Chief Justice Terence Higgins has no great plans for retirement. But his legal career, which has spanned more than four decades, ends when he officially steps down from the ACT Supreme Court bench on Friday.
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While it is common for judges to go back into private practice, Chief Justice Higgins is content not to add further to his substantial legal legacy.
His contribution to the profession will be recognised at a special sitting of the Supreme Court on Friday.
Chief Justice Higgins, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year, was educated at St Edmund's College and studied law at the Australian National University. He was admitted in 1967, founded law firms in the 1970s, and went to the Bar and became a Queen's counsel in the 1980s.
Chief Justice Higgins was appointed a judge in 1990 and promoted to first law officer of the ACT in 2003.
He also served on the national executive of the Australian Labor Party and as vice-president of the ACT Bar Association. He retains positions as the local president of the Royal Life Saving Society Australia and is a patron of YouthCARE Canberra.
Chief Justice Higgins famously represented and helped exonerate former prime minister Gough Whitlam during the fallout from the Loans Affair. But he said a number of more modest cases stand out in his time on the bench.
He changed the standard for the charge of offensive behaviour and it has since fallen into disuse. He also applied the Human Rights Act to traffic infringements, which opened up a right of appeal against fines.
But he said he never set out to be a reformist. "Judges can't set an agenda, you can't have a reform agenda,'' he said. "Judges are obliged to simply try the cases that are presented to them by the litigants, and they don't follow any pattern or agenda.''
The judge said he leaves the role with many challenges ahead, including the redevelopment of the court complex, court governance and the controversial push for a fifth Supreme Court judge. The ACT government has consistently rejected calls for the appointment of an extra judicial officer.
But Chief Justice Higgins said a fifth judge was inevitable as the caseload continues to grow. "I think it's far better to have more capacity than too little. The Attorney-General says we can cope with the number of judges we have … but we've virtually had an acting judge [over the past 12 months], which is a fifth judge."
NSW District Court judge Helen Murrell, SC, will take Chief Justice Higgins' seat at the head of the territory's Supreme Court bench on October 28. Attorney-General Simon Corbell announced the appointment on Thursday after weeks of fevered speculation among the legal fraternity. Judge Murrell, who has more than 30 years' experience in law, will become the ACT's first female Supreme Court Chief Justice.
She started her career in Canberra in 1977, working in the then Commonwealth Crown Solicitor's Office. She was called to the NSW Bar in 1981, appointed silk in 1995, and has practised across criminal law, administrative law, environmental law, common law and equity.She was appointed a NSW District Court judge in 1996 and set up the first NSW Drug Court in 1998.
Justice Richard Refshauge will fill the role of Acting Chief Justice and Justice John Nield and Justice Margaret Sidis will continue as acting judges in the interim.