.

An inveterate traveller, Carolyn notched up visits to 100 countries, many with her mother, as the pair enjoyed exploring different cultures and cuisines on annual overseas trips.

The Hon Justice Carolyn Martin died on 1 October, 2012. A quiet courage and extraordinary concern for others marked out this journey. Her friends remember Carolyn as a person who made the most of every day; a woman whose laughter, vibrancy and zest for life gave her a singular capacity to light up every room she entered.

In April 2016, Ms Urfa Masood, who is of Sri Lankan background, became the first Muslim woman to sit on the bench of any Victorian court.

Ms Masood started practising criminal law in 2003 and has worked for the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service and the Australian Tax Office.

She has worked cases in the Magistrates’, County, Children’s, Family and Federal Courts.

In 2012 she became an adjunct lecturer at the College of Law, where she teaches advocacy.

Patricia Matthews is a special counsel at King & Wood Mallesons in the Dispute Resolution group.

In 2002, Patricia was awarded the Supreme Court prize for her studies in law.

Patricia specialises in commercial litigation, including large contractual disputes and insolvency matters. Patricia has acted for a number of the firm’s key clients to resolve a broad range of commercial disputes. Patricia practises in the Federal and Supreme Courts and has had experience in High Court matters. Patricia was named the winner of the Negocio Resolutions Pro Bono Award 2013.

May Darlington Lahey was the first female Queenslander to practice law. Although her legal career took place overseas, Lahey can lay claim to being Australia’s first female judge.

Joan McIntosh was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1966.

Helen Larcombe was the first woman Stipendiary
Magistrate in New South Wales.

Judge McIntyre graduated from Adelaide University in 1983 with an honours degree in Law. She practised as a barrister and solicitor in private practice across a range of litigious areas. She was a principal in Hartfield McIntyre Miller and was subsequently the managing partner of Sparke Helmore Lawyers in Adelaide. She was appointed to the District Court of South Australia in 2007.

Mary Jane Lawrie was a Judge of the Family Court of Australia.

Cathryn McKenzie was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1974.

Carolyn (Lindy) Frances Jenkins was appointed to the Supreme Court of Western Australia on 2 February, 2004.

Born in April, 1959 in Sydney, NSW, Justice Jenkins graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws from Macquarie University in 1981. She was admitted to practice in New South Wales in 1982, in the Northern Territory (1982), and in Western Australia (1989).

Justice Jenkins was Crown Prosecutor in the Northern Territory from 1982 – 89, including Acting Chief Crown Prosecutor (1988 – 89). She was a Legal Officer, Western Australian Crown Solicitor’s Office from 1989 – 2001, including Deputy Crown Counsel.

She was a member of the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia in 2000 – 2001.

Justice Jenkins was a judge of the District Court of Western Australia from September, 2001 till her appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court.

Elizabeth Johnston was born in Adelaide on 1 October 1920. She was educated at Woodlands Church of England Girls’ Grammar School at Glenelg. During her student days at Adelaide University she was secretary of the Radical Club and on the editorial staff of On Dit. She was the first female secretary of a trade union in South Australia, the partner in the law firm Johnston & Johnston and the chair of South Australia’s first Sex Discrimination Board. She was an activist and member of the Australian Communist Party and was married to Justice Elliott Johnston QC. She died in 2002.

In over thirty years of practice, Ms Kelleher has made legal history through her involvement with test cases in the High Court, Federal Courts, Supreme Courts and one of the last Privy Council cases. She has extensive experience as an environment, planning and local government law specialist.

Ms Kelleher enjoys an international reputation for her work in property restitution in the reunification of East and West Germany and is proficient in the German language. Admitted to practice as a barrister and solicitor in 1975 and qualified as a town planner, Ms Kelleher worked in one of Melbourne’s leading law firms before commencing her own practice. In 1981 she joined the first group of accredited specialists in environment, planning and local government law with the Law Institute of Victoria. In 1988 Ms Kelleher won a Bicentennial Women 88 Award.

In 1990, Ms Kelleher became one of the very few young women ever to be awarded an Order of Australia. In 2013, she completed a PhD examining the impact of regulatory change upon entrepreneurial opportunity, with particular focus on the Native Title Act 1993 and Aboriginal entrepreneurship.

In recognition of her expertise, Ms Kelleher has served on the Council of the Law Institute of Victoria, Heritage Council, Trust for Nature and the Land Valuation Boards of Review. She was also a member of professional associations including the Law Institute of Victoria, Royal Australian Planning Institute, Victorian Environmental and Planning Law Association and the Environmental Institute of Australia as well as being an Accredited Mediator. She is an Honorary Life Member of The Sovereign Hill Museums Association, President of LAMP (Lawyers for the Arabunna Marree People) and Board Member of Sentir, a Jesuit Academic body.

Ms Kelleher balances her successful career with her family responsibilities and takes enormous pride and pleasure in her four children.

Justice Patricia Kelly was a Prosecutor at the South Australian DPP and took silk in 2002. Her Honour was appointed to the District Court of South Australia in 2003 and appointed to the Supreme Court of South Australia in 2007.

Marcelle Allayne Kiddle completed two years of medicine at the University of Melbourne before her career was interrupted by marriage.

After a stint as a dancer, including a contract with the BBC, she enrolled at the London School of Economics (LSE) and graduated LLB (Hons) in 1956. Allayne or “Kiddle” (as she preferred to be known) read for the English Bar and was admitted to the Middle Temple in London, before returning to Melbourne. After signing the Bar Roll in 1959 (the sixth woman to do so), she read with Bill Kaye. She had hoped for a broad practice, but specialised in divorce.

During the 1960s, she returned to LSE to complete a Master of Laws. She appeared with Philip Opas QC at London’s Privy Council during the Ronald Ryan trial in the late 1960s.

Susan Mary Kiefel was appointed to the Court in September 2007. At the time of her appointment she was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Court of Norfolk Island. She served as a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1993-94 before joining the Federal Court. She was admitted to the Queensland Bar in 1975 and was the first woman in Queensland to be appointed Queen’s Counsel, in 1987. Justice Kiefel served as a part-time Commissioner of the Australian Law Reform Commission from 2003 to 2007. She has a Master of Laws degree from Cambridge University. Justice Kiefel was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2011. She was elected a titular member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in June 2013. She was elected an Honorary Bencher of the Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn in November 2014.

On 29 November 2016, Justice Kiefel was appointed Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia. She is the first woman to achieve the position, ending 113 years of men leading the nation’s highest court.

Amy Kilpatrick was the first full-time Executive Director/Principal Solicitor of the Public Interest Law Clearing House in Sydney. She was formerly the Principal Solicitor at Consumer Law Centre in the Australian Capital Territory.

The Honourable Betty King is a former judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria. She joined the Victorian Bar in 1975. In 1986 she became the first female prosecutor in Victoria, later becoming the first female Commonwealth prosecutor. In 1992 she was appointed Queen’s Counsel. During the late 1990s she was a member of the National Crime Authority at one point acting as chair of the Authority. She became a judge of the County Court of Victoria in 2000 and a judge of the Supreme Court of Victoria in 2005 until her retirement in 2015.

Margery King was the third woman in Victoria to sign the Bar Roll, in 1932.

A partner in the law firm Hunt and Hunt, Marea Hickie brought a successful and landmark discrimination case against the law firm. In 1998 in the case of Hickie v Hunt and Hunt, Ms Hickie alleged that the law firm Hunt and Hunt discriminated against her on the ground of sex. Ms Hickie was made a contract partner after being with the firm for seven years. At the time of being made a contract partner she was pregnant. She commenced maternity leave and later returned to work on a part-time basis. A couple of months after her return to work, Hunt and Hunt decided not to renew her contract. She was informed of the decision and on the same day she left the firm. Ms Hickie alleged discrimination in the way she was treated by the firm. The Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission found that there had been “indirect sex discrimination” within the meaning of s5(2) of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). The discrimination occurred because Ms Hickie was required to work full-time as a necessary condition to maintain her position in the firm. This requirement was a condition that disadvantaged or was likely to disadvantage women and it was not reasonable in the circumstances. Ms Hickie was awarded compensation of $95,000. This case was important in establishing precedent in the area of sex discrimination. It typifies the discrimination that women lawyers face as they attempt to balance work life and family responsibilities.

Mary Kingston, known as “Molly”, arrived at the Victorian Bar in 1962, having first practised successfully in Western Australia – where, together with Sheila McClemans, she previously set up WA’s first all-women law firm in the 1930s. Molly specialised in family law and was highly regarded by colleagues and judges alike.