BA (UNSW) 1984, LLB (UNSW) 1986
Lucy McCallum, born in 1963, is the Chief Justice of the Australian Capital Territory and a former judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the Court of Appeal. Chief Justice McCallum studied Arts at UNSW, graduating in 1984 before continuing on to complete a Bachelor of Laws in 1986. While studying at UNSW, McCallum assisted in the creation of the schools Legal Education Group, which involved law students teaching school children about legal rights. After graduating from UNSW Chief Justice McCallum worked as a solicitor in Sydney then prosecutor in the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Office in Canberra and then the Queensland DPP. She went to the bar in 1991 and was made Senior Counsel in 2005. Chief Justice McCallum was appointed as a Judge of the NSW Supreme Court in 2008 and was involved in a number of high profile cases and commissions of inquiry, including representing asbestos victims in the James Hardie Inquiry. In January 2019, she was elevated to the New South Wales Court of Appeal before her appointment as Chief Justice of the ACT Supreme Court in 2021. Chief Justice McCallum’s practice has spanned various areas of law over her 35 year career and her passion for justice is evident in her pro bono work for environmental and humanitarian cases. In 2016, Chief Justice McCallum was appointed Chair of the NSW Judicial Commission Ngara Yura Committee, which works to educate judicial officers on matters relating to contemporary socio-cultural issues that have an impact on Aboriginal people in the justice system.
