At 84, Sir Laurence Street is still actively involved in the legal profession. He tells Justin Whealing why having a heart is an essential part of being a judge.

Promoted by Lawyers Weekly • 07 March 2011 • Big Law

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At 84, Sir Laurence Street is still actively involved in the legal profession. He tells Justin Whealing why having a heart is an essential part of being a judge.

After studying law at Sydney University following service in the Royal Australian Navy in World War Two, Sir Laurence was admitted as a barrister in 1951 and appointed a judge of the NSW Supreme Court in the Equity Division in 1965 before serving 14 years as the Chief Justice from 1974 to 1988.

Since then Sir Laurence has acted as a mediator, overseeing the settlement of more than 1500 commercial disputes, presided over a number of commissions and inquiries and held positions as varied as president of St John Ambulance Australia (NSW), world president of the International Law Association, chairman of John Fairfax Holdings and the Australian member of the World Intellectual Property Organisation Arbitration Consultative Commission.

Although it seems like it was Sir Laurence's destiny to be a NSW Chief Justice, given that his father Sir Kenneth Street and grandfather Sir Philip Street served in the role prior to him, Sir Laurence says that it was never expected that he would practice law and add to this unique family tradition.

"It was a profession I knew and understood because of my family, and my father was a huge influence in terms of example, but minimal persuasive input," he says. "I was very much left to my own independence to choose what I wanted to do.

"He was delighted when I chose to study law but he never put any pressure on me to choose it."

Sir Laurence speaks with clarity about his legal career, stretching all the way back to his university days where he says the enjoyment he gleaned from studying law had a profound influence on the direction of his career.

"I greatly enjoyed constitutional law, the study of the fabric of our nation, and equity, which became my chosen field," he says. "It struck a chord with me as it demonstrated the reality that law is an organised system of justice."

Sir Laurence says that he "couldn't wait to be admitted" after university, and while he enjoyed the cut and thrust of the bar, to follow his father and be a judge was always his personal ambition.

"I was brought up in an atmosphere where we held the judiciary and judicial institution in enormous regard," he says. "I wouldn't say I knew them [judges] personally; it was more of a 'How do you do, Sir' basis. But the great judges like Sir Owen Dixon of my father's generation had a huge influence on me and I thought that I wanted to be like one of those."

Retirement and reflections

Reflecting on his 23 years as a NSW Supreme Court judge, Sir Laurence humbly declines to nominate specific cases over which he presided that could be seen as important in the development of law or legislation in Australia.

But he certainly did preside over some major cases during that time, including the 1983 Royal Commission into claims that Neville Wran, then the Premier of NSW, had improperly influenced the magistracy.

Despite the intense media attention the Royal Commission provoked, Sir Laurence says that the surrounding media commentary of any matter before a judge is irrelevant, with the "strict discipline of the judicial process" needing to be adhered to at all times.

"You know what is relevant and admissible and you confine your reflections to those matters," he says. "Respect for and observance of the judicial method as it has been tried and tested over the decades doesn't permit extraneous considerations.

"Logic and reason, not passion or prejudice, should inform all acts of judgment."

While noting that he never found it difficult to put media commentary to one side when presiding over various matters, Sir Laurence says that a judge needs to possess inherent personal characteristics to successfully fulfil their duties.

"You don't leave your heart behind as a judge," he says. "The qualities of a good judge, and I have often said this to Attorneys-General, is to look for humanity, humility, a liberated intellect - it is taken for granted that you have an adequate knowledge of the law - and on top of that, you need to be a good person."

Sir Laurence has been nominally retired since 1988, but like many ex-judges, his expertise has regularly been called upon to head commissions of inquiry or act as a mediator in commercial disputes.

Two notable commissions of inquiry that Sir Laurence held recently include what was dubbed the "Street Inquiry", established by the Australian Federal Police in 2007 to review its counter-terrorism operations, and an inquiry that Sir Laurence headed at the behest of the Queensland Government into the death of Mulrunji Doomadgee, an Aboriginal man in police custody on Palm Island in 2004.

Sir Laurence found that there was sufficient evidence to charge the arresting officer, Senior Sergeant Chris Hurley, with manslaughter. Although that legal process is continuing, with multiple court cases and a new coronial inquiry, Sir Laurence is satisfied that the judicial process was carried out appropriately in this instance.

"The Aboriginal community was satisfied that the process of 'white man's justice' had been followed properly," he says. "What they resented before was that no-one had been charged [with Doomadgee's death]."

Sir Laurence has had a long interest in Aboriginal issues, with his mother Jessie Street a long-term campaigner for Aboriginal rights and Sir Laurence doing pro bono work in the area of Aboriginal land rights.

In his work as a commercial mediator, he nominates the agreed settlement between the British National History Museum and Indigenous groups to return the remains of 17 Aboriginal persons to the Tasmania Aboriginal Centre in late 2006 as a highlight of his more than 20 years experience in mediation and conciliation.

"The subject of equality of opportunity has always been dear to my heart, and Aboriginals are a large class of people that have not had that equality of opportunity," he says.

While Sir Laurence would be entitled to reach for the pipe and slippers and wile away the rest of his days, he remains actively involved in the legal profession. He is still a practising mediator, describing his schedule as "flat out", and continues to act as an ADR consultant for the Defence Legal Office and a mediator for the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

He says that his life has been full since stepping down from the bench, and he doesn't regret that decision despite having many years left in him to serve in the profession.

"I had been a judge for nearly 25 years by the time I retired in 1988," he says. "I had my time in the sun, and it was time for others to come through.

"You need new blood coming onto the bench all the time, just as you need new blood coming into the profession all the time."