We Just Landed Our Very 1st Female High Court Chief Justice & She A BAMF

Australia has just scored itself its first female High Court chief justice – after a whopping 113 years of men dominating the leadership of the nation’s highest court.

The retirement of chief justice Robert French spurred a great deal of speculation in legal circles as to who would be his replacement. Malcolm Turnbull and Attorney General George Brandis have appointed Susan Kiefel to the position, describing her as “an inspiration”:

Susan Kiefel’s story is one that is an inspiration. She left school at 15. She began her working life as a legal secretary. She studied for her completion of high school qualifications part-time. She studied law part-time through the barristers admission board. She was admitted to the bar in 1975. She went on after practising at the bar to win a Master of Laws at the University of Cambridge. She took silk in 1987. The first woman in Queensland to do so. In 1993 she became the first woman to be appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland. She has been one of Australia’s most outstanding judicial officers.

Kiefel was first appointed to the court by John Howard, and described herself as being a “lonely tree in a forest of men” during her years at the Queensland bar. There are now three women sitting on the bench of the High Court.

She is being replaced by Federal Court Justice James Edelman, who is incredibly young – at 42, it’s quite possible he could be sitting on the bar for the next 30 years. Goddamn.
Source: 9 News.
Photo: High Court.

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