Pamela Tate was born in Dunedin, New Zealand, and graduated from Otago University in 1979 with first class Honours in Philosophy. She received a three-year Commonwealth scholarship from the British Council and undertook postgraduate study in Philosophy under the supervision of Professor Michael Dummett at Oxford University, United Kingdom, graduating with a B.Phil. Pamela returned to New Zealand and taught Philosophy at Otago University before moving to Australia to live. While teaching Philosophy at Monash University, she graduated with a first class Honours degree in Law from Monash University in 1988.

She joined the Victorian Bar in 1991, having served as an associate to Sir Daryl Dawson of the High Court of Australia for two years. At the private Bar she specialized in Constitutional law, Administrative law, and the law of trade practices. She appeared regularly in constitutional law cases before the High Court and in constitutional and public law cases before the Supreme Court. In 1999-2000 she was Convenor of the Women Barristers' Association. She was appointed Senior Counsel in 2002.

She is a judicial representative on the External Professional Advisory Committee of the Faculty of Law of Monash University. She is a member of the Judicial Conference of Australia; the Australian Association of Constitutional Law; the Australian Institute of Administrative Law; the Australian Association of Women Judges; the Australian Institute of Judicial Administration; and the International Commission of Jurists. She is a Fellow of Monash University and the Patron of the Australasian Association of Philosophy.

Sources used to compile this entry: The Honourable Justice Pamela Tate (LLB(Hons) 1988), Monash University, 2016, https://www.monash.edu/alumni/news/awards/fellows/pamela-tate.html; Material provided by Justice Tate June 2015.