The Australian Women's Register

Nora Dixon was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in the 1960s.

Janet Coombs had the longest-running practice of any woman at the NSW Bar (until her retirement), specialising initially in petty sessions. The Women Lawyers Association of New South Wales annual lunch for new women barristers is named in her honour.

Her Honour Carolyn Douglas was appointed to the County Court in 1997.

Barbara Cotterell was a Magistrate in the Victorian Magistrates Court for eighteen years before her appointment as an Acting Judge of the County Court in 2008.

Vivien Edwards was appointed a Magistrate of Western Australia in July 2003. Ms Edwards was admitted to practice in 1979, working for 12 years in the Crown Law Department where in 1981 she became the State’s first female prosecutor and rose to the rank of Senior Assistant Crown Solicitor. In 1990 she moved into private practice in Albany, ultimately establishing her own successful law firm. Prior to her appointment as a Magistrate, she was a senior partner in the law firm Edwards Lewington, which has offices in both Albany and Denmark.

Suzan Cox QC has been the Director of the Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission since 2002.
First admitted to practice in 1979 Suzan has practised
predominantly in criminal law. Suzan is also a University Fellow at Charles Darwin University.

Admitted as a barrister and solicitor in 1999, Susan Fahey moved from private practice family law to the Women’s Legal Service Tasmania (WLS) in 2002. In managing the service since 2007, Susan is an employer and mentor who encourages the notion that lawyers don’t just work within the confines of the law but also have the power to use the law for everyone’s benefit. Providing a free government-funded community legal service throughout Tasmania, WLS conducts community education workshops and brochures, working to make the legal system more accessible and responsive to issues affecting women. CEO and principal solicitor Susan says WLS produced the award-winning www.girlsgottaknow.com.au the largest legal information site/app in Australia. In 2014 Susan won the Tasmanian Women Lawyers Biennial Achievement Award for outstanding contribution to the practice, development and education of law and social justice.

Susan Maree Crennan AC was appointed to the High Court of Australia in November 2005. At the time of her appointment she was a judge of the Federal Court of Australia, having been appointed to that office in February 2004. She was educated at the University of Melbourne (BA and PostgradDipHist) and the University of Sydney (LLB). Justice Crennan AC was admitted to the New South Wales Bar in 1979 and joined the Victorian Bar in 1980. She was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1989. Justice Crennan AC was President of the Australian Bar Association 1994-95, Chairman of the Victorian Bar Council in 1993-94, and a Commissioner for Human Rights in 1992. Justice Crennan AC was appointed a Companion in the General Division of the Order of Australia in 2008.

Ms Nicole Feely was appointed as Australian Capital Territory Health Director-General in 2015. Ms Feely is the former lead partner for Health at KPMG Canberra and former Chief Executive of South Metropolitan Health (Western Australia) and St Vincent’s Health (Victoria).

She has a proven track-record of running efficient, effective health services in both Western Australia and Victoria.

Ms Feely’s record as a senior leader in the health sector is outstanding.

As well as a strong background in delivering health services on a large scale, Ms Feely has also proven herself in other sectors; including as a General Manager for the Sydney Organising Committee for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games; as Chief Executive of the Victorian Employers’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry; and as Chief of Staff to former Australian Prime Minister, the Honourable John Howard OM AC.

Robin Creyke is an Emeritus Professor at the Australian National University. She taught and researched in the ANU College of Law between 1973 and 2015.

While on leave between 2009-14, Robin was a full-time Senior Member of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Previously Robin was a Co-Director of the ANU College of Law’s military law program and she is co-author of Veterans’ Entitlements and Military Compensation Law in Australia (3rd edn, The Federation Press, 2015).

Robin has been the Integrity Adviser to the Australian Tax Office (2006-09); a member of the Administrative Review Council (1999-2009); and is member of the Law Council of Australia’s Administrative Law Committee (2012- ).

Lawyer Anna Crotty attended night classes and graduated from the University of Tasmania with an Arts/Law Degree in 1979. She then entered an industrial relations career. Anna’s trade union experience paved the way for her work on equal rights and equality for women in the workforce, with many of her cases setting a precedent for workers’ rights and entitlements. The cases covered equal rights, discrimination, equal pay for equal work, class sizes, education policies, and the national registration of teachers.

Anna represented the Tasmanian Trades and Labour Council in drafting and implementing far reaching changes to the Tasmanian Public Service, which culminated in the establishment of the State Service Act 2000, Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 1988
and Industrial Relations Act 1984.

In 2002, Anna assisted with setting up Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commission and administering the Anti-Discrimination Act 1998 ( Tas).

Since 1994, Anna has operated a legal practice specialising in human rights. Some of her cases have been high-profile and ground-breaking and have led to the establishment of new law.

After the devastating Pakistan earthquakes in 2005, Anna and some friends founded the charity, Tents4Peace. The charity has provided emergency shelter and necessities for children in war-torn and natural disaster areas around the world and established a 250 person orphanage in Kabul, Afghanistan. To date,
Tents4Peace has provided shelter for over 10 000 children and their families.

A dedicated environmentalist, Anna has overseen Wilderness Society campaigns such as the Wesley Vale
Pulp Mill, Farmhouse Creek and Picton protest. She has also coordinated the Great Forest Walk.

Anna has received the following awards: the Pride of Australia Medal 2008; the ABC My Favourite Australian Unsung Hero 2008; Pride of Place National Portrait Gallery Canberra; Human Rights Medal 2010 for Tasmania and is the Tasmanian Senior Australian of the Year for 2013.

Alice Cummins studied law at the University of Adelaide (LL.B., 1928). Admitted to the bar in South Australia (1928) and Western Australia (1930) she never practised. She was a businesswoman and brewer in Kalgoorlie. Death notices also stated that she was the first woman in Australia to take out a wireless transmitter’s license.

Margaret Cunneen is the Deputy Senior Crown Prosecutor in New South Wales and has held a commission as a Crown Prosecutor since 1990. She came to prominence when she prosecuted a series of highly publicised pedophiles and several notable gang rape and murder trials. Cunneen worked as a legal clerk while studying for her Bachelor of Laws (1982) at what was then the NSW Institute of Technology (NSWIT), part of the first cohort of students in the Faculty of Law. Cunnen then took a position with the New South Wales Attorney General’s Department. A post with the Public Service Board’s Legal Branch followed, before joining the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, heading up their Child Sexual Assault Unit until her appointment as Crown Prosecutor. She took silk, appointed Senior Counsel in 2007.

The Hon Elizabeth Curtain graduated from the University of Melbourne with a Bachelor of Laws. Her Honour completed articles with Cole and O’Heare and came to the Bar in October 1978 and read with Ms Lynne Opas QC (later Judge Schiftan of the County Court.) From 1985 to 1987 her Honour was appointed to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and was also a Member of the Motor Accidents Tribunal. Her Honour was appointed a Prosecutor for the Queen for the State of Victoria from 1987 to 1993 when she was appointed to the County Court. Her Honour also taught advocacy in the Bar’s 1999 Trial Advocacy Workshop in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the 2005 Advocacy Course, Port Moresby. The Hon Elizabeth Curtain was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2006. The Hon Elizabeth Curtain retired in May 2014. In 2016 her Honour became the Judge in Residence at the University of Melbourne Law School. The retired judge has fond memories of her time as a Melbourne Law School student. She graduated in 1975, which was also International Women’s Year. To mark International Women’s Year, the Law School selected her to be the first female graduand to deliver the valedictory speech. Her Honour recalls this moment as one of her personal highlights. As well as serving the Court, The Hon Elizabeth Curtain has sat on many committees and served the community in a variety of roles. These included Chairman of the Adult Parole Board, Alternative Chairman of the Youth Parole Board and the Youth Residential Board, and the Deputy Chairman of the Victorian Racing Appeals Tribunal. Her Honour was also a member of the Victorian Criminal Trials, Charge Book Committee, and Governing Council Member of the Judicial Conference of Australia. Outside the law she was also Director of Jesuit Social Services Limited, which conducts a range of diverse community social service programs providing assistance to those in need. She also was a founding member of the Essendon Football Club Women’s Network.

In 2017, Elizabeth Curtain was made a Member in the General Division of the Order of Australia ‘for significant service to the law, and to the judiciary, in Victoria, to medico-legal and professional groups, and to the community’.

Anne Curtis was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1962.

Jean Hazel Dalton was born on 3 December 1964 in Brisbane. She attended Nanango and Kingaroy State High Schools and graduated Bachelor of Arts at the University of Queensland (1984) and Bachelor of Laws with first class honours and the University Medal in Law (1986). After graduating, she worked as associate to Derrington J of the Supreme Court of Queensland in 1987. She then worked for two further years at the Brisbane firm of Morris Fletcher & Cross (now Minters).

In 1989 Dalton was admitted as a barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland, and commenced practice at the bar in Brisbane. She took silk on 9 November 2004. Dalton served as a part-time member (2002-04) then as president (2005-07) of the Anti-Discrimination Tribunal. She also served as a part-time member of the Land Court and of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Tribunal (2004-11). She was a member of the Bar Council of the Bar Association of Queensland (2003-05) and the Legal Practitioner Admissions Board (2004-06).

Dalton was featured in ‘A Woman’s Place: 100 years of Queensland Women Lawyers’, published by the Supreme Court Library Queensland in 2005.

On 25 February 2011, Dalton was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland.

Fay Daly signed the Victorian Bar Roll in 1970 and Eva Selig was her pupil. She was a stenographer before coming to the bar.

Born and educated in Perth, Justice Deane graduated in law from the University of WA in 1976 and went on to complete a postgraduate degree in Social Work, also at the University of WA.

Justice Deane was admitted to practise as a barrister and solicitor in February, 1980 and worked within the Crown Law Department, carrying out a wide variety of work over many jurisdictions. She frequently appeared as counsel, particularly in criminal matters, and in 1992 became a founding member of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. Since then she has gained extensive criminal law experience, having the carriage of many high profile prosecutions. Justice Deane has also appeared in a number of important appeals, including appearances in the High Court of Australia.

Justice Deane was appointed a Queen’s Counsel in 1996.

She has been both chairperson and a member of the Board of Management of Centrecare Marriage and Family Service (Western Australia). Justice Deane was appointed to the District Court of Western Australia in February 1998. She was the first woman Queen’s Counsel to be appointed to the District Court. Justice Deane retired from the District Court in 2014.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Her Honour Judge Susan Cohen was appointed to the County Court of Victoria in August 2001. Judge Cohen comes from a strong legal background. Her father, the late Senator Sam Cohen QC, was a barrister. Her mother, the Honourable Judith Cohen, was a Federal Court judge. Judge Susan Cohen is the first woman in Australia to follow her mother as a judge. During her 20 years at the Bar, Judge Cohen was a founding committee member of the Women Barristers’ Association.

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.