The making of the ACT’s first female Chief Magistrate

“I’ve been so lucky,” Walker told Lawyers Weekly. “I loved being in the Air Force, I loved being a Crown prosecutor, I loved being a barrister. I less loved being a solicitor, but it was still pretty good.”

Walker made history in 2011 when she became the ACT’s first female Chief Magistrate, just a year after her appointment to the bench. She also served as Chief Coroner and remained at the helm of both jurisdictions until her retirement in March this year.

Her career took a turn in 2019, when she was sworn in as an acting judge of the Supreme Court to establish the ACT’s Drug and Alcohol Court. She returned to the Magistrates Court in 2020 to help steer it through the coronavirus pandemic.

Walker has also served as a legal officer in the Royal Australian Air Force, a relatively junior lawyer in the UK Crown Prosecution Service, and was the first female partner at Barker Gosling. Along the way, she served on the boards of the ACT Law Society, the ACT Bar Association, and the Canberra Institute of Technology.

Looking back, Walker credits some of her most valuable leadership lessons to getting things wrong. Reflecting on her time in a leadership role with the Air Force, she joked she “did everything badly”. In hindsight, this experience taught her how to drive change and bring her colleagues along with her.

“When I was in the UK as a Crown prosecutor, I was mentored by some wonderful people, and I think they put a lot of faith in me and gave me some responsibility very early in my career, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and a lot of that was due to teaching.

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“I was doing a lot of legal education, even as a fairly junior lawyer, and I think that desire to help others in the profession meant I naturally gravitated towards leadership positions,” Walker said.

Gender not an obstacle

Although Walker encountered some difficult experiences as a woman in law, she said it failed to derail her career. She credits her father’s support – while he was less enthusiastic about her playing sports like her brother, he was very encouraging of Walker doing “whatever I wanted to professionally”.

Walker said she sometimes regretted not having fully recognised the challenges other women were facing at the time.

“I look back with a little regret that I was so oblivious in some ways, because I think I would have been much more of an activist had I realised that,” Walker said.

“I think I was at a very fortunate time where women were really coming into their own. I got the benefit of the work of the feminist movement. There’s still a lot to do, don’t get me wrong, but I just felt it was natural that women progress into these positions.”

Walker witnessed a marked shift in gender representation across the profession during her time on the bench. Shortly after becoming the ACT’s first female Chief Magistrate, she was one of only two women who attended a judicial conference.

At a more recent conference, Walker reflected on the striking contrast: “Now, there [are] only two males when we go to those conferences, so the tables have turned quite markedly.”

On the current state of affairs, Walker said: “There is no doubt that women in law actually tend to generally be doing better than men in the early stages of their career.”

The skills that make a judge

For Walker, integrity has been the guiding principle throughout her legal career – one she believes underpins everything else.

“That integrity influences the way you deal with your colleagues, the way you go about your business, the way you engage with the people in front of you. To me, that goes all the way through.

“Integrity and respect and hard work [don’t] go astray,” she said.

As she reflects on her time at the bench, Walker hopes to leave behind a stronger focus on therapeutic justice and a more approachable judiciary. Respect from the profession matters, she said, but so too does the confidence of the community.

“When people come to court, they say to themselves – and I’ve had this said out loud, and I know some colleagues have, too – ‘I don’t necessarily agree with what you said but I feel heard’.

“That’s what most people require in their attendance at court, and that includes those people who are being dealt with for criminal offences, who are being sentenced, whose family members are before the court. They want that sense they have been heard and treated fairly,” Walker said.

The principle extends well beyond the courtroom. Whether they are navigating the justice system, working with colleagues or even ordering a burger at McDonald’s drive-through, feeling heard and respected can make all the difference.

“If you feel you have been heard and respected in the process, then it’s been a good experience,” Walker said.

Life after law

Looking back at her career, Walker said she feels fortunate to have had an “incredible career in the law”.

“In some ways, you could say I probably haven’t deserved it, but I have been very honoured to have had the roles I’ve had. I’ve got so much out of it in terms of what I’ve received from other people, and it’s always been about the people for me,” she said.

There are a few things on the agenda for Walker now that she has tied a bow on her legal career: spending time with family, particularly her grandchildren, sitting with friends at their book club, travelling, and making the “perfect croissant”.

“I just have a list that is so long. I am trying to be a bit more targeted, but the world has opened up for me, and I am thoroughly enjoying all the possibilities,” Walker said.

Walker will deliver the opening keynote, “Leadership in the law and the future for lawyers in the world of artificial intelligence”, at the Women in Law Forum 2026. See the agenda for more and secure your place here.