Today marks the beginning of the Gageler High Court with the swearing in this morning of Justice Stephen Gageler AC as the fourteenth Chief Justice of Australia.

Justice Gageler ascends to the highest judicial office in the nation after a remarkable career as an advocate and jurist. His Honour became Solicitor General for four years before his appointment to the High Court bench on 9 October 2012.

An Associate to Chief Justice Sir Anthony Mason, Chief Justice Gageler studied at the Australian National University and Harvard University.

Law Society Councillor and Co-Chair of our Family Law and Professional Conduct Committees Jacqui Dawson represented the solicitors of NSW at the High Court for this historic moment in Australia’s legal history.

I was honoured to attend this afternoon’s swearing-in ceremony for the High Court’s newest puisne judge, the former Chief Judge at Common Law in NSW, Justice Robert Beech-Jones.

Justice Beech-Jones was educated at the Australian National University and was sworn onto the bench of the Supreme Court of NSW six months before Chief Justice Gageler took his High Court judicial robes.

Their Honours are superbly equipped to discharge their important duties in the High Court. In congratulating them both on behalf of the membership of the Law Society, I again pay tribute to the departing thirteenth Chief Justice of Australia Susan Kiefel AC and wish her well in her retirement.

Your Council, at your service

An appointment to the High Court bench is the pinnacle of service to the law in Australia. As your Riley’s says, ‘the true profession of law is based on an ideal of honourable service’, so each of us engage in serving the community each day of our working lives.

Consistent with this ethos, Councillors of your Law Society play a central role in maintaining public confidence in the administration of justice in NSW. This is through their roles as directors of a membership organisation dedicated to supporting solicitors while also exercising regulatory functions as a Council, one of the co-regulators of the profession.

You will remember last week I congratulated Councillors Lauren Absalom and Jennifer Wong on their re-election to Council and Moira Saville on being elected to her first three-year term. I welcomed Olivia Irvine, who’ll represent NSW Young Lawyers on the Council for twelve months.

Councillors give up their valuable time to serve, not only on our governing body, but on Committees of Council, (the Executive Committee and the Audit, Risk and Finance Committee), our Professional Conduct Committee and on one of our other regulatory committees, in many cases, more than one of our Policy and Segment Committees.

I am immensely grateful for their support during this term. I look forward to convening the newly constituted Council later this month to continue our work for the solicitors of NSW.

A new home on the way for Riverbank Frank

You might remember that last week I asked you to consider contributing to the go-fund-me campaign to get Wiradjuri elder Riverbank Frank Doolan to replace his old caravan with a new(er) one to live in.

I was delighted to see the target had been reached. If you were one of the people whose donations enabled that, thank you so much for helping out a man who gives a lot of his time to bring culture to the young people in his community, and through his work at Tracker Network partner, Dubbo’s LeaderLife.

I have been greatly encouraged by members’ contributions to the Tracker Network, my President’s Charity for 2023, both directly here and for Sydney metro members, through a portion of the proceeds of hampers from the Law Society kitchen’s Dining Room Delivers. Order yours by 10am tomorrow for delivery this Friday!

Cassandra Banks, President, Law Society of NSW