The Australian Women's Register

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.

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.

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.

Her Honour Patricia (Patsy) Wolfe served as Chief Judge of the District Court of Queensland between 1999 and 2014. She was the first woman to be appointed to the role. In 2014 she received the Order of Australia for her ‘distinguished service to the judiciary, to the law through legal education reform and as a mentor and role model for women’.

Patsy Wolfe came to law as a mature age student and mother, after first pursuing careers in medicine and journalism. She graduated LLB with honours from the University of Queensland in 1978 and was admitted to the Bar the same year. In 1979, she joined the Faculty of Law as a senior tutor and then went on to complete a Masters Degree in 1983. While senior tutor, she met Margaret White and Quentin Bryce and formed supportive and enduring friendships with them both.

Before being appointed to the District Court in 1995, Wolfe served as Deputy Commissioner of the Fitzgerald Inquiry Into Official Corruption (1988-89) and as a part-time Commissioner on the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (1993-95).

She is well remembered for her forthright comments made when she was chair of the Queensland Women’s Consultative Committee in 1992. When challenged as to why Queensland women needed such a committee, when there was no equivalent body for men, her response was direct and uncompromising. Men already had a powerful organisation, she said. ‘It’s called Cabinet, where men outnumber women sixteen to two…That’s why we need council as a direct line to the Premier.’

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.

Justice Mary Finn of the Family Court of Australia is a second-generation woman lawyer (third generation lawyer). Her mother was Clare Foley, Queensland’s fourth woman solicitor, who, in turn, was the daughter of an Ipswich lawyer, Edward Pender. Appointed to the bench of the Family Court in 1990, Justice Finn retired on her seventieth birthday, in July 2016.

Finn’s reputation as a drafter and developer of legislation, established during her career in the Federal Attorney-General’s office, was renowned. Lionel Bowen, federal Attorney-General 1984-1990, described her advice as both ‘practical and accurate’; he was known to ask regularly, when confronted with legislative challenges, ‘What would Mary think?’

Finn is well known for her contribution to the review of the Family Law Act 1975, completed in 1980, and for her contribution to committees established to implement the report’s recommendations. Her public service experience established her credentials as an expert in family law; at the time of her appointment to the bench in 1990 she was regarded as one of Australia’s leading experts on the Family Law Act.

Both of Finn’s children, Wilfred and Eugenie, are fourth generation lawyers, with Eugenie enjoying a special and rare status in Australian law as a third generation woman lawyer.

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.

In 2010, after thirty years at the Queensland Bar, Wendy Pack retired. The third woman barrister in Townsville when she began in 1980, she was the only woman at the Bar in North Queensland. She came to the law as a mature age student and as a mother who had already enjoyed a distinguished teaching degree.

Once established at the bar, Pack carved out a niche in the area of Family Law, where she became a specialist. She was an exemplar for women in the law in North Queensland, especially those who were trying to combine family life with a life at the bar.

In 1990 Grace Kruger became the first woman to be appointed a magistrate in Queensland.

After completing Junior at the Malanda High School in far north Queensland, Grace Kruger commenced employment at the Magistrates Court Office, Ingham, as a Clerk/Typist. She left in 1968 to travel overseas and gained temporary employment in the Premier’s Department in Queensland House, in London. She was appointed to the permanent staff in 1969. Whilst in London, Grace passed the exam enabling her to become a Clerk in the Queensland Public Service.

Kruger returned to Queensland in 1972 and took up a Clerk position in Brisbane. Now eligible to sit for the Clerk of the Courts examination, she was eligible for promotion within the Magistrates Court Service. She was also then eligible to enrol with the Solicitors Board of Queensland. Kruger was admitted as a Solicitor in 1984.

Kruger served in various parts of the State taking promotion as Senior Clerk Mackay, Relieving Clerk of the Court, Clerk of the Court Munduberra/Eidsvold, Clerk of the Court Cloncurry and Clerk of the Court Townsville. In both Cloncurry and Townsville she acted on numerous occasions as a Stipendiary Magistrate.

Kruger was appointed Stipendiary Magistrate, Kingaroy, in March 1990. She retired on 8th August, 1998.

In July 2000, Leanne Clare was appointed the Queensland Director of Public Prosecutions – the first woman to hold this position in Queensland.

Graduating from the Queensland University of Technology in 1984 with a Bachelor of Laws, Clare was admitted as a Barrister of the Supreme Court of Queensland in the following year. She joined the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, in the Justice and Attorney-General’s Department in 1985.

From 1986 to 1989, she was with the Child Abuse Unit and became a Crown Prosecutor in 1988, becoming Senior Crown Prosecutor in 1991. Leanne became a Senior Counsel, Appeals in 1995. She stepped up to act as Director and Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions several times during 1998. During 1999 and 2000, she was an acting member of the District Court in Ipswich.

On the 2nd of April, 2008, she was appointed a judge of the District Court of Queensland.

Clare Foley was the fourth woman to be admitted as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland. The daughter of an Ipswich lawyer, she commenced a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland in 1931. She then began her articles of clerkship with her brother Thomas Joseph in 1933. With her two brothers, Clare established a family legal practice through the Depression and in May 1939 she was admitted as a Solicitor.

Soon after admission, Foley became a partner with her brother in the firm of T.J. Pender & Pender until 1950, the year of her brother, Thomas Joseph’s, sudden death. At that point she decided the practice should be sold, however, encouraged by friends, she carried on until the practice was bought by Mary and Eric Whitehouse in October of 1951.

In 1967, Clare resumed practice at the Toowong firm of Foley & Foley, where she was assisted by her husband and son, Thomas Joseph. Although Clare’s son Thomas took over the firm as partner during the mid 1980s, his tragic death in 1992 forced Clare to return to work to run, then dispose of the practice.

Clare Foley was the first of a family dynasty of women lawyers. Her daughter, Mary, went on to become a Judge of the Family Court of Australia and her grand-daughter, Eugenie was admitted as a New South Wales solicitor in 2016.

Anne Forbes was admitted to the Queensland bar in 1975, being only the nineteenth woman to gain admission. She was a founding member of the Women Lawyers Association of Queensland, and took a special interest in ‘wives ‘n wills’ and arbitration during her time at the bar.

Following her career as an army reservist in the Legal Corps, Anne was appointed Chair of the Anzac Day Trust. In the 1980s she began a career as a broadcaster and feature writer on Radio 4MBS. She still practises law from time to time.

Naida Haxton completed degrees in arts and then law at the University of Queensland. She was admitted to practise in 1966 (the first woman to actively practise at the Queensland Bar) and almost immediately began receiving briefs. Her practice was, to begin with, “commercial work, probate work, bankruptcy and some family law”.

In 1967 she received her first junior brief in the Supreme Court and in 1969, her first brief in the High Court. She read with Cedric Hampson. She also lectured at the University of Queensland in Land Law and Commercial Law, and frequently gave speeches to women’s organisations.

She moved after marriage to Sydney and was admitted to the NSW Bar in early 1972. She read with Murray Tobias and devilled for Bob St John and Jeremy Badgery-Parker and actively practised until the late 1970s.

From 1972 to 1981, Naida was editor of the Papua New Guinea Law Reports. In 1981, she was appointed Assistant Editor of the NSW Law Reports (NSWLR) until 2000 when she was made the Editor.

Naida also lectured at the University of Sydney, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) and for the Bar Association continuing education program.

She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2007 for her services to the legal profession and to the judiciary, particularly as Editor of the NSWLR and as a practitioner and educator.

Haxton Chambers in Brisbane is named in Naida’s honour. She retired from the bar in 2006.

Joan Martin worked in the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor’s Office from 1943 to 1987. She commenced her career as a typist and became a Legal Officer, rising to the position of Principal Legal Officer.

In 1943 when Joan joined the newly opened Crown Solicitor’s Office in Brisbane, Una Prentice and Mollie Whitehouse were Legal Officers.

Following the end of the War, she saw many women give up their jobs as men returned from the War. Joan became head typist but by 1960 was concerned at the prospect of spending her life behind a typewriter. In 1960, she completed the adult matriculation course and in 1961 she enrolled as a part-time law student at the University of Queensland.

Joan completed her studies in seven years. In December 1967 she was admitted as a barrister and was immediately appointed as a Legal Officer with the Crown Solicitor. Her work primarily involved tax and general recovery work. Joan became a Senior Legal Officer in 1973/4 in charge of the Taxation and General Recovery Section. She was appointed a Principal Legal Officer in 1985, in charge of the expanded Tax Recovery Section.

Joan remained in the Crown Solicitor’s Office until her retirement in 1987.

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.