A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching the philosophy, hypothesis and history of law, and giving expert legal opinions.
In the United Kingdom and in some Commonwealth countries, a Queen's Counsel during the reign of a queen, or King's Counsel during the reign of a king, is a lawyer who is a senior counsel in court cases; in important cases each side is typically led by one. Technically, they are appointed by the monarch of the country to be one of 'Her [His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law'. The position originated in England. Some Commonwealth countries have either abolished the position, or renamed it so as to remove monarchical connotations, for example, ’Senior Counsel’ or 'Senior Advocate'.
The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received a "call to the bar." "The bar" is now used as a collective noun for barristers, but literally referred to the wooden barrier in old courtrooms, which separated the often crowded public area at the rear from the space near the judges reserved for those having business with the Court. Barristers would sit or stand immediately behind it, facing the judge, and could use it as a table for their briefs.
Anthony Murray Gleeson is an Australian former judge who served as the 11th Chief Justice of Australia, in office from 1998 to 2008.
Keppel Earl "Kep" Enderby QC was an Australian politician and judge. Enderby was a member of the House of Representatives, representing the Australian Labor Party between 1970 and 1975 and became a senior cabinet minister in the Gough Whitlam government. After politics, he was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Sir Frank Walters Kitto,, Australian judge, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia.
Major General Sir William John Victor Windeyer, was an Australian judge, soldier, educator, and a Justice of the High Court of Australia.
Sir Kenneth Sydney Jacobs KBE QC, Australian judge, was a Justice of the High Court of Australia.
Kevin Fredrick O'Leary QC was the second Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory. He was appointed to that position on 12 September 1985 after James Muirhead had acted in the position following the relocation to Perth of the Territory's first Chief Justice William Forster earlier that year.
Gregory Reginald James is a former Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Murray Herbert Tobias, is a judge of the Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the highest court in the State of New South Wales, Australia, which forms part of the Australian court hierarchy.
Peter Wolstenholme Young is a retired Australian judge; serving as a judge for 27 years, retiring in 2012.
Michael Laurence Barker is an Australian judge. He has been a Judge of the Federal Court of Australia since February 2009. He previously served as a Judge of the Supreme Court of Western Australia and as President of the Western Australian State Administrative Tribunal.
Brian Thomas Sully was an Australian judge and legal scholar. He served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1989 to 2007.
Thomas Frederick Bathurst,, is an English-Australian jurist. He was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales from 1 June 2011 and Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales from 1 February 2012.
John Digby is an Australian lawyer and a judge in the Supreme Court of Victoria, in the Australian state of Victoria.
Solicitor General for New South Wales, known informally as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General. He or she can exercise the powers of the Attorney General in the Attorney General's absence. The Solicitor General acts alongside the Crown Advocate, and Crown Solicitor, and serves as one of the legal and constitutional advisers of the Crown and its government in the Australian state of New South Wales.
Jane Hamilton Mathews was a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, a judge of the Federal Court of Australia and President of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
Julia Lily Ann Lonergan is an Australian judge. She has been a judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales since March 2017.
Andrew Scott Bell is an Australian judge who is the current President of the New South Wales Court of Appeal. He was a Rhodes Scholar for New South Wales, practised as a barrister-at-law, and an adjunct professor at the University of Sydney. Bell is a co-author of Nygh's Conflict of Laws in Australia and was a long term Chair of popular annual Sculpture by the Sea exhibition in Sydney.
