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Lucy McCallum
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|---|---|
| 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 60–61) Sydney, NSW, Australia |
| Education | North Sydney Girls High School |
| Alma mater | University of New South Wales |
| Occupation | Judge, lawyer |
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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]
