Lucy McCallum | |
|---|---|
| 6th Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory | |
| Assumed office 8 March 2022 | |
| Preceded by | Helen Murrell |
| Judge of Appeal (NSW) | |
| In office 27 January 2019 –7 March 2022 | |
| Judge of the Supreme Court of NSW | |
| In office 30 January 2008 –7 March 2022 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1963 (age 61–62) Sydney,NSW,Australia |
| Education | North Sydney Girls High School |
| Alma mater | University of New South Wales |
| Occupation | Judge,lawyer |
Lucy McCallum (born 1963) is the Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory [1] and a former judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. [2]
McCallum was born in Sydney,NSW,one of five children of naval cipher officers Ann ( née Priestley) and Douglas McCallum,and went to school at North Sydney Girls High School. [3] McCallum studied Arts at the University of NSW,graduating in 1983,continuing on to graduate with a Bachelor of Laws in 1986. During her time at university McCallum worked as a volunteer at the Redfern Legal Centre and created a program to teach legal rights to school children. [2]
McCallum commenced working as a solicitor in 1986 at Mallesons Stephen Jaques (now King &Wood Mallesons) in commercial litigation,before becoming a prosecutor in the Director of Public Prosecutions,initially for the Commonwealth and then Queensland until she became a barrister in 1991. McCallum practised in a wide range of areas that included defamation,administrative law,she was counsel assisting HIH Royal Commission,represented asbestos victims in the James Hardie Inquiry, [4] and worked pro bono for refugees who were in immigration detention and in environmental matters. [2]
McCallum was appointed a judge of the NSW Supreme Court on 30 January 2008 in the Common Law Division. From 2014 McCallum was the list judge for the Defamation list, [5] and has been the trial judge in numerous high-profile defamation and criminal cases,including a long running case brought by Helen Liu in which she sought to have journalists reveal their sources, [6] and the trial of Simon Gittany for murder. [7] McCallum was the first judge in Australia to consider whether Twitter was a separate publication of defamatory material. [8]
In considering a sexual harassment claim brought by Brigette Styles against Clayton Utz,McCallum referred to emails by another solicitor as "no advertisement for male sensitivity;their author evidently no feminist. In one of the emails,Mr Izzo speaks of 'crazy single female chicks' who 'just need a good **** to get them back to normal'. It is difficult to decide whether it is more surprising that the remarks were made at all (after over a century of feminism) or that a lawyer recorded them in an email (after over seven centuries of subpoenas). [9]
In January 2019,McCallum was elevated to the New South Wales Court of Appeal. [10]