Politics and law

After Bernard Murphy who is next for the Federal Court? ... A vacancy opens in Sydney as Justice Moore plans to bow out ... Rare pix of Michael Kirby not working ... Tom Bathurst, establishment darling for CJ ... Virginia Bell is not Hungarian ... Theodora blogs

Groans could be heard emanating from Vic's bar 'n' grill.

The appointment to the Federal Court of Julia Gillard's old boss from Slater & Gordon days, Bernard Murphy, set off the misery and woe. 

The bars, particularly the Melbourne one, hate it when solicitors steal plum spots on the bench.

Murph has been chairman of Maurice Blackburn since 2005 and is one of the town's leading class action litigators. He's also a lecturer at Melbourne Uni in class action law.

Would he have had to run the gauntlet of the Filtering Committee designed by Gerry Brennan? I doubt it.

In any event, he's far from unequipped for the task. 

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Another Federal Court berth becomes vacant later this year when Michael Moore from the Sydney branch bails out after 17 years in the job.

He's made no announcement about his departure, but has told friends he's going.

One replacement in contention is that of Michael Walton, the vice-prez of the almost defunct NSW Industrial Commission.

The only reason I raise him is that these days anything is possible.

Walton came from H.B. Higgins Chambers and was a mate of Jeff Shaw's and did quite a bit of work for Turner Freeman, so would be well known to Robert (Potato Head) McClelland.

The vice-prez has had a bit of a rough trot in recent times, with some of his judgments not finding favour higher-up the food chain.

• Kirk v Industrial Court of NSW where the High Court disagreed with the judge's understanding of the OH & S Act. 
• Director General of Health v Industrial Relations Commission where the NSW Court of Appeal pointed out that essential findings for unfair dismissal had not been made.
• Tristar Steering & Suspension v Industrial Relations Commission where the full Federal Court said the IRC had no jurisdiction to inquire into a federal matter.

I doubt whether Attorney General Greg Smith would have any problem with seeing judges from the underutalised Industrial Relations Commission off-loaded to other functions.

The commission's work, which is confined to sorting out strife in the NSW public service and government agencies, will presumably be lost once the O'Barrell government sets up its Public Service Commission, under the baton of Johnny Howard's little mate, Peter Shergold.

Hold your hat for a few strikes by teachers, nurses and bus drivers.

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From the album: A workaholic unwinds. Snap of Michael Kirby with wine aficionados from the Sydney bar, including Justinian's wine writer Gabriel Wendler (centre). NB: only one bottle per person

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Word up and down the Street of Lost Dreams is that chief barman Tom Bathurst would be over the moon if he were invited to be Chief Justice of NSW.

The glassies, keg-men and functionaries in the Phillip Street basement are right behind the Tom for CJ movement and it has been suggested that other able, yet younger, members have been advised not to get in the way of Tom's path to the top.

Other suspects for appointment include Peter McClellan CJ and CL and CA prez Jim Allsop.

Undoubtedly, each of them could do the job.

However, at this moment in history there is a strong case for generational change. What litigants and lawyers alike deserve is a modernist, with reformist zeal and a grasp of technological possibilities.

Someone that actually does something about costs and lets a strong breeze through the Queens Square Lubyanka.

Tom Bathurst - change agent? I don't think so.

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Then there's the NSW DPP vacancy.

Applicants are to be tipped upside down and shaken as part of the due diligence ritual.

All I hear is that senior crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi has decided not to apply.

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The High Court's Justice Virginia Bell was in good form last week speaking at Redfern Town Hall for UNSW's Social Justice Project.

The former barrel girl reminded the eager-eyed gathering of the value placed on our institutions by judges of Hungarian extraction whose families came from the other side of the iron curtain, such as Justice Robert Gabor Forster and Geza Francis Kim Santow (both now departed). She didn't mention Andrew Rogers.

Jim Spigelman she noted was Polish, but made up for it by having a Hungarian wife.

Come question time, a member of the audience offered condolences that the judge missed out on being Hungarian.

Justice Bell said that the punk-rock group Mutant Death included her in the lyrics to one of their songs, which had been belted out at Redfern Town Hall so stridently that someone pulled the plug on them. 

"The police they came and got me,
they threw me in a cell.
They said I had one phone call,
I rang Virginia Bell."

The judge managed to show how much time and trouble goes into preparing a speech that skilfully tip-toes around all the gaping pit-falls that face members of the judiciary when they go on public speaking forays.

However, she did urge young lawyers, who want to go overseas to study international human rights, to remember, "in a small insular way", that there is an amount of work to be done on the home front to bring about greater equality of opportunity for Australian citizens.

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Lawyer' Weekly greeted the appointment of barrister Stephen McLeish SC as Victoria's solicitor general with a headline that may be closer to the truth than many thought